Move over Florida State.

Penn State University closed fiscal year 2025 with $534.7 million in athletics-related debt, according to the school’s latest NCAA financial disclosures—more than tripling the $163.1 million it reported the prior year.

That new figure easily exceeds the $437 million in FY25 athletics-related debt disclosed by Florida State, which released its NCAA report late last week, and positions Penn State as the apparent pacesetter among the nation’s most indebted athletic departments.

The Nittany Lions’ dramatic increase in outstanding obligations is driven by the $700 million renovation of Beaver Stadium, which is being financed through debt the school said will be repaid via “fundraising, concessions, naming opportunities, sponsorships and ticket sales.” That liability will linger on the athletics department’s balance sheet for years to come, and is likely only to grow.

A PSU spokesperson declined to comment, but directed Sportico to the school’s previous press releases.

In May 2024, Penn State’s Board of Trustees approved a plan to borrow the full renovation cost through multiple bond issuances, beginning with an initial $70 million bond that would be “repaid entirely by Intercollegiate Athletics.”

At the time, Sara Thorndike, Penn State’s senior vice president for finance and business, described PSU athletics as “fiscally sound” and said that the stadium renovation would ultimately generate a significant net positive for department revenues. The renovations are expected to be completed by 2027.

Football ticket sales for Penn State in FY25 were $44.3 million—down from $55.6 million in FY24—despite the school setting a single-season attendance record with an average of 108,083 fans per game.

In August 2024, Penn State announced a “landmark” ticketing partnership with Elevate, which the school has said will play a “critical role” to the financial model for the Beaver Stadium renovation.

For FY25, Penn State reported total operating expenses of $254.6 million—up from $215.1 million in FY24. Among those expenditures were $18.4 million for “institutional NIL revenue share” payments to athletes, including $13.3 million to football players, $3 million to men’s basketball players, $110,000 to women’s basketball players and $1.9 going to other PSU athletes. It’s unclear what exactly those monies represent, since revenue-share payments authorized under the House v. NCAA settlement could not be distributed until July 1, 2025, a day after Penn State’s FY25 cycle ended.