'Nova is Final Four's smallest sports spender

In the cash-strapped context of the Big Five, it's not surprising that Villanova has been the only Philadelphia team to reach the Final Four since 1980.

The Wildcats, who will play North Carolina in a national semifinal Saturday night, spent $4.9 million on men's basketball last season. That was $2 million more than St. Joseph's, $1.9 million more than Temple's, and nearly seven times what Penn spent.

But nationally, where Division I-A football schools tend to dominate in basketball as well, the Wildcats' appearance in Detroit this weekend is something of an oddity. Of the 40 Final Four teams since 2000, Villanova is only the fifth without a football team in one of the six Bowl Championship Series conferences.

Its expenses and revenues, for men's basketball and for all sports, were dwarfed by those reported by Michigan State, North Carolina, and Connecticut.

In the 2007-08 season, the Wildcats' men's basketball program earned $5.8 million, according to figures filed with the U.S. Department of Education. That included ticket sales, TV revenue and fund-raising.

With $4.9 million in expenses - including coach Jay Wright's salary (an estimated total package of more than $1.5 million) and scholarships - Wildcats basketball turned a profit of nearly $1 million.

But men's basketball is Villanova's only money-maker. To balance its $23.9 million sports budget, the athletic department required a subsidy of $13.9 million from the university.

That's not unusual for schools like Villanova. Red-ink sports budgets are the norm at institutions that don't play Division I-A football - and even at most that do.

According to the Knight Commission, a college-sports watchdog, 90 percent of Division I-A athletic programs lost money in 2004-05 and required, on average, university subsidies of $7.1 million.

While Villanova is a basketball member of the Big East and shares in the conference's annual $22 million TV contract, its football team competes in the Division I-AA Colonial Athletic Association. Multimillion-dollar football deficits and university subsidies are commonplace for CAA members

Villanova's numbers might sound impressive, but its athletic finances are minor league compared to its Final Four competitors.