The Penn State Athletic Department prides itself on being self-sufficient, on not receiving government or university funding for its operations. Every sport is supported financially by whatever money football and men's basketball can bring in.

But what happens if football and men's basketball do not generate as much revenue as they should? What happens to the less popular sports?

Though there are no signs that the athletic department is struggling mightily, the men's basketball program -- one of two revenue-generating programs at Penn State -- has not been nearly as effective as its Big Ten counterparts at earning money to help support the rest of the department.

The comparatively low revenue generated by the men's basketball team results in less funding for the 27 non-revenue sports.

Penn State sported the league's second-worst home attendance this season, the lowest figures for the Nittany Lions since the program moved into the Bryce Jordan Center.

"The way we're going to measure [the financial success of the men's basketball program] is by whether or not we're making progress," Penn State Associate Athletic Director for Marketing and Communications Greg Myford said. "Certainly, as long as we continue to make progress and we're making efforts in the areas that we control, then we'll be satisfied. We just need to make sure we're seeing progress."

No Big Ten men's basketball team generated less revenue and less profit than the Lions in 2004-05, according to the Office of Post-secondary Education and the Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act (EADA). Total expenses came to $2.5 million, while revenues totaled just under $5.2 million. Northwestern, the closest program to Penn State at the depths of this ranking, grossed more than $6.7 million from less than $2.7 million in expenses.

Expenses include appearance guarantees and options, athletically-related student aid, contract services, equipment, fundraising activities, operating expenses, promotional activities, recruiting expenses, salaries and benefits, supplies, travel and any other outflow attributable to intercollegiate activities.

"When you have one of the lower positions in overall attendance and your season ticket and individual game ticket price is lower than anyone else in the league, then that's going to lead to lower revenues," Myford explained upon learning of the report. "I'm not surprised by that. It just underscores the amount of work we have to do in building us up to the point where people look at Penn State basketball and see it as a great value and start coming out here to support the team. That's what will change those numbers."

The most profitable Big Ten men's basketball programs belonged to Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana, each finishing $8.1 million in the black.

Not coincidentally, those programs rounded out the league's top three in attendance last year.

But revenue for an athletic department includes much more than money generated from ticket sales. Revenue includes income from appearance guarantees and options, an athletic conference, tournament or bowl games, concessions, contributions -- from alumni and others -- institutional support, program advertising and sales, radio and television, royalties, signage and other sponsorships.

Also included in this category are earnings from sport camps, student activity fees, ticket and luxury box sales and any other revenue one can imagine being attributable to intercollegiate athletic activities.

Penn State's radio contract with Leerfield Communications generates a good deal of money. The athletic department sells the broadcast rights to Leerfield, which then sells to individual stations in markets from Wheeling, W.Va., to New York City.

The good

Last year, the Big Ten distributed more than $116 million evenly to its 11 member institutions. That money, according to Big Ten Associate Director of Communications Robin Jentes, comes from conference tournaments, Bowl Championship Series conference payouts and television revenues.

The big money is a major reason to compete in the Big Ten instead of as an independent or in the Atlantic-10, for example.

For the 2004-05 reporting year, Penn State made $570,000 in profit, good enough to make it the sixth-most profitable athletic department in the Big Ten. This was a reporting year in which the men's basketball team finished 7-23 and the football team produced a 4-7 record.

Michigan's athletic department was the most successful financially, taking in more than $17 million in profits.

Obviously, in the world of college athletics revenue, football is usually king.

Penn State's 2004 football expenses of $10.7 million yielded $33.2 million in revenues, a profit of $22.5 million generated from a team that posted its third losing season in four years.

Ohio State was at the high end, earning almost $26 million in profit.

By contrast, Indiana actually grossed more money from men's basketball than football -- the only Big Ten school to do so. The Hoosiers made $400,000 on the gridiron and, not surprisingly, fared worst in the conference's fiscal standings.

The 2005 Nittany Lions fared better both on the field (11-1, Big Ten and FedEx Orange Bowl champions) and in the stands. Though the exact financial numbers are not released until next December, an obvious additional stream of revenue this past year came from the BCS game. The Orange Bowl payout was projected to be somewhere from $14-17 million -- which is $14-17 million that did not come Penn State's way in 2004.

The bad

Other figures released report average coaching salaries, annual recruiting expenses and athletically related student aid.

