Hello and thanks for opening up the NILnomics newsletter. Arkansas lost to Texas A&M Saturday, 34-7. The Razorbacks are on a 13 game losing streak against SEC teams. It’s been almost 740 days since they beat Mississippi State in October of 2024.
The previous two issues of NILnomics examined how the University of Arkansas divides its athletics budget between football and men’s basketball, and where those dollars rank in the SEC. This issue turns to the department’s third major program.
Arkansas baseball reached the College World Series semifinals in 2025 and drew 407,196 fans to Baum-Walker Stadium, second nationally to LSU. It will soon ask those fans for more: a reseating plan announced in August requires larger Razorback Foundation gifts for seats beginning with the 2027 season.
That plan raises the question this issue sets out to answer: does one of the best-supported programs in college baseball pay for itself, and if it does not, who pays for it? The FY2025 NCAA financial reports provide a clear answer. Among public Division I schools, Arkansas baseball earns more from ticket sales than any team outside football and basketball, runs the fourth-largest baseball budget and covers more of its own costs than all but three programs. It still spent $3.14 million more than it took in. Twelve other Arkansas teams also ran deficits, and the money that closes those gaps comes overwhelmingly from football.
The Best Gate Outside Football and Basketball
Arkansas sold $4.59 million in baseball tickets in FY2025, more than any other SEC program. That was 2.9 times the conference median of $1.59 million, $0.71 million more than LSU in second place, and 16% of the baseball ticket revenue reported by SEC schools. LSU drew the larger crowd, 458,606 to Arkansas’ 407,196 in 2025, but Arkansas produced more revenue from a smaller one.
Measured against the conference’s current members, Arkansas has led the SEC baseball gate in five of the eight years in the data. Its ticket revenue grew from $2.37 million in FY2018 to $4.59 million in FY2025, an increase of 93%, and its margin over the median member widened from $1.69 million to $3.00 million.
