A long piece about how the University of Montana funds its athletic department has been circulating among Griz fans this week. Here's what it is.

Schuyler Watt published the first part of a “budget series” on Oct. 25 at Bobby Ball, an independent newsletter covering Griz football, the Big Sky and the FCS.

It is not a university report, an audit or a government investigation. It is one writer's analysis of public financial filings.

We're pointing you at it rather than rewriting it, because the work is his.

The figures it cites

The analysis draws on the Knight-Newhouse College Athletics Database and on UM's own NCAA financial reports, which the author says he obtained through a records request.

Among the numbers it attributes to those sources for FY2025:

• Montana athletics received $10.4 million from institutional money and student fees, against a Big Sky median of $14.6 million.
• Montana ranks 61st of 77 public FCS schools in university and student support.
• The department spent $30.8 million, and fans gave $13.1 million — the most in the league.
• Football ticket and game-day sales were $6.9 million against $8.9 million in football spending.

The figures it estimates

This is the part worth reading carefully, and to his credit the author flags it himself.

The widely quoted claim that football brings in $13 million to $15 million a year is his estimate, not a reported figure. It combines football's reported revenue with an assumed 90% share of department-wide money — an assumption he says stands until the university publishes its own breakdown.

The same goes for the $9 million football spending framing, a proposed $1.2 million facilities charge and a nine-year shortfall calculation. The conclusions about the athletic department's leadership are opinion.

The analysis also notes its own limits: the Eastern Washington comparison uses FY2024 figures, and Northern Arizona did not publish a report.

What the university has said

UM has made a different kind of argument about athletics and money. In August 2025, the university announced a Bureau of Business and Economic Research study putting Griz Athletics' annual economic output at nearly $100 million, including more than $58 million in gross domestic product for Missoula County.

That measures economic impact on the community. The budget series measures what the university itself puts in. They are different questions, and both can be true.

What we haven't verified

We have not independently checked these figures. Zootown Lowdown is working through the Knight-Newhouse data and UM's NCAA filings, and we've asked the university for its own breakdown of football revenue and spending.

When we can stand behind the numbers ourselves, we'll publish our own reporting rather than a summary of someone else's.

Read the original: “How The University of Montana (under)funds athletics” at Bobby Ball.

Related on Zootown Lowdown

• Griz Football Weekly: Idaho 42, Montana 35 — on the field.
• Grizzly Football Players Association Reunites Griz Family in Missoula — the alumni side.

Graphic: Zootown Lowdown

Sources

• Schuyler Watt, “How The University of Montana (under)funds athletics,” Bobby Ball, Oct. 25, 2026: bobbyball406.com
• Knight-Newhouse College Athletics Database (the analysis's primary data source): knightnewhousedata.org
• University of Montana, “New Report: Griz Athletics Economic Output Nears $100 Million Annually,” Aug. 27, 2025: umt.edu