The FCS Daily Dose is a blog-style article series featuring an assortment of news, rumblings, quick-hitters, and commentary on various topics. A new Daily Dose will publish multiple times a week to keep the FCS discussion going throughout the long offseason.
For March 29, 2024, let’s talk about…
Top FCS Teams Are Also The Least Subsidized
An FBS-related article/tweet caught the eye of some FCS fans last week.
Eben Novy-Williams of Sportico shared that James Madison, a recent FCS-to-FBS move-up that has found great success in the Sun Belt Conference, reported $53.3M in student fee subsidies in 2023. Novy-Williams added that it’s “the largest total I’ve seen in 10+ years of rev/expense reports” and “It’s bigger than the entire operating budget for 40 public FBS schools. And almost equal to JMU’s 2022 athletics budget.”
Via the story:
The James Madison athletic department spent $68 million on athletics in fiscal 2023 and reported funding $53.3 million of it via mandatory student fees, charged annually to every JMU student as part of their tuition. It’s by far the largest sum of any public school in the country, $23 million more than Old Dominion’s student fee subsidy.
JMU’s undergraduate tuition is $30,790 per year for out-of-state students and $13,576 per year for in-state students. The mandatory student fee, which is included in those totals, is $5,662 for 2024. That fee covers a number of things—transportation services, student health initiatives, facility maintenance—but by far the biggest piece, $2,362 per student per year, is earmarked for funding athletics.
JMU had a high subsidization as an FCS member too, so that large percentage allocated isn’t surprising. The sheer number of dollars coming from students, though, is eye-opening. Now, JMU’s enrollment is growing in unison with its FBS-level national athletics success, something the athletic department could point to if there’s ever a “JMU Athletics Is Asking Students For Too Much Money” type of story. You know, the whole “front porch” argument. Which I do buy. But you also wonder how sustainable it’s going to be for athletic departments to rely on student fees, which is a majority of non-power-conference schools. Student fees vs. athletic departments has been a long battle and argument. As the way of college athletics business looks to be changing, especially in a looming employee model, subsidization could become a hotter topic.
I remember seeing a comment on an FCS page that FCS football isn’t sustainable due to how many schools need student fees or state help to operate. But that also applies to a lot of schools in the Group of Five. Technically, if we strictly look at how many individual college teams are self-sustainable on their own, most college sports teams are not.
However, when it comes to the top-tier teams in the FCS, programs that routinely compete deep in the playoffs, they are some of the most self-sustainable football teams in the FCS and the G5. These football teams pay for themselves and then some.
Numbers below are 2022 revenues via USA Today’s annual NCAA Finances: Revenue and Expenses by School report. Revenues from 2023 should be available later this year.
North Dakota State is the lowest-subsidized public athletic department in the FCS and the G5. Only 25.94% of its $29,295,443 budget in 2022 was subsidized (money that comes from the state, the institution, and/or student fees). Montana is the fourth-lowest between FCS/G5 and the second-lowest in the FCS at 34.65% ($28,970,312 budget). Cincinnati and Boise State were around 32% in 2022.
Jackson State has the third-lowest subsidization in the FCS at 39.37% ($12,821,652 budget in 2022), VMI is the next-lowest at 45.22% ($15,960,931 budget), then Montana State at 45.33% ($26,410,575 budget), then North Dakota at 47.89% ($30,859,877 budget), and then South Dakota State at 47.97% ($25,570,541 budget).
NDSU, Montana, Montana State, and SDSU are routinely playing in the FCS semifinals and national championship games.
These schools, especially the bluest of FCS bloods NDSU and Montana, get very little monetary support from the state and the institution. Most of their athletic budget has to be raised themselves via ticket sales, boosters, business/corporate sponsorships, merchandise, media rights, etc.
This is mostly a good thing for these football programs. It means they are self-sufficient. It’s not as good of a thing when it comes to a future FBS move if that opportunity ever presents itself. If NDSU, Montana, Montana State, and SDSU were ever to receive FBS invites (which doesn’t seem likely anytime soon, but keep an eye on what the Pac-2 does with plenty of emergency money/incoming revenue to spend how they please), these four schools would certainly need to up their athletic budget to be competitive at the FBS level.
