Texas Athletics surpasses $1 billion in fundraising

The University of Texas athletic department announced it has raised over a billion dollars in capital.

The billion dollar mark was the department goal as part of the University’s “What Starts Here” fundraising campaign. Publicly launched in March 2022, What Starts Here has an overall capital fundraising goal of 7 billion.

“This marks one of the largest, if not the single largest, campaign total for any athletics program in the nation,” reads the Longhorn Athletics website.

The Longhorns are leaders in athletic finances by several other metrics as well. In 2023, the athletic department reported $273 million in revenue, a record among NCAA schools.

In the swimming world, new Texas Director of Swimming & Diving Bob Bowman has the largest compensation base and ceiling in the NCAA swimming world. His base salary starts at $450,000, and he could receive up to $1.7 million in performance-based bonuses in the next six years.

Demand plays a big role in this compensation level. Bowman is one of the world’s most prolific swim coaches, coaching names such as Michael Phelps, Allison Schmitt, and Léon Marchand to dozens of Olympic medals. He also has head coaching experience at two other Power Five NCAA programs. This year, he coached Arizona State to a men’s NCAA title.

On Texas’ side of the deal, the men’s program has a rich history that includes 15 NCAA team titles. This no doubt makes the position highly regarded to many. An in-demand position filled by an in-demand candidate makes this NCAA-leading compensation intuitive.

Demand aside, it’s also logical that a department with industry-leading capital is able to pay coaches more than other programs. 

This capital fundraising milestone comes at a pivotal point in both Texas athletics and college athletics. Texas is in its first year as a member of the SEC, leaving its Big 12 conference contract a year early. 

Additionally, new NIL rules are expected to raise the athletic department’s expenses. If House v. NCAA is settled with no more changes, schools will have to pay $2.8 billion to former athletes for missed NIL capitalization opportunities. Schools would also be allowed to share up to $22 million of revenue with their current athletes annually.

Texas athletic director Chris del Conte expressed gratitude to donors for reaching this milestone in a Tweet. 

“The Texas family is second to none.”

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