Key Changes in the NCAA’s 2021 Agreed-Upon Procedures Guide

NCAA member institutions are required to submit financial data detailing operating revenues and expenses related to its intercollegiate athletics program on or before January 15 after the end of the institution’s fiscal year. Division I and II institutions are required to subject the data to agreed-upon procedures conducted by a qualified independent accountant.

The NCAA has released its annual update to the Agreed-Upon Procedures (AUP) guide, which outlines reporting requirements and related procedures to be performed on member institutions’ athletics program operating revenues and expenses.

Key changes to the 2021 Guide include:

• NCAA Distributions (Category 12) – Revenue distributions and grants received from the NCAA have been added to this category, which includes NCAA championships reimbursements and payments received from the NCAA for hosting a championship.
• Coaching Salaries, Benefits and Bonuses paid by the University and Related Entities (Category 22) – “Tuition reimbursement/exemptions” has been revised to include those for both “self or a dependent.”
• Sports Sponsorships – Institutions are required to report sponsored sports on their Sports Sponsorship and Demographics Form, which is submitted to the NCAA for the reporting year between May and August and is used in the calculation of NCAA revenue distributions. Similar to an exception granted in the 2020 guide related to spring 2020, the sports an institution expected to sponsor in academic year 2020-21, as reported on the institution’s 2020 Sports Sponsorship and Demographics form, qualify as a sponsored sport for the purposes of revenue distribution.
• Grants in Aid – New language specifies that the required reporting time period is May through August.
• Pell Grants – Institutions are required to report the number of student athletes receiving Pell grants, by sport. The 2021 Guide specifies that i) the reported numbers should only include sports in which the NCAA conducts championships competition (emerging sports for women and bowl subdivision football are countable) and ii) student-athletes should only be counted once even if the athlete participates in multiple sports.
• “Bowl” – The term “Bowl” was updated to “Football Bowl” within categories 13, 13A, 19, 22, 23, 28, 29, 30, 33, 41, and 41A.

All other requirements, as well as required footnotes and disclosures to be reported, were unchanged. The testing threshold, which dictates the specific revenue and expense categories to be tested, remains at 4.0%.

Reporting Requirements

Division I institutions are required to submit the agreed-upon procedures reports annually, and Division II institutions once, every three years. Work performed by an independent auditor as part of a Division I or II institution-wide financial audit will satisfy the requirement, but only if it conforms to the requirements set forth in the NCAA’s AUP guide.

If you have any questions about the NCAA reporting requirements, contact us. We are here to help.

© 2021