Ryan Dunleavy

Staff writer

PISCATAWAY - Never has operating the 17th-most-subsidized athletic department in the nation looked so good on a school.

After two straight years as the leading national example for disproportionate revenues and expenses, Rutgers athletics' fiscal year 2015 subsidy of $23.8 million — as reported in January by Gannett New Jersey — ranks No. 17 in the nation, according to a newly updated USA Today database.

The subsidy is a combination of institutional support, government support and student fees.

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Rutgers still maintains the highest subsidy in the Power Five conferences two years after setting a national record for highest subsidy of all time at $46.9 million. The number dropped to $36.3 million in fiscal year 2014.

In the Big Ten, Maryland’s reliance on $14.5 million is second-highest and Wisconsin’s $7.8 million is third, while Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue and Nebraska are subsidy-free. As a private school, Northwestern does not publicly release its financials.

The dubious distinction of No. 1 now belongs to James Madison, which plays football at the FCS (formerly Division I-AA) level. James Madison ($35.8 million) was one spot behind Rutgers one year ago.

There are five MAC, three American Athletic Conference, two Mountain West, one Conference USA and one Sun Belt schools with larger deficits than Rutgers.

Arizona State, which has a $19.3 million subsidy that ranks No. 40 in the nation, is the Power Five school closest to Rutgers.

Rutgers athletics operated on $70.5 million in fiscal year 2015 — the lowest total in the Big Ten and less than half of what leaders Ohio State ($154 million) and Michigan ($151.1 million) spent. Both those schools had higher revenues than expenses.

Seven Big Ten schools spent more than $100 million on athletics, and Purdue was ($74.4 million) was the only one besides Rutgers under $87 million.

“We made a commitment to go into the Big Ten,” Rutgers president Robert L. Barchi told Gannett New Jersey last month. “We have a business plan for what we’re going to do in the next five years. We know when we’re going to become full partners in the Big Ten. We know what that means financially.

“We also intend to be competitive in the Big Ten. We know what that means. We will follow our plan going from this point to that point in a measured way that looks at both the revenues and the expenses.”

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The decrease in subsidy is partially explained by an across-the-board increase in ticket sales and ancillary revenues such as parking and concessions that rise in conjunction with increased attendance.

Rutgers ranks No. 175 in the nation in terms of running a department that is 33.74 percent subsidized.

NJIT, which doesn’t have football and was the last Division I basketball independent before it joined the Atlantic Sun Conference out of desperation in 2015, operates its $13.6 million athletic department on a nation-high 91.3 percent subsidy.

Rutgers has the stated mission of eliminating all institutional support to athletics by the time it becomes a full athletics revenue partner in the Big Ten in June 2021.

Full members reportedly received a conference payout of $32 million in 2015, while Rutgers received $9.4 million. The Big Ten requires a six-year integration phase for new members.

It will be difficult for Rutgers to keep its downward subsidy trend going in fiscal year 2016, however, after spending more than $8.7 million since Nov. 29 to clean house of athletics director Julie Hermann, the football coaching staff and the men’s basketball coaching staff.

Replacements for all positions were hired at a combined cost of more than $7.5 million.

Staff Writer Ryan Dunleavy: rdunleavy@gannettnj.com