Having a high enrollment with high student fees would help an FBS move, like JMU. But that’s not the case for these top-tier FCS teams in the Midwest. And especially for schools like NDSU and the Montanas, there would be big political pushback in increasing student fees to help fund an FBS move. These schools would need to rely on donors and businesses to step up on a yearly basis. TV money, CFP revenue, and non-conference pay games wouldn’t be enough to get their athletic budgets up to par. You wouldn’t want to go from an FCS power to one of the least-resourced schools in your new FBS conferences. Or else it’s harder to compete, and the fan support you lean on could dwindle.
The level of support these top FCS teams get in the stands and on social media is impressive. Even more impressive is how much these schools are supported by fans/businesses/boosters to raise most of their yearly budget.
Other FCS programs don’t need to sell one ticket and will still rake in the cash.
The four biggest athletic budgets for public FCS schools are UC Davis ($44,275,782), Cal Poly ($37,134,737), Stony Brook ($37,027,808), and Sac State ($35,893,960). Their percent allocated also goes 80.14%, 73.64%, 85.56%, and 84.24%.
Relying on allocations from the state or school isn’t just an FCS thing, though. It happens at G5 programs as well, just on a smaller scale.
About 80% of G5 public schools have a subsidization of 50% or more, while nearly 20% have at least 70%. For FCS public schools, 90% have a subsidization of 50% or more, while 50% have at least 70%
For recent FCS-to-FBS move-ups, JSU, SHSU, JMU, and Kennesaw State are all at 70% subsidization or higher.
One would think for how much notoriety Montana and NDSU bring to the state and their school, they’d get a little more monetary support. But they are both among the lowest-subsidized non-power conference public schools. Again, that’s mostly a healthy thing. They aren’t squeezing the pockets of students or the state to operate. However, it also goes to show the challenges they face as operational costs to fund a D1 athletic department keep soaring higher.
For 2022 revenues and % allocations, here are links to tables for public FCS and G5 schools.
Is SDSU’s Mason McCormick Now The Top FCS Draft Prospect?
It seemed every mock draft or player ranking had Yale offensive tackle Kiran Amegadjie as the top FCS prospect in the 2024 NFL Draft.
But ESPN’s Matt Miller has a new name in his seven-round mock draft as the first FCS name taken off the board:
SDSU interior offensive lineman Mason McCormick.
Miller has McCormick going in the second round, No. 58 overall to Green Bay.
He writes, “One of my favorite sleeper picks in this draft, McCormick can be a starting guard or center despite not getting the attention he deserves in the pre-draft process. He would push right guard Sean Rhyan in Green Bay while also providing depth at center behind Josh Myers.”
Miller has Amegadjie going in the third round. Fourth-rounders in his mock draft include South Dakota CB Myles Harden, HCU DE Jalyx Hunt, and SDSU OT Garret Greenfield. Fifth-rounders are SDSU RB Isaiah Davis and UNI DT Khristian Boyd. Seventh-rounders are SEMO WR Ryan Flournoy, Holy Cross WR Jalen Coker, and South Carolina/Yale OL Nick Gargiulo.
McCormick has crushed the pre-draft process.
At 6-foot-4 and 309 pounds, McCormick ran a 5.08-second 40 to rank 18th among OL at the combine. His 35.5-inch vertical ranked 4th, 9’9’’ broad jump was 1st, 7.59-second 3-cone drill ranked 14th, and 4.45-second 20-yard shuttle was 4th. McCormick’s athleticism score ranked 1st among offensive guards at the combine. His Relative Athletic Score of 9.96 out of a possible 10.00 ranked 7th out of 1,445 offensive guards at the combine from 1987 to 2024.
He did 32 reps on the bench press at SDSU’s pro day this week, which would have tied for the third most among all players at the 2024 NFL Combine.
The Jackrabbits have had five NFL Draft picks since 2018. They eye multiple draft selections this year.
| Yr | Rd | Team | Player |
| 2023 | 3 | GB | Tucker Kraft (TE) |
| 2022 | 7 | PIT | Chris Oladokun (QB) |
| 2022 | 4 | NE | Pierre Strong Jr. (RB) |
| 2019 | 7 | CIN | Jordan Brown (DB) |
| 2018 | 2 | PHI | Dallas Goedert (TE) |
Other Daily Doses
FCS startup UTRGV joins the Southland Conference and FCS conference sizes in 2024. READ MORE
WKU’s decision or non-decision will impact FCS-to-FBS realignment, plus CUSA and MAC targets. READ MORE
If trends continue from the last two seasons, there will be plenty more transfer portal movement this spring. Plus, the five best HC jobs that were open this offseason. READ MORE
