2024 Football Budgets

[coachacola]

 

[TexGator]

UIW and HCU will have "bigger" budgets because they will be able to consider their tuition to be part of the budget (and their tuition/fees are significantly higher, so even if we included ours, it wouldn't add as much as they do).

If we want to move up into the top tier of FCS, we're going to have to increase what we're paying players. I hate to tell people they need to give up more of their money, but to get into that top tier, Lamar's going to need to increase that amount to closer to $7M and stay there.
(not talking about moving to FBS- I think we need to start averaging over 10K fans and winning playoff games before that sort of talk)

Might this require the paycheck games to get bigger? Maybe. Texas State (last year) and UNT (this year) write big checks, but Big12 and SEC schools write bigger ones. I know that O'Malley and Rossomando don't want to hurt our chances in conference by getting beaten up by the bigger boys, but an extra $200K (for example) is a difference-making amount. 

[NorthoftheBorder]

I guess I am surprised that LU’s football budget is 21 st in the nation for FCS schools. We have the budget to be competitive on the national level. 

[TexGator]

On 9/16/2025 at 9:49 PM, NorthoftheBorder said:

I guess I am surprised that LU’s football budget is 21 st in the nation for FCS schools. We have the budget to be competitive on the national level. 

What it takes to be competitive in this world of NCAA Athletics:
- Good leadership (O'Malley is a great leader... and has built the Athletic Department quickly since taking over for Born- honestly, had to google his name to make sure I remembered it correctly- my brain scrubbed that name as quickly as the university did)
- Good coaching (Rossomando is that- this also includes good recruiting)
- Committed alumni (we have that)
- Campus culture (they're working on that- would love to see more competition among students and alumni groups for turnout at games across all sports)
But it's a building process.