University of Houston basketball coach Kelvin Sampson delivered the sobering reality and likely ruffled the feathers of the powers to be recently when the discussion turned to the school’s athletic budget.
There isn’t much of one.
“We’re poor,” Sampson said when discussing UH’s recruiting sustainability with reporters. “We were poor when I got here, and we’re still poor. We probably have the lowest budget of anybody in the Power Four. The way our recruiting is going, we have to stop at some point because we don’t have the money to keep bringing in many good players. And that’s not easy for us to do.”
Sampson, of course, toned it down less than 24 hours later, saying he had used a poor choice of words.
But did he?
One of the things I’ve come to respect about this version of Sampson is that he doesn’t sugarcoat anything. He is often brutally honest about everything from his players to this NIL and transfer portal existence he has adapted to, to some of the things he feels could be better.
Those of us who have been around University of Houston athletics know the challenges the department has faced over the years. We also know that things are better.
But they are still far from perfect.
This past summer, I talked with UH athletic director Eddie Nunez about NIL money and the new frontier of revenue sharing, which landed on college sports this fall, rightfully forcing Power Four schools to commit to sharing over $20 million annually with their student athletes. Naturally, the conversation turned to the athletic department budget and the challenges it would face, now having to come up with more than $20 million to share with its athletes.
I asked Nunez how this new financial pull could affect staffing. He, of course, used different words than Sampson chose, but the messaging of not a lot of surplus seems consistent.
“We’re already lean when it comes to all of those programs compared to those programs,” Nunez said with a laugh. “The fact is the Oklahomas, the Michigans, and everybody else that have come out and had those statements, their departments are probably twice as large as ours.
“From our perspective, we’ve been lean, and we’ve done things as strategic and as effective as we can. Am I going to sit here and say we are not going to modify or adapt a little bit and change some of the budget line items? We are. We are going to do that. Is it going to be across the board like some of these schools are doing and cutting positions and all of that stuff?”
The younger Sampson, whom I initially encountered during his Washington State days, was when I covered the University of Arizona back in the old Pac-10 days. But this 70-year-old version of Sampson, who has been through the ups and downs of major college athletics, seen the landscape change drastically, and has still managed to consistently win, ain’t about picking his words wisely. That goes for dealing with the media sometimes, too. Sampson has earned the right to always give it to us straight, no chaser style.
What Sampson is doing is letting the school, the boosters, and donors know that to keep up and not fall behind in landing top recruits that more money is needed to sustain things at the level they are.
And I go back to, no lies were told.
The University of Houston’s approximate total operating budget of $98.9 million in 2025 ranked last among Power Four schools, with UCF the lone exception, according to ESPN. The athletic department had been operating on a $6.1 million budget, which is expected to turn into a $2 million deficit this year when the full share of the Big 12 media rights deal kicks in.
Yup, that sounds poor to me.
But that’s no knock on UH or how the athletic department works or is structured. A lot of athletic departments at the Power Four, FBS, and FCS levels are struggling as they try to deal with the new normal of paying top dollar for football and men’s basketball players while also fully funding scholarships for all these non-revenue-generating sports programs.
Power programs like Ohio State, Penn State, and UCLA have reportedly operated at a deficit in recent years. It also came out last week that Southern University, a member of the SWAC, is facing a $1.5 million deficit, and this past summer Prairie View had to cut both the men’s and women’s tennis programs to help balance the books.
This thing ain’t easy for nobody unless you compete in the SEC, where the conference and its media rights deals are virtually printing money for its members.
Part of the problem certainly is that UH wasn’t able to enjoy the full share of the Big 12 media rights deal the first couple of years, but that changes in May when the school will get to pull in the full share of approximately $40 million.
But none of the financial woes have prevented Sampson from building a power basketball program that consistently wins 20 games each year and makes deep NCAA Tournament runs at UH. He gets his share of top talent like Kingston Flemings this year or Jarace Walker a couple of years ago. The Cougars’ big-time players and performers are making the fair market share.
While Sampson sounded the alarm that that could change, it’s not likely to as long as he is around and calling it as he sees it.
