For athletics director Mark Hollis and MSU’s athletics department, the discussion heated up this summer following a June 21 Board of Trustees meeting, where a 4.7 percent increase — a little more than $4 million — to the athletic budget was reported for the 2013-14 fiscal year. Multiple outlets, including The State News, reported the $4 million increase was expected to be allocated exclusively to the football program.

However, according to Hollis, there was some confusion in the public domain as to where exactly that $4 million or so is going to be allocated.

The athletic department budget, which Hollis said goes through a process of preparation from December to April before officially being approved, did increase from the 2012-13 fiscal year to the 2013-14 year by $4,675,000 — an increase of 5.5 percent, according to preliminary budget documents obtained by The State News. But the money is split between a contractual raise for head football coach Mark Dantonio, budget increases for each of the 25 varsity sports and various money for improvement projects, including a payment of the North End Zone project, which is set to be completed before the 2014 football season.

“The comments are from an informal conversation that was taking place about the future of Spartan athletics,” Hollis said. “We did not present a budget in the summer where those comments have come from …what members of the board were trying to express is continued support for Spartan athletics. But there was no budget presented or no increase presented during the summer months.”

Members of the MSU Board of Trustees did not return requests for comment, although Joel Ferguson and Brian Mosallam deferred their comments to Hollis.

According to Hollis, the comments about a $4 million increase of the football budget came from a retreat with members of the Board of Trustees, where several members expressed support for the football program — but an increase with exclusivity to the football program has no basis in reality.

“For the most part, it came from a very, very good conversation that took place in a retreat format that maybe got confused with some of the conversations,” Hollis said in September. “It’s pretty easy to explain when you look at it. What you’re aspiring to be and what the realities are of today’s financial situation.

“We’re good where we’re at — we’ll be better where we go.”

Buying the Big Ten

Each year, USA Today tracks the budgets of athletic departments using revenue and expense reports by collected from more than 225 public schools in Division I of the NCAA.

This year, MSU is ranked No. 17 in total revenue from the 2012-13 year at $93,946,707, which is $8,811,707 more than the estimated revenues projected during the same time period by the MSU athletic department, according to documents obtained by The State News. The USA Today total revenue is good for sixth-highest in the Big Ten behind Ohio State ($142,043,057), Michigan ($140,131,187), Penn State ($108,252,281), Wisconsin ($103,803,040) and Iowa ($97,902,974).

The Spartans also are ranked No. 18 in total expenses at $88,100,432.

Of the revenues in the top 20 in the USA Today report, eight schools come from the Southeastern Conference or SEC, six from the Big Ten, two from the Big 12 and one apiece from the Atlantic Coast Conference or ACC, Pac-12 and the Big East.

And when surveying the information, the common denominator for most of the top 20 schools in USA Today’s report is each institution’s success in football, men’s basketball or both.

While it’s not exactly a secret that continued success often is tied to higher revenues for athletic departments, Kristi Dosh, a sports business reporter and attorney who has worked at ESPN and Forbes, said the goal of many athletic departments is to maintain as many sports as possible while staying competitive.

In her recently-published book “Saturday Millionaires,” Dosh chronicles the business of sports, covering financial and business information from within the realm of college athletics. Dosh said athletic departments with a larger budget have more flexibility to operate and be competitive within college football’s major conferences.

“When you have more money, everything is sort of upped a little bit,” Dosh said. “You might have nicer facilities, you might travel a little nicer, that sort of thing. Schools with leaner budgets, they’re probably not going to support as many sports and it might just be small differences in the way they travel and that sort of thing.”

And according to Dosh, a major source of revenue for athletic departments comes from donations to the program, often from members of a respective school’s alumni base.

“TV money is dwarfed by donations at the largest level,” she said. “I can tell you (Florida) brought in twice the donations last year from what they brought in from television. It’s lifeblood when you talk about the top programs that are the top financially.

“And those donations, they’re all about demand.”

Looking ahead

There are few questions regarding MSU’s commitment to the success of its athletic department.

The Spartans are ranked No. 1 in men’s basketball, No. 13 in football and have made postseason runs in many of the 25 sports during the past academic year. And on top of that, renovations to Spartan Stadium, Munn Ice Arena and Old College Field, among others, demonstrate continued support to allow MSU to play on as big a stage as financially possible.

In terms of the next fiscal year, Hollis said he has three focuses for the department, which will come into play in the planning of next year’s budget. Hollis said the budget will need to plan for potential changes to financial aid, the process of compensation for coaches and staff members along with paying attention to where money likely will be coming from and how much of it to expect.

“You have to forecast your revenues from ticket sales, scholarships, seating, clubs, where we think TV revenues are going to go, where we think postseason competition is going to go and work toward a balanced budget,” Hollis said. “There’s a lot of moving parts but the first thing that has to fall into place is where we anticipate that scholarship component going. It all feeds off of that.”

As far as upcoming projects, Hollis said MSU has a master plan for Spartan Stadium, which he hopes in the future will include renovations to the concourse and a walkway around Spartan Stadium. Beyond that, Hollis said altering the tennis experience, offices for the athletic department staff and more renovations to Munn Ice Arena are on the horizon.

“If you look around as a student-athlete, you have to think these are some of the best facilities and I’d put them on par with almost anybody in terms of where do I dress, where do I train, where do I have practice and where do I compete,” he said. “Those are the questions we keep going through and I think we’re among the best in the Big Ten and in the country.”