Penn State is pouring more money into athletics than ever, but the results haven’t turned into a matching leap forward.
The numbers tell the story clearly. In the 2022 fiscal year, Penn State Athletics reported operating expenses of $170.54 million.
That climbed to $202.07 million in 2023, then surged again to $254.64 million in the most recently released 2025 fiscal year. In three years, the department has added nearly $90 million in spending, and it could cross the $100 million mark for 2026 when the annual report comes out in early 2027.
That money is getting spread across the modern demands of college sports. Recruiting spending across the department rose from $3.15 million to $4.5 million.
Coaching salaries and benefits jumped from $32 million to $43.35 million. Support staff costs went from $30.86 million to $41.14 million, a reflection of how many roles now sit around the sport itself.
Game-day expenses also moved up, increasing from $13.3 million across all sports to $16.38 million. And in 2024-25, Penn State added $18.37 million in new NIL revenue sharing.
Penn State’s financial picture still looks healthy on paper. The latest operating expenses of $254.64 million were offset by record revenues of $254.86 million. Historically, outside of the COVID-19-impacted athletic year, the gap between expenses and revenue has usually stayed somewhere in the range of a few hundred thousand to a few million dollars in either direction.
Compared with some of its peers, though, Penn State is operating in a different financial tier without always looking like it on the competitive side. Oregon’s operating expenses went from $167.26 million to $183.03 million after the 2025 fiscal year.
Minnesota reported $163.6 million in revenue and $161.2 million in expenses. Ohio State brought in $336.1 million in revenues, nearly $82 million more than Penn State.
There are reasons for some of the spending growth, and the Beaver Stadium renovation will only push those figures higher. That project is an outlier, but it is also part of the larger picture: Penn State is spending at a level that should signal ambition.
The question is whether that investment is producing enough return.
The Nittany Lions have had real success. Penn State has won five straight NCAA wrestling titles, claimed the 2024 NCAA women’s volleyball championship, and reached Frozen Fours with both hockey teams. Even so, the athletic department finished 21st in the Learfield Directors’ Cup last year and has not finished in the top 10 since 2016-17.
So the issue isn’t simply whether Penn State is spending. It is whether all that spending is pushing the department closer to where it wants to be, or just helping it stay in step with the sport’s elite.
Until that answer gets clearer, the size of the budget alone won’t solve the bigger problem.
In Other News...
Penn State Fans Have A Real Matt Campbell Debate Now
The debate over Penn States latest coaching decision has quickly turned into a familiar kind of what-if conversation, with Matt Campbell now installed as the programs head football coach and set to be there for years to come. In hindsight, some around the fan base are still looking at the other names that were in the mix, especially Bob Chesney and Terry Smith, and wondering whether the Nittany Lions passed on a different path they might have felt better about.
Chesney has already gotten off to a strong start at UCLA, while Smith had the benefit of familiarity after serving as Penn States interim coach last year. That experience is part of what has fueled the second-guessing, since Smith might have had a better chance to keep more players and recruits from leaving after the previous coachs departure. For now, though, the program has made its choice, and the discussion has shifted from who should have been hired to what Campbell can do with it. [Read more 🡒]
Penn State Heads Into Michigan With One Big Concern
Penn State heads to Michigan with the kind of early-season test that can tell you a lot about where a team really stands. Both programs are still chasing their first Big Ten win of the year, and this will be the 28th time they have met in a rivalry that has taken on plenty of weight over the years. With first-year head coaches on both sidelines, the matchup also brings the usual October concerns into sharper focus, from injuries to questions about how steady each defense can be.
PennLives experts see plenty to monitor beyond the final score, from key players who could swing the game to the units that have to hold up under pressure. For Penn State, the bigger issue is not just whether it can compete in Ann Arbor, but whether the team can clean up the defensive problems that have surfaced and survive another week of attrition. The answers may not come easily, which is why this trip feels less like a midseason checkpoint and more like a revealing measuring stick. [Read more 🡒]
Michigan Brings A New Concern Into Penn State Week
Michigan is walking into Week 7 with a battered offensive line, and that is the kind of development Penn State will notice immediately. Six linemen are listed as out, questionable or probable, including four starters, which adds a layer of uncertainty to a matchup that already figures to hinge on how well the line can hold up against pressure.
The Wolverines do have real strength on the edge, where Tariq Boney and Nate Marshall have been performing well, but even there the picture is not fully settled with John Henry Daley and Dom Nichols still uncertain. For Penn State, the bigger takeaway is simple: the front-line health of Michigan's offense now looks like one of the week's most important storylines. [Read more 🡒]