As the 2023 college football season nears, the Univ. of Texas at San Antonio “faces a fresh set of challenges,” according to Greg Luca of the SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS. The shift to the AAC “pits the Roadrunners against a group of schools with greater budgets and facilities,” and the explosion of NIL deals “puts more weight on boosters across the country to help keep rosters intact.” Though UTSA has expanded budgets through his tenure, football coach Jeff Traylor is asking the university to “hit a new set of benchmarks to help UTSA maintain its upward trajectory.” UTSA AD Lisa Campos arrived at the universetiy in November 2017, “overseeing the athletic department’s rise from” $26.4M in expenses for 2016 to $39.2M for 2022. UTSA President Taylor Eighmy said that the expenses “needs to rise to ‘at least’” $45M, and Campos acknowledges the program has "work ahead of us, for sure," to "be competitive with the resources of other programs in the new AAC.” UTSA’s total athletics expenses of $37.6M for the 2021-22 academic year “ranked 10th of 13 responding football schools in the AAC.” UTSA’s total football expenses of $12.8M “ranked ninth in the league.” AAC Commissioner Mike Aresco said that he expects the financial gap between the two groups to “narrow considerably,” adding the league will “look to UTSA to invest like they said they would, and they will” (SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS, 8/27).
