Knoxville, Tennessee · Football Bowl Subdivision · public university. The University of Tennessee-Knoxville reported $285.4M of athletic revenue in 2024-25 against $285.4M of expenses. That is 2.5 times the $116.0M median for the 128 Football Bowl Subdivision programs, and it ranks 4th of 128 in the FBS and 4th of 358 across Division I. Revenue rose 39.3% on the prior year’s $204.9M.
Analysis by Matthew Hanauer, PhD, Chief Technology Officer at Civly · All 358 Division I schools
Everything below is the school’s own filed figures for 2024-25, read against the 128 programs it is grouped with.
Paying the full $21.3M revenue-sharing cap for 2026-27 would take 7.5% 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.
636 athletes were counted at the school in the survey year, filling 384 men’s and 432 women’s roster spots across 11 sports. The two counts differ because an athlete who plays two sports fills a spot in both. Enrollment is 29,542. Football is the largest single line, $162.5M of revenue against $61.2M of expenses, which is 57% of what the department earned.
What each sport brought in, what it cost, and how many athletes it carried.
| Sport | Revenue | Expenses | Net | Men | Women |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Football | $162.5M | $61.2M | +$101.3M | 123 | 0 |
| Basketball | $39.7M | $27.8M | +$11.9M | 15 | 30 |
| Baseball | $10.3M | $11.4M | −$1.2M | 55 | 0 |
| Softball | $1.2M | $4.7M | −$3.5M | 0 | 29 |
| Volleyball | $436k | $3.4M | −$2.9M | 0 | 21 |
| Swimming and Diving (combined) | $371k | $7.0M | −$6.6M | 31 | 32 |
| Soccer | $284k | $3.5M | −$3.2M | 0 | 40 |
| Track and Field and Cross Country (combined) | $214k | $10.9M | −$10.7M | 140 | 162 |
| Golf | $190k | $3.7M | −$3.5M | 10 | 8 |
| Rowing | $174k | $5.7M | −$5.5M | 0 | 99 |
| Tennis | $110k | $3.7M | −$3.6M | 10 | 11 |
The 11 sports at The University of Tennessee-Knoxville 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.
The organization we have verified as funding this program, and what its own tax return says it raised.
“The University of Tennessee Athletics Foundation'S Mission Is to Support: (I) Promoting the Edcuation, Health, and Wellness of Student Athletes; and (Ii) Advancing the Utk Athletic Program'S Consistent with the University of Tennessee, Knoxville'S Educational, Research, and Public Service Mission”
The link to The University of Tennessee-Knoxville comes from what this organization says it exists for, in the mission statement on its own tax return, plus its registration in the same state. Names the school in its own 990 mission ('university of tennessee knoxville'); athletics wording in the name; athletics/NIL language in the 990 mission; same city (Knoxville).
Three things that change how the figures above should be read.
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.
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.
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.
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.