Michigan Athletics Presents Fiscal 2017 Budget to Regents
6/16/2016 12:00:00 AM | General
June 16, 2016
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The University of Michigan Athletic Department presented to the Board of Regents a balanced budget based on operating expenses of $154.8 million for the 2015-16 fiscal year, announced Thursday (June 16) during the monthly meeting of the University's leadership.
Highlights of the budget, presented by Donald R. Shepherd Director of Athletics Warde Manuel, include:
• Football season-ticket prices remain unchanged for the public for a third consecutive year.
• Student football season-ticket prices remain unchanged and reflect the 37.5-percent reduction take in FY16, in addition to offering need-based discounts based on federal Pell Grant eligibility in football, men's basketball and ice hockey for a second straight season.
• Football ticket sales are projected to increase due to an eight-game home schedule in FY17 (seven games in FY15-16).
• Budgeted corporate sponsorship revenues are projected to increase by $1.49M due to a new apparel agreement.
• Budgeted facility revenues are projected to increase by $1.4M due to a special event in Michigan Stadium following a fiscal year with no such events.
• Total operating expenses budgeted for FY17 increase by approximately four percent from the projected actual operating expenses in FY16 due to inflationary increases in financial aid, compensation and an increased monetary transfer to the University.
• The athletic department will make a $5 million transfer to a deferred maintenance fund compared to $5 million in FY16 and FY15 and $4.75 million in FY14. The deferred maintenance fund is used as a means to provide for major repair and rehabilitation projects for athletic facilities. The athletic department expects to set aside additional funds in future years for this purpose.
Based on preliminary results, the athletic department currently projects a balanced budget for fiscal year 2016. The operating budget saw lower than budgeted spectator admissions in basketball and non-conference ice hockey contests as well as higher than budgeted costs in student financial aid and team and game expenses. Those items were offset partially by lower than expected facility expenses and other budget management initiatives.
During the 2015-16 academic year, Michigan was the only school to achieve exemplary Academic Progress Rate (APR) marks from the NCAA in football (above 989), men's basketball (995 and above) and women's basketball (995 and above).
Further, Michigan is the only Big Ten Conference institution to earn NCAA Public Recognition Awards in both football and men's basketball, with men's basketball now having earned the award in five straight years. U-M tied an institutional record in 2015-16 with 10 Public Recognition Awards for ranking among the top 10 percent of their respective sports in the most-recent multi-year APR report.
A total of 47 student-athletes earned first team All-America honors during the year with a total of 66 All-America selections in all. Michigan had 71 student-athletes earn All-Big Ten first team honors with 35 student-athletes winning individual conference titles.
A total of 276 student-athletes garnered Academic All-Big Ten Conference accolades compared to 260 in 2014-15 and 235 in 2013-14. Men's track and field athlete Mason Ferlic (aerospace engineering) and field hockey athlete Shannon Scavelli (psychology) were U-M's recipients of the Big Ten Medal of Honor.
Michigan had five individuals claim Academic All-America honors through the most-recent announcements: Cory Bruder (baseball - evolutionary anthropology), Sara Driesenga (softball - social work), PJ Ransford (men's swimming & diving - mechanical engineering), Nicole Artz (women's gymnastics - elementary education) and Ali Thomason (water polo - neuroscience). Michigan boasts 126 Academic All-Americans.
In the community, Michigan student-athletes worked in collaboration with numerous local non-profit organizations. A few of the student-led initiatives included the weekly visits with patients at C.S. Mott Children's Hospital, Camp Catch-A-Rainbow, Flint YMCA Reading initiative, visits to local elementary schools, Michigan Buddies mentoring program within the Ann Arbor Public School System, Lunch with a Wolverine for elementary school children and Adopt-A-Classroom for providing positive role models.
The Wolverines recorded top-10 finishes in the Directors' Cup standings in 12 sports: women's cross country (6), men's cross country (9), field hockey (5), men's gymnastics (7), ice hockey (5), women's swimming & diving (10), women's indoor track & field (6), wrestling (9), women's rowing (10), softball (5), water polo (4), and women's tennis (5) in addition to eight other top-25 finishes.
At the Big Ten level, Michigan led the conference in championships with eight: women's outdoor track & field, softball, men's cross country, women's gymnastics, women's swimming & diving, men's swimming & diving, women's indoor track & field and water polo (CWPA). Michigan also won the ice hockey tournament title and led the conference with an average team finish of 3.75 across all sports.
Communications Contact: Kurt Svoboda
