NCAA sees $61 million surplus for fiscal 2013

The NCAA recorded a nearly $61 million surplus for its 2013 fiscal year, according to an audited financial statement the association released Thursday.

While the surplus is smaller than those the association had in each of its two previous years, this is the third consecutive year in which the annual surplus has exceeded $60 million. This increased the NCAA’s year-end net assets to more than $627 million, just less than double where they stood at the end of its 2007 fiscal year.

Among the NCAA’s more than $589 million in unrestricted assets is an endowment fund that had grown to more than $326 million as of the end of its 2013 fiscal year, Aug. 31. The fund grew by more than $44 million in 2013, its greatest one-year increase since it was established in 2004.

The NCAA had nearly $913 million in total revenue in fiscal 2013, according to the statement. It had a little more than $852 million in total expenses, including a record $527.4 million distributed to Division I schools and conferences.

Of the NCAA’s 2013 revenue, $681 million came from the multimedia and marketing rights agreement with CBS and Turner Broadcasting that primarily is connected to the Division I men’s basketball tournament, the statement said. In 2012, the NCAA had nearly $872 million in total revenue and nearly $801 million in total expenses.

The new financial statement — dated Dec. 4, 2013 — continued to include a statement of the NCAA’s confidence in its ability to prevail in, or settle, various lawsuits without a major impact on its assets. The statement’s notes about the NCAA’s commitments and contingencies say, in part: “The NCAA and its legal counsel are defending against lawsuits and claims arising in the normal course of its day-to-day activities. The NCAA does not believe the ultimate resolution of these matters will result in material losses or have a material adverse effect on the consolidated financial position, change in net assets, or cash flows of the NCAA.”

This is relatively routine language, but as of the statement’s date, the NCAA was facing a series of lawsuits pertaining to the use of college athletes’ names and likenesses, concussions athletes suffered while playing college sports and restrictions on the length and number of scholarships schools can offer.

Subsequent to the statement date, the NCAA has been named as a defendant in two lawsuits aimed specifically at the limits on compensation that athletes can receive for playing college sports.