NC State athletics director Boo Corrigan said earlier this year that his department is all in on the new era of college athletics, including providing the $20.5 million in revenue sharing and additional scholarships for athletes.
Now we know how the department allocated those funds to its programs for the current academic year. WRAL obtained a breakdown of the Wolfpack’s revenue share spending by sport through a public records request.
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Like most Power 4 conference schools, NC State is spending the vast majority of its money on football and men’s basketball.
Football received $13.5 million for new scholarships, revenue sharing and education-related financial awards of about $6,000 annually known as Alston payments. New rules for this season allow football programs to award 105 scholarships up from 85 previously.
Men’s basketball received $4 million and women’s basketball received $1 million for the same category of expenses. Men’s basketball is allowed to award 15 scholarships up from 13 previously. Women’s basketball remained at 15 scholarships.
“The best thing we can do is be really good at football and basketball,” Corrigan said in August.
For NC State’s other 15 sports, the school provided figures that covered all scholarships, revenue sharing, Alston payments and summer school funds.
It is unclear which programs saw the biggest budget increases from previous seasons. NC State spent more than $8.1 million on those programs in those expense categories. In the 2023-24 academic year, NC State spent $6.9 million on scholarships in those 15 sports, according to the school’s filing in the NCAA Membership Financial Reporting System.
Those programs were allowed to add a varying number of scholarships depending on the sport, though overall roster limits were reduced. Baseball, for example, went from 11.7 scholarships to 34. Men’s and women’s outdoor track went from 18 scholarships to 45.
The first $2 million in additional scholarship costs are counted against the overall $20.5 revenue sharing cap.
Corrigan said that most Wolfpack coaches put the money into additional scholarships, which can be a recruiting advantage in many sports.
“Here’s a number,” Corrigan said he told his coaches. “If you want to do that in 25 scholarships, you can do it in 25 scholarships. If you want to do it in scholarships plus Alston and lower the number of scholarships, you can do it. Ultimately, we trust our coaches. We want our coaches to have skin in the game so we provided maximum flexibility for our coaches by giving them a number and then allowing them to plus the numbers they wanted to.”
NC State’s women’s cross country team has won four national titles in the last five years.
Breakdown by sport
Note: The figures cover all scholarships, Alston payments, revenue share and summer school funds.
Baseball: $792,000
Men’s golf: $231,000
Men’s soccer: $561,000
Men’s swimming: $561,000
Men’s tennis: $264,000
Men’s track/cross country: $561,000
Wrestling: $561,000
Men’s sports (not football and basketball) total: $3,531,000
Women’s golf: $231,000
Gymnastics: $507,695
Softball: $726,000
Women’s soccer: $660,000
Women’s swimming: $726,000
Women’s tennis: $302,932
Women’s track/cross country: $932,050
Volleyball: $528,000
Women’s sports (not basketball) total: $4,613,667
