Texas athletics department reports $23 million loss in 2025, did not receive full revenue share from SEC

In fiscal year 2025, Texas reported a loss of $23.3 million, according to the Austin American-Statesman’s David Eckert. The loss was due to the fact the UT athletics department did not receive a full share of revenue distribution from the SEC.

Texas CFO Rob Novak told the American-Statesman the university got $12.5 million from the SEC, as did Oklahoma. The two teams were initially expected to join the conference in 2025, but they did so a year earlier. Meanwhile, the rest of the conference received $60.1 in revenue distribution.

As a result, Novak said UT budgeted a loss of $47 million in 2025. The school expects to receive a full share from the SEC’s distribution in 2026 and that figure is sure to increase in 2027 due to the new media rights deal between Disney and the SEC.

“It’s not Whack-A-Mole to balance a budget,” Novak told the Austin American-Statesman. “It’s, ‘What does this look like long-term? If we agree to do this today, can we sustain it? And if we can, what does that mean for revenue? Are the donors going to keep investing through donations? Is there going to be a market to increase ticket prices?’” 

News of Texas and Oklahoma’s pending departures to the SEC broke in Summer 2021 as a round of conference realignment kicked off. The original plan was for the two schools to leave the Big 12 ahead of the 2025 season, but they struck a deal to depart for the SEC early. As a result, they had to take a decreased revenue distribution share from their new conference upon their arrival.

Since making the conference switch, Texas has made an SEC Championship appearance in football and made the College Football Playoff semifinals in 2024-25. The Longhorns then went 10-3 overall this past year, just missing out on the CFP bracket, and eventually took down Michigan in the Citrus Bowl on New Year’s Eve.

Additionally, the Texas softball team made the Women’s College World Series for the second straight year in 2025 and eventually won its first-ever national championship. The Longhorns’ men’s swimming and diving team also won an NCAA championship.

The majority of Texas’ deficit in fiscal year 2025 is not a result of revenue-sharing rules in place by the landmark House settlement. UT distributed roughly $3 million to athletes during FY 25 since those rules took effect late in the year, according to the American-Statesman.