With the school year in full swing, Texas Athletics is on everyone’s mind. This is especially true for our football team, which is trying to rebound from a disappointing season last year. 

Although it’s been under scrutiny, this football season is already breaking records: an all-time high stadium attendance, a 49-0 blowout win against Oklahoma, and the title for the most-streamed regular season football game in Fox Sports history.

Don’t think this comes without a cost, though. Texas football is one of the highest-spending football programs in the nation, expending over $40 million during the 2019-20 season.

However, the football program matches this with an impressive profit every year. In 2020, Texas football generated $146.8 million in revenue. In 2021, despite another year affected by the pandemic, Texas Athletics still transferred $12.2 million to the University. Profits from football first go to support less profitable UT Athletics programs. Then, at year end, surpluses go back to the University.

Given Texas Athletics’ consistent contribution to the school, people should stop looking down upon the team’s high expenditures as a waste of money. Not only are their expenses justified by sky-high revenue returns, but the profits also go to support academic programs, student services, and scholarly materials.

“I think that (it is) a pretty good investment from a business point of view,” economics sophomore Faraz Khawaja said. “But, on the other hand … should they (instead) spend that ($40 million) on student experience, and just make college better for the students?”

Texas Athletics is “a self-sustaining arm of the university,” according to the UT News Athletics Spending Report. This means athletic programs are not funded by student fees, institutional or state sources. With Texas Athletics practically running an institution of its own, UT stands to lose nothing from providing a sizable, steady athletic budget with a return on investment.

Regardless, the football program’s spending still draws criticism. This June, Texas reportedly spent $630,000 on two recruiting weekends, of which $280,000 was spent on Arch Manning, the number one-ranked high school football player in the country.

“I think the people who don’t really care as much about sports are seeing the numbers and not the publicity of it,” business sophomore Zach Hopmayer said. “There’s so many people that are not as focused on sporting events, (and) they definitely (think), ‘Why are we spending so much money on (recruits), yet we aren’t getting necessarily what we might need?”

On the surface, spending $280,000 on a high school senior seems perverse. However, if we think of these expenses as investments, they become pennies on the dollar for securing Manning’s subsequent commitment to Texas. Arch Manning’s presumed three-year commitment to play football at UT will undoubtedly generate greater value than the price of his recruiting gala.

With attendance numbers higher than professional football teams, Texas football is a proven moneymaker. Following the Alabama game, DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium logged its third-highest attendance in history, with 102,520 fans watching the Longhorns take down the UTSA Roadrunners. Clearly, the football program is doing something right this year.

High expenses do not tell the whole story, especially for Texas Athletics. For the most valuable college football team in the country, these expenses will be natural. Criticizing them without considering the benefits they provide to the UT community is unfair. If these expenses weren’t met with corresponding revenue, perhaps it would be a different story. 

Until then, let’s keep funding our vastly successful athletic programs, especially football. If we want to keep beating OU like we did this year, we shouldn’t fix what isn’t broken.

Laky is an economics sophomore from Chicago, Illinois.