Alabama athletics had the least equitable spending between men’s and women’s sports among SEC public schools during the 2024 fiscal year. However, there’s a simple explanation for why the discrepancy was so large: Nick Saban’s retirement.

According to financial reports submitted to the NCAA and obtained by AL.com through a series of open records requests, UA spent $143.5 million on men’s sports from July 1, 2023 through June 30, 2024. The Crimson Tide put $29.7 million into women’s programs, just 20.7% of what it shelled out for the men.

That’s the lowest comparative percentage in the league, by a healthy margin. Ole Miss, which put $87 million into men’s programs and $24.3 million into women’s, was second at 27.9%.

Alabama was an outlier in several financial categories for 2024, and the answer always came back to the football coaching transition. The discrepancy between men’s and women’s sports spending was no different, as UA open records and projects specialist Jessica Schingle explained while discussing how the Crimson Tide lost money on athletics during the fiscal year.

“The net loss reported for the year was largely due to one-time expenses associated with the football coaching transition,” Schingle said in an email accompanying Alabama’s financial report.

Overall, UA spent $262.8 million in 2024 including $89.6 million not allocated by gender, up from $212 million in the previous fiscal year. That led the SEC by a healthy margin.

In 2023, when things were a bit more normal in Tuscaloosa, UA spent $28.5 million on women’s sports. That was nearly 26% of the $109.6 million it shelled out for men’s programs.

Back in 2024, Auburn put 35.6% of its men’s program spend into women’s sports, good for 7th among the public SEC schools. Vanderbilt was not included, due to its status as a private university, not subject to open records requests.

South Carolina was the closest to equal spending, with 42.8% of its men’s total going to women’s programs. LSU ran second, at 41.4%.

In terms of real dollars, Alabama looked much better when it came to women’s sports. The Crimson Tide spent $29.7 million on women’s programs in 2024, eighth among the SEC’s public universities.

UA sat one spot behind South Carolina, which spent $31.3 million on its women’s programs. Texas A&M led the way overall, with $54.2 million in women’s program spending.

The Aggies beat out second-place Tennessee by a significant margin. The Volunteers put $40.1 million into women’s sports, just ahead of third-place Texas, which spent $37.4 million.

Auburn ranked sixth for FY 2024, at $34.6 million. LSU ($35 million) and Oklahoma ($34.6 million) each ranked ahead of AU.

Only three public SEC schools spent less than $25 million on women’s sports in 2024. Ole Miss came in at $24.3 million, and Missouri spent $24 million.

Mississippi State was the lone school spending less than $20 million, bringing up the rear at $19.6 million on women’s sports.