In its innate drive to push itself into national prominence and the Power Five, and clad with a newly-hired — and expensive — head football coach and $3-million-per-year basketball coach, UH athletics made it clear in fiscal year 2019 that financial investment in the department would grow.
“We have to act as if (we’re in a Power Five conference),” athletic director Chris Pezman told ESPN ahead of the football team’s bout with Oklahoma in September 2019, projecting UH’s spending would hit $75 million by 2022.
Although UH athletics did not hit Pezman’s mark in fiscal year 2019, according to a report from the UH System Board of Regents meeting Thursday, Houston’s revenues and expenses skyrocketed exponentially in one of the biggest jumps the department has ever seen.