BLOOMINGTON – IU’s athletic department reported revenues in excess of $144 million in the fiscal year 2023, according to an annual financial report filed with the NCAA in January.

That number is down from last year’s record of nearly $166.8 million, but the department’s FY23 number represents something more important: For the first time since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, revenues have stabilized back into a climb.

The department’s exact revenue number came to $144,706,586, down from last year’s $166,761,471.

But last year’s total was artificially boosted by a gift of roughly $38 million from the IU Foundation, which portioned the gift out of a larger $150 million loan meant to backfill COVID losses across multiple university auxiliaries. That $38 million helped Indiana clear the bulk of a hole that at its deepest ran $25 million in losses or shortfalls due to the pandemic, plus further fallout from managing said deficit.

Here are IU’s reported revenues beginning with the fiscal year ending June 20, 2019, the last full year pre-pandemic:

2019: $127,832,628

2020: $121,181,042

2021: $78,083,857

2022: $166,761,471

2023: $144,706,586

The financial impact of the pandemic was felt primarily in FY21, with FY20 also affected. But you can see the jump in 2022, thanks largely to that Foundation gift. Without it, the department still would have finished at roughly the same financial position as 2019, but the gift helped backfill essentially all remaining financial shortfall from the pandemic, allowing the department to move forward without the weight of that shortfall in future years.

The result is reflected in this year’s report — a department once again on firm financial footing, largely independent of university assistance.

There is still a little more than $8 million reported as some form of institutional support (funding passed from the university to the athletic department), but even without that this year’s revenue number would be a non-Foundation gift record high for Indiana.

While contributions returned to FY21 levels, ticket sales increased by more than $3 million. Media rights and licensing distributions (driven primarily though not entirely by the Big Ten’s new TV deal) increased by about $5 million as well.

Expenses climbed too, to a department-record $139,087,323. That’s close to $6.7 million more than FY22.

Bear in mind: None of these figures are adjusted for inflation, which has been a substantial consideration since the pandemic. For example, IU spent $3.5 million more on team travel in FY23 than it did FY19, and $2.5 million more than in FY22. Those numbers can obviously fluctuate based on annual need, but they’re also one of a handful of expense categories in these reports that will have been hit hard by the effects of recent inflation.

The too-long-didn’t-read version of all this is straightforward: For the first time since COVID-19 began affecting revenues in college athletics, Indiana’s finances have returned more or less to normal. The Foundation gift helped stabilize the department amid its post-COVID shortfall, and the result is a department now able to stand on its own two feet financially once again.

With Big Ten revenues pointed upward in the coming years, but considerations like revenue sharing also likely to grow in influence at the same time, that robust financial health should not be taken for granted.

What will Mike Woodson do?

Multiple times during the Fox broadcast of Saturday’s IU-Purdue game, play-by-play announcer Gus Johnson suggested Xavier Johnson had told him Johnson would be out roughly three more games. That could line Johnson up to return for the Feb. 27 game against Wisconsin.

Johnson has been nursing an elbow injury serious enough to require constant immobilization since he suffered it following an awkward late-game fall in the Iowa win Jan. 30.

In Johnson’s absence, Indiana has turned to Trey Galloway as its primary ball handler and offensive initiator. Nowhere did that pivot pay greater dividends than Ohio State last week, when Galloway’s 25 points (including 19 in the second half) spurred a comeback victory from 18 down in Columbus.

Which presents Woodson a curious decision as and when Johnson returns: Who sees more of the ball?

Johnson is the clearer choice in terms of experience. He’s as veteran as a point guard gets in college basketball. He knows Woodson’s offense as well as anyone on roster. On his day, he’s as good as anyone at his position in the Big Ten.

But probably in large part because injuries have so thoroughly disrupted his season, Johnson does not currently look much like that player. His assist rate is nearly 18 points lower than his previous career low, and while his turnover rate is not outlandishly high, it is noticeably higher than said assist rate (21.8 to 15.4), and it climbs in conference games.

While Galloway’s offense has not always been consistent, some of his best games have come when he’s been IU’s primary ball handler. He was excellent against Ohio State and Kansas, and solid as a creator across the past several weeks. His assist rate in Big Ten play (25.6%) is not just the best such number of his career by a distance, it’s also a top-10 number in the conference.

Of course, Johnson can’t restore his rhythm if he doesn’t play regular minutes once he’s ready. But Galloway could also be the solution for the Hoosiers beyond just this season.

