COLUMBIA, Mo. — For the first time in six years, the University of Missouri’s athletics department reported a budget surplus, but athletics director Desireé Reed-Francois isn’t throwing a victory parade. In her first fiscal year running Mizzou athletics, the department generated record revenues of more than $141 million during the 2022 fiscal year. MU athletics also spent a record amount of money — more than $125 million — but the $15 million surplus marks a stark contrast from five consecutive years of operating at a deficit under past leadership.
“We're making investments for competitive success,” Reed-Francois told the Post-Dispatch. “Quite frankly, we need to be aggressive in raising revenue. We’re going to be great stewards of our resources, but we need to provide excellence around our programs — and part of that is investing. So we've got to keep growing our revenue.”
Mizzou’s financial data comes from the school’s annual submission to the NCAA Membership Financial Reporting System, obtained through an open records request.
