For Louisville and Kentucky baseball, 2024 was a tale of two seasons.
U of L missed the NCAA Tournament for the third time in the last four years, while UK advanced to its first College World Series.
The Wildcats look to ride momentum from their historic run into 2025, even with 29 new faces in the locker room. The Cardinals hope to put an end to their postseason streakiness and return to the kind of success head coach Dan McDonnell’s teams are used to. Before the COVID-shortened 2020 season, Louisville missed the NCAA Tournament just once in his 13 years.
After a season-ending loss to Florida State in 2023, McDonnell questioned U of L’s commitment to his program.
“I want to work for people and be with people and a group that want to win as well,” McDonnell said after being asked whether he expected to be back at Louisville in 2024 after reports named him as a candidate for open Division I coaching jobs.
“Don’t tell me you want to win,” he said. “Show me you want to win. That’s all I ask for. And I think our fans ask for that. I think our players ask for that. … Ultimately we are trying to get to Omaha and win a national championship. So, it ain’t gonna happen unless we make a full commitment.”
About a month later, Louisville approved a $3 million upgrade to Jim Patterson Stadium. Since then, U of L baseball has renovated its locker room (funded by a six-figure donation from former Card Henry Davis), stadium entryway, ticket office, weight room/workout area, athletic training room and home and visitor dugouts. Louisville has also expanded the berm seating area and created a new third-base fan area inside the stadium. These upgrades have “accounted for the majority of the money that was approved,” U of L baseball spokesperson Stephen Williams told The Courier Journal.
U of L announced it had secured a $3 million donation from Kroger in April 2021 to build a new indoor practice facility, but that project has yet to break ground.
“Since we announced the indoor facility in the Spring of 2021, the college athletics landscape has changed dramatically,” Williams told The Courier Journal in an email. “With that in mind, we decided to pause on that and other capital projects throughout the department. As has been the norm with athletic departments around the country, with the constantly changing landscape around NIL, revenue sharing, etc., the University of Louisville is constantly evaluating how to best utilize the resources provided by our fans, donors, and sponsors so that all of our programs are well positioned to compete at the highest level and win championships.”
The Courier Journal looked at how Louisville’s and Kentucky’s spending on baseball compare with some of the sport’s top teams. Using data compiled by The USA TODAY Network in partnership with the Knight-Newhouse College Athletics Database, The Courier Journal found both programs have slightly increased the proportion of total athletics spending on baseball over the last few years, even compared with pre-pandemic numbers (not adjusted for inflation). When compared with MCWS teams in the last three NCAA Tournaments, Louisville’s proportion of spending on baseball is relatively similar to the rest of the field. Kentucky, however, dedicates a smaller portion of its budget to baseball, never surpassing 2.5%, while most other schools spend at least 3%.
Of note: Some schools differ in how they categorize spending. For example, upgrades to an arena or stadium may be attributed to the particular men’s or women’s team that plays there or they may be assigned a vaguer label, “not allocated by gender.” As such, some numbers may vary.
The 2023-24 fiscal year roughly correlates to the 2023-24 school year, which encompassed the 2024 baseball season. The 2022-23 fiscal year roughly correlates to the 2022-23 school year, which encompassed the 2023 baseball season, and so on.
Of note: 2019 is the final fiscal year not impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2020 baseball season ended in March, months short — meaning fewer games and less spending. Since then, athletics departments across the country have been recovering from the impact canceled and abbreviated seasons had on their annual budgets.
Louisville baseball spending:
- FY2019: $4,572,824 (3.02% of total athletics spending)
- FY2020: $4,164,385 (3%)
- FY2021: $3,593,067 (3.29%)
- FY2022: $5,204,574 (3.72%)
- FY2023: $4,995,016 (3.56%)
- FY2024: $5,591,981 (3.39%)
Kentucky baseball spending:
- FY2019: $3,177,884 (2.19%)
- FY2020: $2,685,943 (1.91%)
- FY2021: $2,626,418 (2.17%)
- FY2022: $3,172,486 (2.07%)
- FY2023: $3,573,875 (2.11%)
- FY2024: $4,899,956 (2.49%)
Florida and Virginia are missing from the list of 2024 MCWS participants because they have not made their most recent financial reports available. Private universities are not required by law to share such documents, which is why Oral Roberts (2023), TCU (2023), Stanford (2023, 2022), Notre Dame (2022) and Wake Forest (2023) aren’t included below either.
2024 College World Series schools baseball spending vs. Louisville:
- Tennessee: $13,419,669 (5.79% of total athletics spending)
- Texas A&M: $9,164,213 (3.76%)
- N.C. State: $4,688,539 (3.75%)
- Louisville FY2024: $5,591,981 (3.39%)
- Florida State: $5,290,278 (3.12%)
- North Carolina: $4,877,592 (3.13%)
- Kentucky FY2024: $4,899,956 (2.49%)
2023 College World Series schools baseball spending vs. Louisville, UK:
- Texas A&M: $8,205,345 (4.62%)
- LSU: $8,715,254 (4.38%)
- Tennessee: $8,050,569 (4.21%)
- Florida: $6,910,060 (3.93%)
- Louisville: $4,995,016 (3.56%)
- Virginia: $4,851,375 (3.51%)
- Kentucky: $3,573,875 (2.11%)
2022 College World Series schools baseball spending vs. Louisville, UK:
- Ole Miss: $9,622,004 (6.93%)
- Arkansas: $7,430,588 (5.15%)
- Auburn: $5,956,633 (3.93%)
- Louisville: $5,204,574 (3.72%)
- Texas: $6,968,964 (3.10%)
- Oklahoma: $3,880,064 (2.20%)
- Kentucky: $3,172,486 (2.07%)
Head coaching compensation listed in NCAA financial reports includes “salaries, benefits and bonuses paid by the university and related entities.”
2024 College World Series schools head coach compensation vs. Louisville:
- Dan McDonnell, Louisville: $1,787,567 (31.97% of total baseball spending)
- Nick Mingione, Kentucky: $983,315 (20.07%)
- Link Jarrett, Florida State: $907,143 (17.15%)
- Elliott Avent, N.C. State: $735,838 (15.69%)
- Jim Schlossnagle, Texas A&M: $1,373,715 (14.99%)
- Tony Vitello, Tennessee: $1,916,592 (14.28%)
- Scott Forbes, North Carolina: $688,822 (14.12%)
2023 College World Series schools head coach compensation vs. Louisville, UK:
- Dan McDonnell, Louisville: $1,569,357 (31.42%)
- Nick Mingione, Kentucky: $815,531 (22.82%)
- Kevin O’Sullivan, Florida: $1,504,251 (21.77%)
- Tony Vitello, Tennessee: $1,728,951 (21.48%)
- Jim Schlossnagle, Texas A&M: $1,725,354 (21.03%)
- Brian O’Connor, Virginia: $1,011,547 (20.85%)
- Jay Johnson, LSU: $1,757,474 (20.17%)
2022 College World Series schools head coach compensation vs. Louisville, UK:
- Dan McDonnell, Louisville: $1,570,874 (30.18%)
- David Pierce, Texas: $1,951,852 (28.01%)
- Nick Mingione, Kentucky: $750,197 (23.65%)
- Dave Van Horn, Arkansas: $1,608,788 (21.65%)
- Mike Bianco, Ole Miss: $2,032,521 (21.12%)
- Butch Thompson, Auburn: $1,107,136 (18.59%)
- Skip Johnson, Oklahoma: $499,596 (12.88%)
Reach college sports enterprise reporter Payton Titus at ptitus@gannett.com, and follow her on X @petitus25.