There are personnel considerations here for Woodson. There will be potential long-term impact to consider, with Galloway still having a year of eligibility Johnson does not. And there is always the possibility Woodson envisions playing them together, with each seeing plenty of the ball.

How he navigates Johnson’s return to the rotation will be fascinating, and instructive for Indiana’s plan going forward.

Chloe Moore-McNeil underappreciated

It was surprising to see the Big Ten’s weekly women’s basketball awards come and go without any mention of Chloe Moore-McNeil.

Nebraska’s Jaz Shelley won player-of-the-week honors following her pivotal role in the Huskers’ upset of conference title contender Iowa on Sunday in Lincoln. Some criticized the decision, suggesting the honor reflected too much of an Iowa-centric view from the conference, but Shelley — who finished last week with 33 points, nine rebounds and nine assists across a pair of wins — fully deserved her honor.

The same argument can be (and probably should have been) made for Moore-McNeil.

Across 71 minutes and a pair of wins last week, the senior guard from Tennessee tallied 32 points, 15 rebounds and 16 assists. She became just the second Hoosier ever to log a triple-double — in this case 10 points, 10 rebounds, 11 assists — in a thrilling 94-91 win over Michigan State, and Moore-McNeil was a perfect 5-of-5 from behind the 3-point line as part of a 22-5-5 effort in Indiana’s 95-62 rout of rival Purdue on Sunday.

On a team with an All-American in the post and sharpshooters across the floor from behind the arc, Moore-McNeil acts as the Hoosiers’ fulcrum. She sews together the post offense IU runs through Mackenzie Holmes and the Hoosiers’ prodigious floor-spacing ability, and last week stands as testament to her ability to get in on the act both scoring and rebounding the ball as well.

While she wasn’t named one of the league’s players of the week, Moore-McNeil did make Big Ten honor roll. Perhaps more meaningfully, she was named one of just five USBWA Ann Meyers Drysdale national players of the week Tuesday.

At time of writing, Indiana is in Madison, preparing for Wednesday’s game at Wisconsin. The Hoosiers will follow that with a trip to Illinois on Monday, before welcoming Caitlin Clark and Iowa to Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall on Feb. 22. If IU closes the one-game gap to Ohio State and wins a second-straight regular-season league title, Chloe Moore-McNeil stands to be in the thick of the action.

TRIVIA

Moore-McNeil’s triple-double was the fourth in program history, but it made her just the second Hoosier ever to manage the feat. Who was the first?

ODDS & ENDS

∎ As noted by Mike Niziolek in his in-depth write-up of IU’s fiscal-year 2023 expense report, Indiana’s $15.5 million buyout of Tom Allen’s contract will be reflected in next year’s budget. Athletic Director Scott Dolson told Niziolek the department funded the buyout through a loan that donor funds and department revenues will pay off in time.

∎ Ohio State’s decision to part with Chris Holtmann on Wednesday set the coaching carousel spinning in the Big Ten, but outside Columbus it might be a quiet cycle for the conference. There is obviously some pressure on Juwan Howard at Michigan, but perhaps not enough to prompt a change. Minnesota is outperforming expectations and boosting Ben Johnson’s job security. These things are always fluid but as things stand, it’s possible the only job in the league that comes open via firing will be Ohio State.

∎ IU baseball begins its season this weekend with a three-game set in Myrtle Beach, S.C. The Hoosiers will face ranked Duke on Friday, then ranked host Coastal Carolina on Saturday, before finishing with George Mason on Sunday. Indiana’s home opener is scheduled for 4 p.m. Tuesday against Miami (Ohio).

∎ Softball enjoyed a 4-1 start to the season last weekend, winning all but one of five games in the NFCA Leadoff Classic in Clearwater, Fla. The Hoosiers defeated a ranked Oregon team, fell 3-2 to top-five Clemson and then defeated Army, Kansas and North Carolina Central. Their work landed them third among teams also receiving votes in this week’s ESPN/USA Softball top 25.

∎ IU’s men’s and women’s teams each have one game remaining this month on Peacock, NBC’s subscription streaming service. The men play Wisconsin at 7 p.m. Feb. 27, at home, with the game set to for Peacock. The women’s game against Iowa at 8 p.m. Feb. 22, will also be broadcast on that platform.

ANSWER

Grace Berger, Moore-McNeil’s erstwhile teammate now with the Indiana Fever, accounted for the first three triple-doubles in program history.

Follow IndyStar reporter Zach Osterman on Twitter: @ZachOsterman.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana athletics department's finances, revenue in good shape