PISCATAWAY -- In order to compensate for a shortfall of about $39 million in expenditures during the 2016 fiscal year, Rutgers athletics took out what amounts to a $10 million loan from the university.

That loan, which Rutgers officials say is an advance on future Big Ten revenues, is on top of the $28.6 million subsidy. The Rutgers athletics program received $17.1 million from the university's general fund, $11.4 million in student fees and $29,163 in state government support.

The $39 million is the amount needed to balance an $83.97 million operating budget, according to a NJ Advance Media review of the annual report filed to the NCAA and obtained through an Open Public Records Act request.

Rutgers Athletics Director Pat Hobbs said the additional $10 million essentially is a loan to be repaid after Rutgers becomes a full-revenue sharing partner in the Big Ten in 2021.

In an interview with NJ Advance Media, Hobbs said it was necessary to cover costs related to coaches' buyouts and investments in competitiveness.

"The university is demonstrating a commitment to success in the Big Ten," Hobbs said. "They recognize that we can't simply wait until 2021. We have to gain competitiveness now. With an expectation and some certainty around future stream of payments, you can model that financially where it allows us to make investments today that we'll pay off in the future."

Rutgers' athletics subsidy was a national-record $47.6 million in 2013 before dipping to $36.3 million in 2014 and $23.8 million in 2015, lowering the last two fiscal years in compliance with a directive from Rutgers president Robert Barchi to decrease reliance on university funds.

"In terms of Dr. Barchi's commitment to reducing that subsidy the university support continues at that (same) level,'' Hobbs said. "To the extent there has been an excess of that level, that will be cast as an internal loan, which will we pay back to the university once we become full members. We remain committed to fulfilling that promise as we move into full membership."

In exchange for the student fees, Rutgers students can receive free admission to athletics home games. Rutgers makes available 10,500 free tickets to students for football games.

But $3.66 million in not-yet-complete severance payments to fired football coach Kyle Flood and men's basketball coach Eddie Jordan -- plus their assistant coaches -- as well as former athletic director Julie Hermann resulted in a reversal of the downward trend.

"There were transition costs with coaching changes," Hobbs said. "There were investments that needed to be made with both programs so we could move to a level of competitiveness."

Another reason for the increased subsidy is a change in accounting procedures at the university to de-centralize overheard costs and assign them to specific departments. As a result, athletics was charged $1.7 million.

Rutgers is trying to keep up with its Big Ten brethren despite being on an uneven financial scale.

Rutgers received a $9.8 million membership revenue check from the conference, which is only a fraction of what the 11 longtime members will receive. For example, in fiscal 2015, Rutgers received $9.4 million while a full share was worth $32.4 million.

Projections call for the full Big Ten revenue share value to be north of $50 million in 2017, further widening the gap between the league's haves and havenots. Fellow expansion member Maryland receives annual revenue nearly three times the level of Rutgers because it is borrowing against future revenue from the conference.

"It just further demonstrates the need for us to make strategic investments now for us to be competitive," Hobbs said. "So that we can grow the other revenues that are already doing pretty well at those other institutions, whether it's ticket sales, sponsorship support, increased operating support through fundraising."

Rutgers athletics had a record-breaking fundraising year in fiscal 2016 but most of the money is pledges.

Some of the win-now upgrades that Rutgers made -- such as the Hale Center weight room -- was supported by private donation pledges. But the money was fully expended in 2016 and the NCAA does not allow pledges to be considered into its contributions number until the check is in hand.

"By making the investments now, it will keep that competitive gap as narrow as we can," Hobbs said. "Hopefully we can close that gap sooner, so it doesn't all depend on your level of spending. This is our arrangement to come into the Big Ten and we feel really good about our membership, but we need to financially engineer into that membership."

The in-house advance on Big Ten revenue will be repaid to university as "apples to apples" amounts in the future, Hobbs said.

Using loans from the university to compensate for the shortfall could become a standard practice over the next four years as Rutgers awaits its 2021 windfall. A financial strategic plan is in the works.

"There is not a reason to wait for all of that if we do it in a way that there is certainty for the university," Hobbs said. "The Big Ten has been very successful in the conference support that is coming to the other institutions. That support is coming to Rutgers (in the future).

"We will be responsible. We will follow the plan that Dr. Barchi has set out. We will not receive that level of institutional support going forward, but we will be enhancing the reputation of the university and bringing success because we are going to make those investments now."

Ryan Dunleavy may be reached at rdunleavy@njadvancemedia.com.

Keith Sargeant may be reached at ksargeant@njadvancemedia.com.