Western South Dakota News

Pennington County's institution invested $1,588,123 on their football teams in 2023, a 10.2% increase in funding from the previous year, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

This represents 32.3% of all money invested on sport teams at South Dakota School of Mines and Technology during 2023.

The average sports expenses at Pennington County have grown 153.5% since 2010.

College football is one of the biggest sports in the U.S., with some college teams eclipsing NFL teams in terms of attendance and profit.

In 2022, after a decades-long fight, student athletes nationwide gained the right to profit from their names, likenesses, and images as a result of a flurry of new state laws and an NCAA policy change.

Year	Football Team's Expenditures	% from grand total sport team expenditures
2023	$1,588,123	32.3%
2022	$1,440,490	27.8%
2021	$1,303,689	33.8%
2020	$1,671,860	34.6%
2019	$1,515,137	33.1%