Villanova Athletics’ 2024-25 Spending: How the Wildcats Compare

Villanova Athletics can compensate their student athletes for up to $20.5 million during the 2025-26 academic year as a result of the landmark House v. NCAA settlement, as can every other Division I program. That’s quite a bit of money, albeit split between the Wildcats’ 24 varsity teams. To give fans an idea of how that money might go to use — and how much money they hold at their disposal — here’s a report from strategy and analytics consultant Tony Altimore breaking down the total budget (including travel, operations, and the like), spending per athlete, and money devoted to sports outside of traditional revenue generators like football and men’s basketball.

UPDATED SPORTS FINANCIALS:
Now that we have updated reporting from ALL schools, here's some interesting looks at:
– Overall OpEx
– Size of Depts
– Spend on Olympic Sports (not FB or MBB)
– Overall Spend per Athlete

Note how the schools rebuilding to elite status stand out, along… pic.twitter.com/IFN1PZzGtb

— Tony Altimore (@TJAltimore) June 4, 2025

Altimore reports that during Fiscal Year 2024 (FY24) Villanova Athletics’ operating budget came out to $61 million in total, the second-best mark in the Big East behind UConn ($92 million) and somewhere between two-thirds and one fourth of what Power Four programs spent.

Ohio State set the high water mark with $262 million spent, while Kansas State of the Big 12 posted the lowest mark among such schools at $88 million. That said, Big 12 schools have less athletes than other programs on average. Kansas State spent $194,000 per athlete in FY24, compared to just $100,000 per athlete at Villanova.

Seton Hall finished last in the Big East with a $31 million operating budget, while conference programs spent an average of $49.6 million. Georgetown came in third at $58 million.

How the Money Breaks Down

Of their $61 million spent, Villanova devoted $34 million to sports beyond football and Men’s Basketball, those two programs taking the lion’s share of spending when compared to the other 22 varsity sports.

Most Power Four programs spent more than half their budget on men’s basketball and football: the Buckeyes, for example, spent just $110 million of their $262 million purse on sports outside those two.

Admittedly, women’s basketball serves as a major draw for the Wildcats as well, on par with or greater than football… as evidenced through the university’s new VASE fund, designed specifically to generate revenue for the basketball programs. Compared to major program budgets like Ohio State or Alabama, the Wildcats might have trouble reaching that $20.5 million spending cap, and the repercussions of the House settlement could further increase the gap between haves and have-nots in college athletics.