Every HBCU football program has a story. The Bayou Classic. The Magic City Classic. The Celebration Bowl. The rivalries that fill stadiums and bring alumni back from across the country. What you hear less about is the money that makes it possible.
This is the first comprehensive look at football spending across all 21 football-playing schools in the Data Driven HBCU D1 cohort, drawn from official federal and NCAA filings. It is not a perfect dataset, but it is the best comparative tool available and shows where each program stood during the 2024-2025 school year.
About the Data
The EADA is a federal filing that all co-educational institutions receiving Title IV funding must submit annually. It covers all 23 schools in the cohort and uses a standardized format that allocates total program revenue and expenses across sport lines. Because EADA figures include institutional support and student fees allocated to each sport, the revenue figures often match or closely track expense figures for smaller programs.
The MFRS is an NCAA reporting system with more granular revenue category breakdowns. Howard University, Hampton University, and Bethune-Cookman University are private institutions not required to make their MFRS filings public. Delaware State University is also not required to publicly share its MFRS data. Alabama State University and Tennessee State University are public institutions whose FY2025 MFRS reports are pending. Those six schools appear in the EADA table but not the MFRS table.
The full underlying data for both reporting systems is available in the Data Driven HBCU dashboards. Individual school EADA reports are accessible through the EADA 2024-25 Index. Individual school MFRS reports are accessible through the MFRS FY2025 Summary.
Football Expenses: EADA 2024-25 (21 Schools)
| Rank | School | Conf | Football Expenses | Football Revenue | Net |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Norfolk State University | MEAC | $7,071,944 | $7,071,944 | $0 |
| 2 | Tennessee State University | OVC | $6,913,955 | $6,913,955 | $0 |
| 3 | Morgan State University | MEAC | $6,218,306 | $5,835,179 | -$383,127 |
| 4 | Howard University | MEAC | $5,919,007 | $5,919,007 | $0 |
| 5 | Hampton University | CAA | $5,382,962 | $5,382,962 | $0 |
| 6 | NC A&T State University | CAA | $4,788,303 | $4,788,303 | $0 |
| 7 | Bethune-Cookman University | SWAC | $4,683,961 | $4,683,961 | $0 |
| 8 | Grambling State University | SWAC | $4,567,231 | $4,567,231 | $0 |
| 9 | NC Central University | MEAC | $4,552,255 | $4,552,255 | $0 |
| 10 | Florida A&M University | SWAC | $4,500,000 | $4,500,000 | $0 |
| 11 | Alabama State University | SWAC | $4,376,977 | $4,376,977 | $0 |
| 12 | Alabama A&M University | SWAC | $4,210,963 | $4,210,963 | $0 |
| 13 | Delaware State University | MEAC | $3,947,183 | $3,947,183 | $0 |
| 14 | SC State University | MEAC | $3,856,327 | $3,856,327 | $0 |
| 15 | Prairie View A&M University | SWAC | $3,609,079 | $3,609,079 | $0 |
| 16 | Texas Southern University | SWAC | $3,454,140 | $3,454,140 | $0 |
| 17 | Alcorn State University | SWAC | $2,956,797 | $2,956,797 | $0 |
| 18 | Southern University | SWAC | $2,944,500 | $2,944,500 | $0 |
| 19 | Jackson State University | SWAC | $2,867,733 | $2,867,733 | $0 |
| 20 | Univ. of Arkansas-Pine Bluff | SWAC | $2,107,692 | $2,107,692 | $0 |
| 21 | Mississippi Valley State Univ. | SWAC | $1,457,079 | $1,457,079 | $0 |
Source: OPE EADA filings, academic year 2024-25. Coppin State and UMES sponsor no football program and are excluded. Most schools report revenue equal to expenses, a standard EADA balancing convention when sport-level revenue is not tracked independently.
Football Expenses: MFRS FY2025 (15 Schools)
| Rank | School | Conf | Football Expenses | % of Total Budget | Football Revenue |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Norfolk State University | MEAC | $7,148,912 | 28.6% | $7,148,914 |
| 2 | Alabama A&M University | SWAC | $6,275,934 | 30.0% | $2,721,177 |
| 3 | Morgan State University | MEAC | $6,218,305 | 26.4% | $301,390 |
| 4 | Southern University | SWAC | $5,658,093 | 30.8% | $4,107,256 |
| 5 | Grambling State University | SWAC | $4,981,977 | 35.0% | $2,481,811 |
| 6 | SC State University | MEAC | $4,845,832 | 37.0% | $5,143,048 |
| 7 | NC A&T State University | CAA | $4,788,303 | 21.4% | $3,899,412 |
| 8 | Prairie View A&M University | SWAC | $4,745,975 | 18.3% | $4,518,101 |
| 9 | NC Central University | MEAC | $4,691,602 | 26.2% | $1,786,683 |
| 10 | Florida A&M University | SWAC | $4,558,050 | 31.8% | $6,826,580 |
| 11 | Jackson State University | SWAC | $4,533,278 | 27.7% | $4,181,990 |
| 12 | Alcorn State University | SWAC | $4,455,095 | 44.2% | $2,565,334 |
| 13 | Texas Southern University | SWAC | $3,064,981 | 29.0% | $90,539 |
| 14 | Univ. of Arkansas-Pine Bluff | SWAC | $2,407,434 | 17.0% | $1,074,385 |
| 15 | Mississippi Valley State Univ. | SWAC | $1,553,420 | 29.4% | $1,545,843 |
The MFRS data captures football spending for 15 of the 21 football-playing schools in the cohort. Howard and Hampton are private institutions not required to file MFRS publicly. Alabama State, Bethune-Cookman, Delaware State, and Tennessee State are public schools whose FY2025 MFRS data is not yet in the Data Driven HBCU pipeline.
Source: NCAA Membership Financial Reporting System, FY2025. Howard, Hampton, and Bethune-Cookman are private institutions that are not required to publicly file MFRS data. Delaware State is not required to share MFRS data publicly. Alabama State and Tennessee State FY2025 MFRS reports haven’t been shared with Data Driven HBCU.
Alcorn State’s 44.2% share of the total football budget is the highest concentration in the cohort among schools with MFRS filings, meaning nearly half of all athletic spending at Alcorn goes to one sport. At the other end, UAPB directs 17.0% of its total budget to football, the lowest share among football-playing schools in the MFRS cohort. Mississippi Valley State’s $1.55 million football budget is the group’s floor, roughly one-fifth of what Norfolk State spends on the sport.
Data Driven HBCU covers the financial reality of public HBCU athletics using publicly available federal filings and NCAA data. EADA figures are drawn from OPE filings for academic year 2024-25. MFRS figures are drawn from FY2025 NCAA Membership Financial Reporting System filings.
This is the first article in a series detailing the 2024-2025 budget details compiled from these data sources.
Sources
U.S. Department of Education, Office of Postsecondary Education. Equity in Athletics Data Analysis. Academic year 2024-25. ope.ed.gov/athletics
NCAA Membership Financial Reporting System. FY2025 filings for 15 public D1 HBCU institutions, compiled by Data Driven HBCU.
