BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — A report conducted by the Louisiana Legislative Auditor shows that Southern University Athletics had a $1.5 million deficit during the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2023.
The LLA reviewed records to ensure the university’s athletic department was following the National Collegiate Athletic Association guidelines to determine the effectiveness of the university’s financial controls.
Auditors investigated ticket sales, cash disbursements and athletic department employees and discovered that all NCAA-mandated guidelines were followed, according to the report.
In the NCAA report, auditors found that 38 students’ Pell Grants were not included in the report. Multiple students had Pell Grant amounts that were inaccurately reported, and all errors were corrected in the NCAA reporting system. One student was wrongly included, causing a $3,744 overstatement that was not corrected.
When auditors looked into student-athletes receiving federal aid, they discovered in a sample batch of 40 students, that eight of 24 students’ athletic grant amounts were reported inaccurately in the NCAA Membership Financial Reporting System. Five students were overstated by $14,233 and three students were understated by $6,505, totaling $7,728 in error, according to the report.
Officials with the university’s athletic department reportedly did not disclose donation amounts from the Southern University System Foundation and the Southern University Alumni Federation. The total amount donated was $447,831.
On the university’s revenue and expenses statement for fiscal year 2023, the athletic department’s total revenue was $17,330,866, and its total expenses were $18,888,605. This was a deficit of $1,557,739.
End-of-year balances of revenues and expenses by program were as follows:
- Football: $1,851,764 deficit
- Men’s Basketball: $761,032 deficit
- Women’s Basketball: $907,708 deficit
- Other Sports: $3,497,149 deficit
- Non-program specific: $5,459,914 deficit