According to the reports, Penn State pays the head coaches of its 13 male teams an average of $92,520, a far lower average than at any other Big Ten school.

At Wisconsin, for instance, that same category yields a figure of over $320,000. At Ohio State almost $400,000. At Michigan State more than $410,000. This category, however, is not entirely reliable, as schools like Michigan State factor the cost of fringe benefits into their reports, while some other institutions do not, preferring instead to simply make those costs part of the total revenue reported. Only Michigan State specifically says whether or not fringe benefits -- health insurance, employer retirement contribution, etc. -- are accounted for in its report.

Bonuses as compensation attributable to coaching are included in the reported coaching salaries.

George Patrick, Penn State's financial officer for intercollegiate athletics, is listed by the EADA as the school's financial reporting contact, making him the best person to ask about specifics of the reporting process. Patrick did not return numerous calls and messages left at his office.

The EADA includes the cost of both salaries and benefits in the total expenses that each school must report, but does not specify as to what

But even if the costs of pensions and benefits were factored in for Penn State, it would likely not make up the difference in reported salaries. The cost of benefits, pensions and the like is typically around 30 percent of salary.

As is, Penn State's average reported salary for coaches of men's sports is $40,000 less than the next lowest Big Ten employer.

The Penn State average for coaches of women's sports, by the way, is just under $75,000.

The ugly

Familiar with the low end of financial reports, the women's basketball program loses money at an alarming rate.

The Lady Lions were $1.76 million in the red last season, in which the team went 19-11 and played in the NCAA Tournament.

Upon being told for the first time of the women's team's losses, one source within the athletic department could only utter a monosyllabic response of surprise: "Wow!"

Women's basketball has proven to be dead weight for the typical athletic department looking to stay afloat financially. Only seven programs in the country reported a profit last year.

For many athletic departments the question is not whether the women's team will lose money, but just how much. For Penn State, the numbers, again, are not pretty.

As far as operating expenses go, the Lady Lions received more funding per player ($58,552) than any other team at University Park -- or the Big Ten, for that matter. This includes every sport, men's or women's.

Operating expenses are all expenses an institution incurs attributable to home, away and neutral-site intercollegiate athletic contests. These are commonly known as game-day expenses -- accounting for lodging, meals, transportation, uniforms and equipment for players, coaches, trainers and managers.

Last season's average attendance of 8,665 watched Rene Portland's crew post an undefeated home record. This year's attendance was just under 6,500 for a team that went 13-16 overall amid much negative publicity.

Surprisingly, for every poorly attended Nittany Lion or Lady Lion home game, the department must first pay just for the right to host the event below the black curtains of the Jordan Center. Penn State Assistant Athletic Director Dave Baker said the rental fee is not large, and that the department always makes more money than it dishes out to use the facility.

Such a practice is not uncommon, as Ohio State basketball and hockey do the same with the Value City Arena at the Jerome Schottenstein Center on the Ohio State campus. 2004-05 revenues would have been $18 million higher if the arena was still in Ohio State's athletic budget. Ohio State paid $1.7 million last year to rent out the Schottenstein Center, which used to be run by the athletic department, but is now a stand alone operation under Ohio State's office of student affairs.

Only five of the 14 Lady Lions' home games this year drew a crowd that could not have fit into Rec Hall. If the team played some home games in Rec Hall -- the ones that the athletic department could predict as bad draws -- the program could save money on facilities.

In the greater picture, if the women's team were to break even, for example, the money saved would be more than enough to cover the operating costs of every other female athletic team at Penn State.

Ohio State led the nation in money lost from women's hoops last year, losing nearly $2 million from a program that won 30 games and a share of the Big Ten title before losing in the Sweet 16.

The Buckeyes could better afford to drop the money on women's basketball, though, as they generated the second highest football revenue in the nation with a $51.8 million intake.

Between the Lady Lions hemorrhaging money and the men's team not making as much as its Big Ten counterparts, perhaps there is more pressure put upon the football program to generate the funds necessary to keep a major athletic program running.

When 27 sports depend upon a few, a string of bad years can have a very negative impact on the entire program.

"Whenever revenue is less than you'd want it to be from the athletic department, then that's going to put a limit on what the athletic department can do," Myford said. "That's just simple financial reality."