During the last four fiscal years, the University men’s basketball program has pulled in an average profit of just under $2.5 million per year.

Women’s basketball, an almost annual Sweet 16 performer, actually loses money – to the tune of around $1.75 million a year.

Excluding those two sports and football, the remainder of Georgia’s 16 varsity teams have lost a combined $7 to $11 million every year during that same span.

So how is Georgia’s Athletic Association doing financially?

Just fine, thank you. And thanks to football.

“Football pays for everything with the exception of men’s basketball,” said Athletic Director Damon Evans. “Men’s basketball is the only sport that we have other than football that’s self-sustaining. If you want to break it down, out of a projected $84 million budget, football will generate about 90 percent of that revenue.”

The Georgia football program has raked in over $170 million in profits dating back to the 2004-05 fiscal year – an average of $42.5 million per year.

Exorbitant profits? Yes.

But the gains made by football are the reason why the Georgia Athletic Association was able to spend more than $500,000 on equestrian, more than $600,000 on volleyball, and $20,000 on new soccer nets alone in the last year.

The gains are the reason why it’s possible to spend almost $800,000 a year on cheerleaders and the Redcoat Band.

“I think, at least internally, we all appreciate the success football has had and continues to have, because yes, it brings in a lot of money,” said Frank Crumley, the Athletic Association’s executive associate athletic director for finance and business.

“I think that when people contribute for the rights to purchase [football] tickets, et cetera, it’s really to support all the sports because not all that money goes directly to football.”

The majority of the money men’s basketball pulls in comes from NCAA and SEC redistributions, made even sweeter in recent years due to Florida’s two national championships, Kentucky’s continued status as a marquee name in college basketball’s national landscape, and a new blockbuster conference-wide deal with ESPN.

The program garnered $3.4 million in those redistributions last year.

So even men’s basketball, admittedly unsuccessful in recent years but still the second “biggest” revenue producing sport at Georgia, essentially makes a profit solely because of the conference it’s in and the success of those conference mates.

Football, on the other hand, pulled in a cool $67.5 million in revenue during the 2007-08 fiscal year. Less than 14 percent of that ($8.9 million) accounts for NCAA and SEC distributions.

“Football drives the train,” said Dan Fulks, an accounting professor at Transylvania University and a consultant to the NCAA. “You just don’t make money anywhere else.”

‘At Georgia, it doesn’t cost you anything’

Out of 119 Football Bowl Subdivision schools, Fulks said that only 25 athletic programs turned a profit during the 2008 fiscal year – a number actually up from 19 in 2006.

And Georgia’s one of them.

While smaller schools (and a few bigger ones) are cutting sports and forcing coaches to take unpaid furloughs, and the University itself is facing continued economic strain, Georgia’s athletic program has flourished.

It just signed lucrative communications deals with ISP and ESPN (along with the rest of the conference), has actually increased its reserve funds (now around $50 million), and recently broke ground on multi-million dollar construction projects on the Spec Towns track and expansion of the Butts-Mehre building.

The economic times are good at Georgia. But that hasn’t, and won’t, lead to careless spending.

“We’re not sitting here trying to spend the full $84 million [of revenue pulled in last fiscal year],” Evans said. “What we’re trying to do is spend on things that we think we need. Occasionally we’ll have some wants, but we’re more need-based and more about building up reserves so we can do construction projects and other things. We’re not just trying to spend everything. We don’t operate that way. We’re going to be fiscally prudent.”

The track renovation will take about $3 million from the aforementioned reserves, and the Butts-Mehre expansion (which will include an indoor football practice facility) will run just short of $40 million. Half of the Butts-Mehre project will be paid through fundraising, with the other 50 percent financed through bonds.

Georgia’s has at times been listed as the nation’s most “profitable” athletic association, but not because they pull in so much more than the other 24 money-making programs in the country. It’s because of those reserves and a conscientious effort to maintain them.

“For me I have to break it down a little simpler,” Crumley said. “It’s like in my household. I could spend everything that’s coming in, but what if something goes wrong? Then what happens? . We’re protecting the athletic department in the long haul.”

So where does all this money come from?

The majority comes from football contributions (about $30 million last year) and football ticket sales ($16 million). Last fiscal year, the total operating expenses for Georgia football were just shy of $20 million.

With a total football revenue of $67.5 million last year, that left almost $48 million to cover the other sports and add to the surplus.

“Sitting in this very, very difficult economy, we’ve sort of positioned ourselves well,” Evans said. “We’ve built up a very, very large reserve over the years. The way that we’ve budgeted over the years, that has allowed us to be able to adjust to the economy and right now, from an athletic perspective, I can’t sit here and say that we’re hurt.”

Hartman Fund contributions, the money given to the football ticket priority system, were markedly down this year at about $23 million. But Crumley said that points more to a previous spike than a downward turn.

“This is going to sound funny, but I feel really good about it,” he said. “Because if you look, last year was a unique year. We finished the season No. 2 in the country, preseason No. 1. You had what ended up being the No. 1 draft pick, the No. 12 draft pick, the No. 50 draft pick. There was a lot of excitement around football. I think all that came together and we had a spike in the Hartman Fund. But the year before, we were at about $23 million, and that’s where we ended up this year. So I think it’s settled back down, probably to where we should be and would normally be.”

Most of the money spent by the athletic association on a yearly basis goes toward two line items – scholarships ($6.6 million last year) and salaries (almost $24 million with coaches and the rest of the athletic association combined).

But with the money continuing to come in (the new ESPN deal will mark a $5 million jump the first year, with a $400,000 increase each year after that), it’s all affordable.

“The bottom line is at Georgia, it doesn’t cost you anything,” Fulks said. “The net cost of athletics at Georgia is nothing.”