Missed Revenue Distribution: Don’t Penalize Your Athletic Department’s Budget!

Are you using the right calculation to get your NCAA revenue distribution funds? If not, you could be leaving money on the table.

In September of 2016, the NCAA announced that its grants-in-aid revenue distribution calculations would only include tuition, fees, room and board, and required course-related books. Per the memo announcing this change, costs that are not considered in this calculation include:

• Books that are not course related
• Stipend for cost of attendance
• Laptop and computer equipment
• Supplies
• Transportation
• Miscellaneous personal expenses
• Support provided through Student Assistance Fund distribution dollars

The new rule required an additional equivalency to be calculated on your squad list. This revenue distribution equivalency looks very similar to your typical equivalency calculation, but it removes all other cost of attendance items (see list above) from the calculation. It seems a simple enough adjustment, right?

Not quite. In our work with athletic departments across the country, we have seen instances in which the wrong equivalency was calculated and used. Furthermore, we’ve found that this happens both in manual calculations and with software performing the work. So using software—even Compliance Assistant—is no guarantee that your revenue distribution calculation is being done correctly.

Not only can this affect compliance, it can short you some serious cash. At one major university athletic department, switching to the correct number actually brought them an extra $60,000 of NCAA revenue distribution funds—enough to hire an additional full-time staffer for most schools.

An agreed-upon procedures engagement performed by a firm with extensive experience can help you find discrepancies like these. The collegiate athletics CPAs at James Moore have been working on these and other cases for decades. We know the red flags that signal such discrepancies, and we can help you get all of revenue distribution funds to which you’re entitled.

Contact us today, and make sure you’re not penalizing yourself in the form of missed funding.

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