{"id":146362,"date":"2026-02-06T18:46:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T18:46:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/146362\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T18:46:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T18:46:07","slug":"ucf-athletics-continues-to-show-steady-growth-in-big-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/146362\/","title":{"rendered":"UCF athletics continues to show steady growth in Big 12"},"content":{"rendered":"

UCF<\/a> athletics continued to highlight the financial complexities that come with a department still navigating the transition to a Power Five conference, such as the Big 12<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Those challenges were documented in the agreed-upon procedures records, which universities share certain financial information with the NCAA.<\/p>\n

Those reports don\u2019t serve as an athletic department\u2019s financial statement.<\/p>\n

UCF reported $108.89 million in total operating revenue during the 2025 fiscal year (July 1, 2024-June 30, 2025), up from $98.16 million in 2023-24<\/a>. Ticket sales, donations and conference distribution helped push revenue to nearly $110 million.<\/p>\n

The Knights received a half-share ($18 million) of annual revenue for the second season as part of their agreement to join the Power Four league before receiving a full share in 2025-26.<\/p>\n

UCF reported an operating expense of $103.62 million, an increase from $97.45 million reported last year. Expenses increased due to rising costs for team travel, equipment and game expenses.<\/p>\n

When athletics director Terry Mohajir<\/a> arrived at UCF in 2021, the department was facing a $27 million deficit.<\/p>\n

The total number of undergraduates at UCF was 42,128, with 478 men (224) and women (254) participating on athletic teams.<\/p>\n

UCF received $8.37 million in revenue from ticket sales from sporting events, including $6.39 million from football. The Knights also received $27.9 million in contributions, including $23.8 million from football.<\/p>\n

Media rights ($9.7 million) and NCAA distributions ($378,683) accounted for more than $10 million in revenue, while royalties, licensing, advertising and sponsorships contributed nearly $14 million.<\/p>\n

UCF spent $19.24 million on coaches\u2019 salaries and benefits, including $9.36 million for football and $5.49 million for other sports. The department also spent more than $17 million on support staff and administrative compensation.<\/p>\n

Key West bus trip could spark UCF baseball to a bounce-back season<\/a><\/p>\n

The Knights also spent $2.23 million in recruiting during the fiscal year, an increase from the $1.8 million the previous year. Football accounted for nearly 63% of expenses, at $1.397 million.<\/p>\n

The department paid more than $6 million in team travel last fiscal year, with football ($1.97 million), men\u2019s basketball ($983,135) and other sports ($2.45 million) accounting for the majority of the cost.<\/p>\n

Other expenses included student-athlete aid, for which the department spent $10.77 million, including $1.9 million for the Alston Awards.<\/p>\n

There was a debt service payment of nearly $10 million related to the new Football Campus Project, including the Roth Tower expansion<\/a> at FBC Mortgage Stadium and the Sharon and Marc Hagle Gateway.<\/p>\n

The Roth Tower expansion is ongoing and is expected to be completed before the start of the 2026 football season. It\u2019s expected to help generate approximately $2.4 million in new revenue annually.<\/p>\n

Also included in the report was a $2.5 million payment to the American Athletic Conference, part of the $18 million exit fee UCF paid to leave the league to join the Big 12 in 2023.<\/p>\n

The report, however, doesn\u2019t present a complete financial picture because the NCAA doesn\u2019t account for funding capital projects, operating funds and capital gifts.<\/p>\n

Please find me on X, Bluesky or Instagram @osmattmurschel. Email: mmurschel@orlandosentinel.com<\/a>. Sign up for the Sentinel\u2019s Knights Weekly<\/a> newsletter for a roundup of all our UCF coverage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UCF athletics continued to highlight the financial complexities that come with a department still navigating the transition to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":146363,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[111,28,114,1335,139,141,140,110,3865],"class_list":{"0":"post-146362","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-college-sports","9":"tag-florida","10":"tag-latest-headlines","11":"tag-orange-county","12":"tag-orlando","13":"tag-orlando-headlines","14":"tag-orlando-news","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-ucf-knights"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146362"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146362\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}