The Occidental first reported on Occidental’s athletic budget in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic impacted college sports programs nationwide. According to the 2024 EADA survey, Occidental spent $3 million on athletics in the 2023-24 academic year and generated $4.9 million in revenue. This data is collected annually by the U.S. Dept. of Education’s Office of Postsecondary Education and is publicly available on its Equity in Athletics Data Analysis webpage. The 1994 Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act (EADA) requires universities to disclose intercollegiate athletics participation rates and expenditures to the Committee on Education and Labor.
Anahit Aladzhanyan ’07 is the Associate Athletic Director for Budget & Finance and the Senior Woman Administrator, the highest-ranking female involved in the management of the institution’s intercollegiate athletics program. She also serves as the head coach of the Women’s Basketball team.
“[Budgeting] is a complex and meticulous process and we have checks and balances in place. Budgeting for the department is one of my main responsibilities, as is completing the EADA report annually to the government,” Aladzhanyan said via email.
Director of Athletics Shanda Ness said via email that equity is one of the main considerations for Aladzhanyan when creating the budget.
“Equity is important to Oxy Athletics and the budget is no exception […] sport and gender equity are top of mind for her and play a part in all decisions made about the athletics budget allocation,” Ness said via email.
According to the 2024 survey, the average annual institutional salary for head coaches of men’s teams was $1,442 more than that of women’s teams. For assistant coaches, the average men’s team assistant coach was paid $1,852 less than the average women’s team assistant coach.
According to Aladzhanyan, team budgets are constructed based on the needs of each program.
“Travel for competition, gear, officials, recruiting and coaches’ salaries are just a few examples of what we allocate for in the operating budget,” Aladzhanyan said via email.
Aladzhnayan said via email that these factors fluctuate year-to-year.
“Many factors go into allocating budgets, such as roster size, number of contests, number of home games vs. road games, location of road games and type of transportation needed, number of officials and cost of officials, needs and cost of equipment by sport,” Aladzhanyan said via email.
As a member of the Swim and Dive team at Occidental, Callum McDonald (sophomore) said he benefits from practice equipment and clothing provided by the college.
“Everyone gets equipment. We get fins, paddles and kickboards — it allows everyone to have an equal experience at practice. Not only that, but we get practice suits and Tech suits which are normally really expensive. This year we got Power Towers and a new reaction time machine,” McDonald said.
McDonald said that swim and dive is in a notable position given its coed nature, even though it is listed as two different genders on the EADA survey.
“We all get the same stuff — suits, clothing, it’s not different based on the men’s or women’s teams. Women’s tech suits in general tend to be more expensive because they cover a larger portion of the body,” McDonald said.
According to Aladzhanyan, while the college may spend less than its SCIAC peers, there are several other important factors necessary to consider, such as the size of the college’s endowment.
“In terms of SCIAC schools, we are at the lower end of the overall budget received from the college. However, we have the ability to fundraise and this helps us close the gap in some areas. Each college has its own set of considerations. One key consideration is the size of the college’s endowment and how much the school is willing, and able, to tap into that endowment for operational needs,” Aladzhanyan said via email.
According to McDonald, the athlete recruiting process is somewhat impacted by the college’s lower-end budget in comparison to other schools in the SCIAC conference.
“Both team building and recruitment are things we may need to allocate more funding to. The swim team in particular is in a dire spot right now, we don’t have a lot of people on the team, which makes team building and recruitment very important […] We need to focus on strengthening our numbers,” McDonald said.
Contact Ben Petteruti at petteruti@oxy.edu
