Division I presidents and chancellors are receiving a data-management tool today that will provide the most accurate oversight to date on their investment in intercollegiate athletics.

Called “dashboard indicators,” the system takes financial data compiled through uniform reporting procedures developed by the NCAA and the National Association of College and University Business Officers and presents them in ways that allow presidents and other campus leaders to compare their athletics spending with peer groups.

“The dashboards are a graphic comparison of the annual financial picture of the institution’s athletics program versus a set of comparators,” said NCAA Chief Financial Officer Jim Isch. “One of the pillars of the Presidential Task Force recommendations and the NCAA strategic plan is to provide information and data to assist campus decision-makers, and the dashboard project supports that premise.”

The project highlights the trends for a particular university over time for each of 26 indicators and allows for comparisons with other groups of institutions (conference members, for example) without identifying those schools. In other words, the comparisons are in the aggregate, which provides transparency without compromising confidentiality.

The dashboard project is designed to inform presidents about spending trends more than it is an attempt to influence them. The project aligns with the NCAA strategic plan that calls for more data-based decision-making. However, when the Presidential Task Force advocated for clear, concise and comparable data to be provided to better inform decision-makers, members hoped that the new information would lead to decisions that addressed a recent pattern in which the growth in athletics spending has been two to three times the rate of overall university spending.

“This is not about providing answers as much as it is providing reliable information for decision-making,” Isch said. “In the end, resource allocation is an institutional decision. However, presidents also must understand how their institutions compare within their peer groups, and they need to incorporate the dashboards as another data point on which to base appropriate resource decisions.”

NCAA President Myles Brand said he hopes the dashboards reduce the number of “inadvertent, uninformed decisions” made in athletics spending.

“As sometimes happens because of the pressure or emotion of the moment, an institution can find itself making a long-term commitment that is out of balance with its mission,” he said. “While investing in athletics remains the president’s and board’s decision to make, the dashboard indicator project helps those leaders make a more informed decision.”

Part of what makes the dashboards an effective evaluating tool, Isch said, is the method the NCAA and NACUBO created to collect the data in the first place. Primary among the improvements is a distinction between dollars that athletics departments generate on their own and those their universities allocate to them, which provides a truer indication of athletics’ reliance upon university subsidy.

Generated revenues (which are produced by the athletics department) include ticket sales, radio and television receipts, donor contributions, guarantees and other revenue sources that are not dependent upon entities outside athletics.

Allocated revenues include student fees directly allocated to athletics; direct institutional support (financial transfers directly from the general fund to athletics); indirect institutional support (such as the payment of utilities, maintenance and support salaries by the institution on behalf of athletics); and direct governmental support (the receipt of funds from state and local government agencies that are designated for athletics).

Previous revenue and expenses reports garnered from the Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act did not make those distinctions, which produced unreliable facility and salary data by institution.

“In the past, presidents have received multiple sets of financial data on athletics. They see the EADA submissions, they see the athletics department data and the university books – and none of those match. The lack of clear definitions and a consistent method of reporting was a significant barrier,” Isch said.

The dashboards include revenue and expense data for the last three fiscal years (2004-05, 2005-06 and 2006-07).

Isch called the dashboard project an evolutionary one that will be adjusted and improved over time as presidents become accustomed to using it and constituent feedback is obtained.

“We’ve done our best with the assistance of our membership, advisory committees and NACUBO to prepare this as effectively as we can,” he said, “but we know it’s an evolutionary process. It’s also the first time that schools have had the chance to see the data they’ve submitted – we know once they look at it there will be changes and suggestions for improvement, both from the university side and the NCAA/NACUBO side.”

A panel moderated by NACUBO President John Walda and featuring NCAA President Myles Brand, University of Cincinnati President Nancy Zimpher, University of Nebraska CFO David Lechner and University of Missouri Athletics Director Mike Alden will present an online discussion of the dashboard project on June 5. Following that will be a live question-and-answer session to help viewers understand the project even more.