The University of Utah beach volleyball team had just completed its best season ever when the program was spiked.

Utes assistant coach Colby Burleson left the surprise meeting with Utah officials last April gutted, without a job, without a team and with a sense of doom about what else might come.

The U. said its decision to cut the program was because there was “little evidence of the sport expanding at this time,” and not simply a cost-cutting measure.

But the fact that the university would shutter a program that cost $570,000 to operate — among the smallest budgets of the 20 programs in the athletics department — only caused more concern for Burleson.

“It’s hard for me, from my perspective, to look at the future of women’s sports and think that the future is very bright,” Burleson said recently. “In fact, I would go the opposite and say it’s got to look pretty bleak.”

In truth, there were others at the U. who shared Burleson’s point of view.

The school’s athletics department netted $4.69 million in revenue in the 2025 Fiscal Year. But only three sports — football, men’s basketball and men’s tennis — brought in more revenue than their expenses.

The U.’s women’s sports programs ran a combined deficit of $16.8 million. Factor in the millions the school would be paying directly to student athletes in FY26, and there was cause for concern.

But U. President Taylor Randall believes the university’s pending private equity deal, which could bring an infusion of hundreds of millions of dollars, should provide a reason to hope for the future of Utah women’s sports.

While there are real risks of introducing private capital into college sports, Randall said there was no other path forward.

“Fear goes both ways,” he said. “The fear of accumulating deficits has just as big a risk as perhaps the fear of moving forward. I am much more comfortable leaning into this new model than I am staying where we are.”

Women’s sports at risk

Tanaeya BoClair recalls smiling as she walked through the hallways of Utah basketball’s new facility in 2015.

Then a sophomore of the women’s team, BoClair took a moment to appreciate the shiny hardwood placed down just months before. She remembers inhaling that “new aroma” that came with the $36 million facility.

“Seeing the investment on all levels … meant something to us all,” she said.

For decades, Utah’s athletics program has made strategic investments to grow women’s sports. In 2022, the U. poured an additional $4.6 million into its gymnastics program to upgrade and expand its training center.

Last year, an anonymous Utah donor gave a $14 million gift to “significantly benefit key initiatives for women’s athletics in perpetuity,” according to a news release by the university.

However, the mathematics of college athletics has become more complicated in the past year. Since the adoption of the House vs. NCAA settlement, which allowed programs to pay their athletes a total of $20.5 million annually, universities have faced financial deficits while also fighting to stay competitive.

For years, colleges have used the millions from football and television revenue to offset the losses of so-called non-revenue sports.

“The intent of the money in those TV deals is to provide operating money for your Olympic sports,” former Utah women’s basketball head coach Lynne Roberts told The Tribune. “Now if you’re giving that to pay athletes, something has to give.”

It is not a problem unique to the U.

“We’re all under extreme financial pressures,” Oklahoma State Athletic Director Chad Weiberg said. “The stakes are so high right now. And all of it costs a lot of money. But where does the money come from? That’s what I think is driving a lot of the conversations right now.”

Kansas State AD Gene Taylor added: “I think the bottom line is just finding cash. I think the need for some sort of immediate cash infusion to help with the $20 million every year is just a big number to come up with.”

Utah’s solution was to enter the world of private equity.

In December, the university announced a soon-to-be finalized deal with Otro Capital, a first-of-its-kind arrangement in college athletics.

“The whole concept is to create a sustainable business model that will actually sustain women’s sports, all the Olympic sports and the revenue sports all at once,” Randall told The Tribune.

By the numbers

Utah athletics turned a $4.69 million profit in FY25, according to its latest financial report.

That was up from the previous year, when the program had a $17 million deficit due to the Pac-12 exit agreement, previous conference overpayments and legal fees.

Despite having surplus funds in the 2025 fiscal year, Utah’s athletic department still carried a negative fund balance of $53.4 million in its athletic reserves, according to a 2025 financial audit conducted by the state.

In total, the net negative in the athletic department’s reserves was $5.16 million after it was offset by a net positive of $48.3 million in existing capital.

And Utah’s 2025 fiscal report did not include any of the $20.5 million in revenue shared with its athletes after the NCAA’s rules changed on July 1, 2025, significantly altering athletics finances for programs across the country.

“All of a sudden, we were looking at some significant deficits,” Utah chief financial officer Tony Wagner told The Tribune.

In 2025, Utah’s football team was the most profitable athletic program, netting $50 million in revenue. Men’s basketball followed with $7.3 million. The third and final program with a positive revenue number was men’s tennis: $14,440.

