Michigan's athletic department projects an operating deficit of $62.9 million for the 2021 fiscal year, athletic director Warde Manuel said at Thursday's Board of Regents meeting.
The number was reached by projecting $88.8 million in operating revenues and $151.7 million in operating expenses.
The deficit is steeper than the budget projection Manuel presented last summer at the end of June, when the athletic department calculated a $26.1 million operating deficit based on $135.8 million in operating revenues and $161.9 million in operating expenses.
Later, the postponement of Big Ten football led Manuel to project a $100 million hit to the athletic department in September; over a month later in October of 2020, he elaborated that the football season (which eventually occurred later in the fall) could lessen the budget deficit from $100 million to $80 million.