Eastern Arizona College in Thatcher allocated $1.3 million to its basketball teams in 2024, reflecting a 31.9% rise compared to the prior year, according to the U.S. Department of Education.
Basketball team expenses accounted for $1.3 million, representing 27.2% of the total athletic spending at the college in 2024.
College athletes can now be paid directly by schools after a settlement approved in early July, which also requires the NCAA to pay $2.8 billion in back damages over 10 years to athletes who played from 2016 to the present.
In 2022, after years of legal and legislative pressure, athletes also gained the right to profit from their names, images and likenesses through state laws and an NCAA policy change.
Basketball is one of the most popular sports played at U.S. colleges, alongside football. NCAA basketball teams are often as popular as NBA teams, with tournaments like March Madness drawing millions of viewers annually.
| Year | Basketball teams’ expenditures | % from grand total sport team expenditures |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | $1,327,501 | 27.2% |
| 2023 | $1,006,643 | 28.9% |
| 2022 | $670,956 | 32.6% |
| 2021 | $487,565 | 33.5% |
| 2020 | $567,130 | 27.9% |
Information in this story was obtained from the U.S. Department of Education. The source data can be found here.
