College Sports Money · Division I FBS

Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College

Baton Rouge, Louisiana · Football Bowl Subdivision · public university. Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College reported $223.5M of athletic revenue in 2024-25 against $219.6M of expenses. That is 1.9 times the $116.0M median for the 128 Football Bowl Subdivision programs, and it ranks 13th of 128 in the FBS and 13th of 358 across Division I. Revenue rose 1.4% on the prior year’s $220.3M.

Analysis by , Chief Technology Officer at Civly · All 358 Division I schools

$223.5M
athletic revenue, 2024-25
$219.6M
athletic expenses
$3.8M
revenue less expenses
+1.4%
revenue against the prior year
13th of 128
by revenue in the FBS
13th of 358
by revenue in Division I
498
athletes · 314 men, 299 women
29,182
students enrolled

What the numbers say

Everything below is the school’s own filed figures for 2024-25, read against the 128 programs it is grouped with.

The cap against this budget

What maxing direct pay to athletes would cost

Paying the full $21.3M revenue-sharing cap for 2026-27 would take 9.5% of everything this department took in. The cap is a ceiling on what a school may pay its athletes directly, not a spending figure and not an obligation, and third-party name, image and likeness money is uncapped and does not count against it.

Who is on the rosters

Participation and enrollment as surveyed

498 athletes were counted at the school in the survey year, filling 314 men’s and 299 women’s roster spots across 12 sports. The two counts differ because an athlete who plays two sports fills a spot in both. Enrollment is 29,182. Football is the largest single line, $117.6M of revenue against $50.7M of expenses, which is 53% of what the department earned.

Sport by sport

What each sport brought in, what it cost, and how many athletes it carried.

SportRevenueExpensesNetMenWomen
Football$117.6M$50.7M+$66.8M1150
Basketball$17.8M$23.2M−$5.4M1613
Baseball$10.1M$11.0M−$922k410
Gymnastics$1.5M$4.4M−$2.9M022
Softball$744k$3.8M−$3.0M026
Track and Field and Cross Country (combined)$435k$7.2M−$6.8M91114
Golf$345k$3.0M−$2.7M118
Tennis$237k$3.0M−$2.8M1213
Soccer$203k$2.7M−$2.5M032
Beach Volleyball$183k$1.4M−$1.2M019
Swimming and Diving (combined)$166k$3.8M−$3.6M2830
Volleyball$156k$2.4M−$2.2M022

The 12 sports at Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College that reported money or participants in 2024-25. Sports the school surveyed but left empty are not shown. Revenue and expenses attributed to no single sport, which at most departments is the larger share of both, sit in the department totals above and not in this table, so these rows do not add to those totals. Sort by any column.

Who funds the athletes

The organization we have verified as funding this program, and what its own tax return says it raised.

Tiger Athletic Foundation

Booster foundation · EIN 721004960 · Baton Rouge, LA · tax year 2024, for the period ending 2024-12-31
Total revenue
$123.9M
Contributions
$106.0M
Total revenue, year before
$86.8M
Contributions, year before
$68.0M
Change in revenue
+$37.0M

“To Support Louisiana State University and Its Athletic and Education Programs.”

The link to Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College was verified by hand. LSU's booster foundation, Baton Rouge LA. Louisiana has three other 'Tiger Athletic Foundation's (Slidell, Livingston, and one in WV/AR) that are high-school clubs; city and scale separate them.

What to hold against these numbers

Three things that change how the figures above should be read.

1

The survey year comes before revenue sharing started

The revenue-sharing cap is a ceiling on what a school may pay its athletes directly ($20.5M for 2025-26, $21.3M for 2026-27), not a spending figure and not an obligation. Third-party NIL is uncapped and does not count against it. No federal athletics survey covers a revenue-sharing year yet; the first lands around spring 2027.

2

What the survey is

Every college that takes federal student aid and fields a team files this survey each year under the Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act. It is a federal filing obligation rather than a public-records request, which is why it covers private universities that the NCAA-based databases cannot reach. The figures are the school’s own reported numbers for 2024-25, not audited by the Department of Education. Reported revenue includes direct institutional support and student fees, so every department in the survey reports revenue at least matching its expenses. A surplus here is not profit.

3

What a tax return can and cannot show

A Form 990 shows what an organization raised. It never shows what any athlete was paid. No figure in the funder section is anyone’s compensation or the value of any deal. There is also no single donor-money line on the form: some organizations book donor money as contributions, others as program service revenue or fees for services, which is why total revenue leads.

Source: U.S. Department of Education, Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act survey, 2024-25; IRS Form 990 e-file releases for donor entities. Analysis: Civly.

Know who funds a program before you deal with it

This page is what the public record gives up for free. Civly Athletics vets the athlete, and Collective Prospecting finds and qualifies the donors behind a collective, each name traced to a filing or a public post.