Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon, allocated $176,705 to women’s basketball teams in 2024, which was $540,185 less than the state’s typical spending of $716,890, according to the U.S. Department of Education.
This represented 3.7% of all athletics expenditures at the college for 2024.
Total athletic expenses at Lewis & Clark College have risen by 66.1% since 2010.
Basketball remains one of the top college sports in the U.S. alongside football, and the most prominent NCAA programs attract significant fan support and television audiences, sometimes rivaling NBA viewership. Annual events like March Madness garner millions of viewers across the nation.
After a landmark federal settlement, college sports entered a new period in which schools are permitted to share revenue directly with athletes. The deal also mandates that the NCAA pay $2.8 billion in retroactive damages over 10 years to athletes who played beginning in 2016.
In 2022, rule changes following legal and legislative pressures allowed student-athletes to earn money from their names, images and likenesses through revised state laws and NCAA policy updates.
During fiscal year 2024, the NCAA took in about $900 million from March Madness and other Division I men’s basketball tournament-related media rights, making basketball its most valuable source of revenue.
| Year | Basketball team’s expenditures | % from grand total sport team expenditures |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | $137,142 | 4.2% |
| 2021 | $90,945 | 3.2% |
| 2022 | $161,760 | 4.7% |
| 2023 | $161,946 | 4.3% |
| 2024 | $176,705 | 3.7% |
Information in this report comes from the U.S. Department of Education. The original sources are available here.
