As a growing number of Division I institutions face mounting financial challenges of maintaining competitive all-sports programs, Razorback Athletics continues to serve as a model of how academics and athletics success can be achieved while operating a financially self-supporting program.

By practicing fiscal responsibility with the program’s financial resources, including the generous support of Razorback Foundation members and season ticket holders that is received on an annual basis, we are able to provide unprecedented support for the competitive and academic pursuits of 465 Razorback student-athletes.

Reinvesting Our Resources
By maximizing its financial resources, Razorback Athletics has been in a position to significantly increase its investment in its student-athletes based on new opportunities provided by changes in NCAA legislation. In fact, the value of a full athletics scholarship has increased by 45% since the NCAA started allowing additional benefits and scholarship payments up to the Cost of Attendance.

The value of a scholarship for an in-state student-athlete for the coming year is estimated to be nearly $70K with a full value of $350K over five years. For an out-of-state student-athlete that value will be $86K for the coming year and $430K over five years.

While revenues have steadily increased in recent years, new opportunities to invest additional resources to directly benefit student-athletes and our sport programs have also increased our annual operating expenses. Even with increases in both categories, the University of Arkansas remains near the middle of the Southeastern Conference in annual athletics department operating budgets.

Our goals on the court and field will never be dictated by our rank among SEC schools in financial resources. Our Vision is To Be the Best! However, it does underscore the vital importance of continued financial support to give our student-athletes every opportunity to compete and win in the SEC and nationally.