The University of Louisiana-Lafayette's athletic department ended its 2022-23 fiscal year more than $8 million in the red, according to the annual state audit.

LAFAYETTE, La. (KLFY) -- The University of Louisiana-Lafayette's athletic department ended its 2022-23 fiscal year more than $8 million in the red, according to the annual state audit.

In an audit released today by the Louisiana Legislative Auditor, the department took in a total of $33,251,487 but spent $41,419,975 in the year ending June 30, 2023. In comparison, LSU, whose audit was also released today, ran a deficit of less that $4 million on revenues of over $200 million.

The audit listed three sports individually, football, men's baskeball and women's basketball, and all three spent more than the programs took in.

Football led the way, with a deficit of nearly $9 million. The football program brought in $4,664,135, of which $963,174 came from ticket sales, and spent $13,444,588.

The biggest source of revenue for the program was $1.6 million from guarantees, or money paid by schools not in the Sun Belt Conference to travel to play them away from Cajun Field. UL played two non-conference away games in 2022, the season covered in the audit, at Rice and at Florida State. UL also paid out $525,000 in guarantees, to Southern Louisiana and Eastern Michigan. Payment amounts to individual schools was not released.

The audits revealed the disparity in scale between the UL and LSU football programs. LSU football posted a profit of $51,594,351, on revenues of $105,677,694.

Men's basketball spent $3,409,678 against revenues of $1,559,667, posting a deficit of $1,854,011. Women's basketball had a similar but slightly lower deficit of $1,818,048, but spent less than half of what the men's program did, $2,050,871.

UL's popular baseball and softball programs were included with all other varsity sports in the audit. Those sports, everything but football and men's and women's basketball, spent $12,148,335 against revenues of $2,458,894.

Contributions to the athletic department totaled $4,718,412, of which $2,123,306 came from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette Foundation.

The audit also revealed $16,508,333 in direct support from the university.

Read the entire audit here:

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