The remaining men’s athletic programs, including baseball, lacrosse and golf, ran a combined deficit of $4.5 million.

Utah’s women’s sports programs ran deficits of $12.17 million, $14.75 million and $16.18 million from 2023-25, respectively.

Other programs in the Big 12 have experienced a similar financial outlooks over the last several years.

“We don’t have a revenue problem as it relates to football,” Oklahoma State’s Weiberg said. “But the athletic departments still have to run however many other sports that they have and spread the finances out across the board.”

That’s why the U. said it turned to outside help.

“We didn’t want to use student dollars to subsidize athletics,” Wagner said. “What the Otro Capital money does for us — and any other investments that we receive from other folks that might be interested in being part of this — will mean that we will be cash flow positive on day one. Without it, we’re cash flow negative now.”

So how could financial deficits negatively impact women’s sports at Utah?

Wagner put it simply.

“I think that the Olympic sports are very much at risk for institutions that just do nothing. As those deficits mount, there’ll be tremendous pressure to not invest in the Olympic sports and to potentially cut them,” Wagner said.

“We want to stay an elite program.”

‘It’s our passion’

When Grace McCallum first arrived at the University of Utah, she was a shy college freshman.

She had just won a silver medal alongside star gymnasts like Simone Biles and Suni Lee in the 2020 Olympic Games. But — before going to college and becoming a Red Rock — McCallum didn’t like talking much.

Then, she performed for sold-out crowds at the Huntsman Center. She started hanging out with her teammates. Now she’s a graduate assistant coach, leading the next generation of Utah gymnasts with the voice she once didn’t want to use.

“I’ve learned a lot about myself,” McCallum said. Now she hopes “that the younger generation can see that this sport is like such an amazing thing, and there are so many people that love and support them and will do anything to help them achieve their dreams.”

Women’s sports have enriched many Utah student-athletes over the years. They’ve resulted in more fan support, packed arenas and deep postseason runs across multiple Ute programs.

“It’s not just about money,” former Utah gymnast and now Clemson assistant coach Jess McDonough said. “They’re using all the resources from the university and taking advantage of every bit of it to move forward in their lives.

“To feel like I was part of something bigger and contributing to the university was everything to me.”

U. beach volleyball alum Melissa Powell echoed that sentiment.

“Sure, maybe women’s sports aren’t very profitable, but it doesn’t always have to just be about money,” she said. “To me, it’s about helping these young women. Even if there’s nobody in the stands, it doesn’t really matter. These women get to play the game that they love.”

Roberts, the former Utah basketball coach who now leads the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks, believes women’s sports can be profitable with the right investment.

When she first took over Utah’s women’s basketball program, she felt like administrators didn’t take her seriously when she vowed to turn her Utes into a powerhouse program.

“The program was pretty flat line from a fan engagement and winning standpoint early on,” Roberts said. “Those things take time.”

Behind the scenes, she was always attending speaking arrangements or openly asking for more fans to attend games. Roberts’ program soared to the Sweet Sixteen by 2023.

“I don’t think the experience or the value is any different than it is for the men,” Roberts said. “If we invest in this and give them resources to succeed, people are going to come watch.”

“I think women or female athletes deserve the recognition and respect the same way male athletes do,” McCallum added. “We put in a lot of hard work and a lot of time and effort into what we do, and it’s our craft, it’s our passion.”

But in a time when deficits are rising and universities have to make crucial financial decisions, those experiences are at risk.

“I am worried that one day,“ McDonough said. ”That we’re not going to have gymnastics at the university level. But I guess maybe I’m just too optimistic, that doesn’t even seem real to me.”

Wagner is confident Utah’s private equity deal will keep its women’s and Olympic sports afloat.

“This is really an opportunity for us to thrive moving forward in our athletic mission and not just get by,” he said. “We didn’t create all this change and collegiate athletics, but we’re trying to understand it and make sure that we’re skating to where the puck is going to be.”

Randall added: “What you’re going to see is a lot of creativity in terms of how to lift those sports. You’ll see more promotion of them. You’ll see more sponsorship of them. This is really a different way to do business than most universities have.”

And while there are currently many unanswered questions about the unfinished deal, officials said, there might have only been two paths forward.

Run the risk of cutting women’s sports, or gamble to save them.

“I think you’re rolling the dice a little bit with everything,” Roberts said. “But it looks like Utah was like, ‘Look, let’s get out and head off this thing, and otherwise we’re gonna get buried and we’re gonna have to cut sports. I do commend them for that.”

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