The NCAA incurred $1.4B in expenses during its FY '16 as it "began allocating more than a decade's worth of accumulated money to legal settlements and costs and a special one-time distribution" to D-I schools, according to Steve Berkowitz of USA TODAY. The expense total represents a nearly $500M "increase in the amount that the association reported" for its FY '15. Taken against a record $996M in total revenues, the amount resulted in a $404M, or nearly 60% depletion of the NCAA's "year-end net assets." NCAA CFO Kathleen McNeely indicated that because of the way the NCAA's current assets are allocated, they "learned about a week ago that Standard & Poor's had downgraded its bond rating from AA+ to AA stable." McNeely said the new rating is one 80% of the world "would like to have." She added it will have no impact on the NCAA because it has "no intention of borrowing money." Berkowitz notes the NCAA's revenue for '16 represents a nearly $84M increase "compared to what it took in" during '15. McNeely said that among the expenses that did occur in '16 were "outside legal expenses" of $32M. Berkowitz notes that is an increase of $7M "compared to the amount" for that expense in '15 (USA TODAY, 3/8).
