The University of Michigan athletic department sits atop $240 million in debt at a time when several major college athletics programs are grappling with enormous and potentially crippling debt loads.

Fueling that peril are ESPN subscriber losses that sap revenue from a network whose gargantuan spending on college football TV broadcast rights is a vital revenue stream for major universities. Other worries are the ongoing struggle to monetize content — how do you make money on Snapchat? — to an audience consuming college sports in dizzying arrays of formats, and the trend of dwindling football crowds for some schools.

Unlike some of its cash-strapped peers, Michigan has a packed Big House on fall Saturdays, deep-pocket donors, an elite credit rating, and it expects its share of TV money to keep increasing — a mix the university expects to give it the financial maneuverability to readily pay what it owes and to keep borrowing to build or refurbish its facilities.

But the potential threat on the horizon is real and increasingly less distant, something acknowledged by Michigan administrators.

"We watch very closely with what's happening to ESPN," said Kevin Hegarty, UM's executive vice president and chief financial officer.

A look at UM's financials shows that its athletics debt stems from spending on new venues and renovations such as expansion of Michigan Stadium and construction of the football team's Al Glick Field House. Millions more are owed for interest.

The $240 million in Maize-and-Blue borrowing accounts for one of the nation's largest college athletic department debt loads, but unlike some other struggling schools, UM's administration is confident that its reputation, budget controls and credit rating are enough to keep it out of trouble.

UM is keenly aware of a catastrophe taking place out West.

In the first week of the new year, Bloomberg Businessweek published an analysis of college athletics debt highlighted by the University of California at Berkeley, which may have to slash its number of intercollegiate teams because of a $22 million athletic department budget deficit last year on $445 million in debt. The rest of the story explains the origins of the college sports debt crisis — mainly the arms race for bigger and better facilities, especially for football — and how schools are coping.

The analysis showed Michigan, based on 2014 data, as being among the top 10 in athletic department debt nationwide.

But while there is worry in Berkeley, there's guarded optimism in Ann Arbor.

As CFO, Hegarty is UM's top financial mind and its budget steward. In a conversation with Crain's, he outlined why the debt load isn't worrisome. Namely, the reputation and credit rating allow the school to borrow money at favorable rates, administrators budget smartly, and deep-pocket donors writing big checks reduce the need to borrow, he said.

But first, a look at the numbers.