Aside from the embarrassment, moving to independent makes football financially absurd. It was already the leading money loser
Revenue generated by UConn’s athletic department covered less than half of the department’s expenses during the 2018 fiscal year, according to the school’s annual NCAA financial statement.
The athletic department incurred $80,905,645 in expenses in 2018, down slightly from 2017, while generating $40,418,969 in revenue, also down from 2017.
Though the vast majority of Division I athletic departments operate at a loss, UConn’s deficit has become particularly extreme. A
USA Today analysis of data from 2016-17 found that the school’s athletic department received the highest university subsidy (about $42 million) of any Division I public institution and that its allocation as a percentage of total reported revenue (just under 51 percent) was higher than that of any other public school in one of college sports' six biggest conferences.
The biggest individual team culprit of the UConn athletic department’s 2018 deficit was the school’s football program, which lost $8.7 million