Here's what Trump said about Rutgers athletics spending losses (original) (raw)

March 7, 2026Updated March 8, 2026, 1:57 p.m. ET

Rutgers athletics had a $78 million loss last year and President Trump has noticed.

At his “Saving College Sports” roundtable at the White House Friday, March 6, Trump turned the talk to the financial strain some schools are under due to free-spending athletic departments.

"It's grown into a major challenge that threatens the future of college sports," Trump said. “Many are going to go down the tubes. It was announced that Penn State, their athletic division lost 535millionthispastyear.FloridaState,535 million this past year. Florida State, 535millionthispastyear.FloridaState,440 million loss. It was just announced that Rutgers lost $95 million and they’re doing all sorts of things to try and save the ship."

Trump isn't wrong about the spending woes though the $95 million figure he attributed to Rutgers is incorrect. The loss was bad but not that bad.

According to figures filed by Rutgers to the NCAA Membership Financial Reporting System in January, Rutgers' athletics loss was actually 78million.Revenuewas78 million. Revenue was 78million.Revenuewas146.6 million but the department had expenses of 193.8millionandtappedanadditional193.8 million and tapped an additional 193.8millionandtappedanadditional30.9 million provided by the school via fees and direct funds.

Who attended Trump's college sports roundtable?

Otherwise, nothing was really resolved at the "Saving College Sports" roundtable. At least the list of attendees, per USA Today, was notable: