PISCATAWAY -- Correcting the wayward Rutgers athletics department came at a cost.

After two straight years of decline, the subsidy needed to sustain Rutgers athletics jumped to $28.6 million in fiscal year 2016, according to a NJ Advance Media review of the annual report filed to the NCAA and obtained through an Open Public Records Act request.

A combination of $11.4 million in student fees plus $17.1 million in direct institutional support and $29,163 in state government support accounts for the total needed to balance athletics' total operating budget of $83.9 million.

The report reflects Rutgers' second year as a Big Ten member, from July 1, 2015 through June 30, 2016.

The new subsidy figure represents a 4.7 percentage increase over the $23.9 million used in fiscal 2015. The subsidy was a national-record $46.9 million in fiscal 2013 when Rutgers experienced the fallout of a men's basketball scandal.

It's no surprise, then, that spike is related to controversy as Rutgers owed buyouts to athletics director Julie Hermann ($1.16 million), football coach Kyle Flood ($1.4 million) and Flood's nine assistants ($3.3 million).

Flood and Hermann were fired under a dark cloud after he served a three-game suspension for academic misconduct and faced allegations of a program with a drug problem. When the dust finally settled in December, Rutgers was served with a NCAA Notice of Allegations.

Unrelated to those circumstances, Rutgers also fired men's basketball coach Eddie Jordan for on-court performance. He was owed a $2.1 million buyout.

Because of the structure of those buyout payments -- some, like Flood's are paid every two weeks -- Rutgers noted $3.6 million in severance payments on fiscal report. Rutgers listed no severance pay in fiscal 2015.

Rutgers paid its coaches $13.1 million in 2016, a more than $2 million jump from the $10.9 million in 2015. New football coach Chris Ash and men's basketball coach Steve Pikiell both received raises over their predecessors as well as larger salary pools for hiring assistant coaches.

As a perk of being associated with the nation's richest conference, Rutgers received $9.84 million -- up from $9.4 million in 2015 -- from the Big Ten.

Still, the big check is only a fraction of the future earnings because expansion members must go through a six-year integration phase before earning a full revenue share. Rutgers becomes fully vested in 2021.

While Rutgers enjoyed a record-breaking year in athletics fundraising, most of those donations are earmarked for capital projects.

Only donations spent -- not pledges -- are included on the report during a given year. Rutgers reported $7.9 million in contributions, presumably mostly pertaining to the construction of the newly opened indoor training facility for baseball and softball.

In fiscal 2015, Rutgers had the No. 17-highest subsidy in the nation, according to USA TODAY. James Madison, Air Force, Massachusetts, Old Dominion and Connecticut had the five highest subsidies, respectively.

Rutgers' still was the dubious leader among the Power Five conferences, while seven Big Ten programs reported a subsidy of less than $1 million or no subsidy at all.

Ryan Dunleavy may be reached at rdunleavy@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @rydunleavy. Find NJ.com Rutgers Football on Facebook.