Washington's athletic department again plans loans to cover cash-flow deficit
With athlete revenue-share budgeted, UW projects a $19 million deficit.
As it did in the 2025 fiscal year, Washington again plans to rely on an advance payment from the Big Ten and a loan from the university’s invested funds to balance its athletics budget in FY26.
With more than $20 million per year budgeted to pay athletes under the (still pending) House v. NCAA settlement, the athletic department anticipates a cash-flow deficit of $19 million for FY25 (ending June 30), with a similar deficit projected for FY26, according to documents attached to this month’s Board of Regents meeting agenda.
To cover the gap, the department will again ask the regents to approve a budget that includes a $10 million advance from the Big Ten against future distributions (interest free), and will again leverage the school’s capital assets pool (CAP) in order to pay debt service on the loans that funded the renovation of Husky Stadium and Husky Ballpark.
The action item also will ask the regents to approve “institutional support from non-state and non-tuition sources for one-time capital and operating costs associated with the ongoing transition to the (Big Ten),” as it did in FY25, as well as “for student athlete health, wellness, and financial aid.”
In FY25, the school also took a $10 million, interest-free loan from Fox, the Big Ten’s primary broadcast partner. UW needed the loans to make up for receiving roughly half the amount of media-rights money from the Big Ten as 16 of its conference peers (all except Oregon), and to cover considerable up-front costs associated with joining the league.
The athletic department projects $176 million in revenue and $195 million in expenses in FY25 before operating loans are factored in. The agenda also notes the department received a “philanthropic gift” it will apply to the FY25 budget.
Its revenue projection for FY26 is $180 million, with a projected $199 million in expenses.
Per the agenda document: “Much of the deficit can be attributed to (the department’s) migration to the Big Ten, conference studio expenses, stadium debt repayment and revenue sharing with student athletes in exchange for their Name, Image & Likeness.”
The CAP program was originally created to provide access to invested funds for capital projects. The regents amended policy last year to allow CAP loans for operational support to campus departments, such as athletics, that might otherwise struggle to make debt-service payments on internal loans.
The athletic department used the CAP program to cover its $9.8 million stadium debt-service payment in FY25; it could borrow up to $17.7 million in FY26 to cover stadium debt service, per the agenda. The increase is due to the resumption of principal payments on the stadium loans after the regents approved interest-only payments through FY25 during the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to agenda documents, the athletic department still anticipates a cost of $24.8 million to construct and equip a broadcast/production studio in compliance with Big Ten standards; central campus equity is expected to cover $14.3 million of that total. Construction will largely take place over the next year, with a completion date in FY27 (i.e. some time after July 1, 2026). The studio will be built in the old East Gym inside Hec Edmundson Pavilion.
The school’s new basketball training facility, currently under construction, is expected to open in the fall with “state of the art courts for each program, nutrition stations, a recruiting ‘closing’ room and recruiting and donor event spaces.” The $61 million project was fully funded by donors.
UW athletes already are signing NIL licensing agreements with the school under the assumption that the House settlement will be approved and enforced beginning July 1. U.S. District Court Judge Claudia Wilken still has not rendered a final decision. If approved in its current form, the settlement would allow athletic departments to share up to $20.5 million with athletes in the form of NIL payments, with that figure increasing each year. UW has committed publicly to share the maximum allowable amount.
There are a few encouraging budgetary developments. Football season-ticket sales increased slightly to 47,000 for the 2024 season (FY25), with another bump to 47,500 expected for 2025 (FY26), along with a projected year-over-year increase of $1 million in single-game ticket sales. The school also signed a new, 12-year multimedia rights deal with Learfield that guarantees an annual payout roughly double the $7.15 million it received in FY25, and the school will receive greater College Football Playoff revenue beginning with the 2026 football season (FY27) — more than $21 million per year, compared to the $5.5 million currently due each Big Ten school (before participation payouts).
Current naming-rights agreements for the field at Husky Stadium and the arena at Hec Edmundson Pavilion also are both expiring soon. “While it is too soon to predict the increase, the valuation of (UW athletics) properties will be significantly higher than a decade ago and will result in a FY27 revenue increase,” per the agenda document.
Still, due to “conference realignment and pending litigation,” including the House settlement, the department is not projecting its budget beyond FY26.
The agenda document includes the now-familiar language: “… the litany of current and future lawsuits related to ‘Name, Image & Likeness’ and other anti-trust areas continue to pose risks.”
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And right on cue, Judge Wilken approved the House settlement.
Washington chose to be included amongst the “haves,” i.e., SEC or B1G. That choice comes at a price. Namely, B1G money. Let’s hope Pat Chun’s reputation for fundraising magic bears fruit. It will need to from this point forward. One can only guess at what Washington’s total football player payroll (direct payments from the school + NIL) will be. And, it’ll grow every year. The money raised for that purpose year in and year out competes directly with money to improve facilities, retire debt, and so on.
The glass half-empty is that money will be tight for the foreseeable future. The glass half-full is that Washington is in one of the two “have” conferences. (Anyplace else appears to be drifting quickly towards irrelevance, in football specifically.) I’m grateful we have a head coach in Jedd Fisch who has the attitude, intelligence, and coaching chops to make it work in the B1G. If the program has enough money.
The ripple effect of the PAC-12’s collapse will be long in duration. School presidents and ADs made terrible choices in conference leadership and then didn’t care to hold them accountable.