According to Penn State Athletic Director Sandy Barbour, the worst of the coronavirus pandemic is yet to come for her department from a financial standpoint.

But last year, as it turns out, wasn’t all that bad.

Barbour, in a Zoom overview of the department’s overall performance Thursday, told members of Penn State’s Budget and Finance Committee Thursday that for 2019-20, sports at Penn State was actually able to finish in the black, growing the department’s cash reserve by about $2.3 million, to a total of $15.8 million.

That cushion was built, Barbour explained, by an accident of timing.

Penn State was able to have a complete 2019 football season – the big money-maker in the department.

As an illustration, Penn State football generated $100.5 million in the year in 2018-19, the most recent year for which sport-specific figures are available. Overall revenue for the department that year was $164.5 million, placing Penn State athletics in 6th place among all college sports programs.

When COVID took root in March, forcing the cancellation of sporting events across the country, it really only eliminated spring sports that have a much smaller impact on income. In the end, while revenue missed projections for the year by about $3 million, it did finish slightly higher than 18-19 levels.

And that was off-set by a reduction in costs, primarily travel, as the spring teams didn’t have to keep to their Big Ten travel schedule. Those factors, combined with the effects of some university-wide cost savings initiatives, enabled Barbour to bring expenses in about $2 million below 18-19 levels.

So the department was able to finish in the black.

Barbour did not make any specific projections about the 2020-21 fiscal outlook, but with a shortened season on tap and no home-game ticket sales, this is the year where COVID-19 is expected to show up in the department’s bottom line. Ticket sales alone accounted for $36.8 million in 2018, or more than a third of football income that year.

In a tacit acknowledgment of those realities, Barbour said only that she knows the department will “certainly need” its reserves going forward.

Barbour is expected to address the full board Friday with a fuller report on the revised fall sports program.