The coronavirus pandemic fueled a $600 million plunge in the N.C.A.A.’s revenues during its most recent fiscal year, a staggering indication of how the pathogen forced a financial reckoning throughout a college sports industry that was already under scrutiny from lawmakers and regulators across the country.
The decision in March to cancel the men’s national basketball tournament cost the association $702 million in television and marketing rights, N.C.A.A. board members were told during a video call this month. And although the N.C.A.A. recouped some $270 million through insurance and spent about $473 million less, the association still posted a loss of nearly $56 million during the fiscal year that ended in August, meeting minutes show.