Article
2025 NCAA Agreed-Upon Procedures guide is here!
Explore the key updates college and university leaders should know to maintain athletics compliance
Jul 10, 2025 · Authored by Susan Maloney, Alyssa Mondl
The recently issued NCAA 2025 Agreed-Upon Procedures (AUP) guide (the guide) includes several updates aimed at enhancing financial transparency, accountability and consistency across all NCAA divisions. These changes reflect evolving compliance standards as institutions prepare to move into an age of name, image and likeness (NIL) and revenue sharing, increased scrutiny of athletics-related finances and growing complexity of intercollegiate athletics programs. The substantial changes expected post-2025 make NCAA financial reporting more important than ever.
Below is a summary of the most notable changes and additions in the 2025 guide, including expanded revenue and expense categories, a bylaw reference change and updates to required testing procedures. It will be critical for institutions to evaluate their processes and controls around athletics revenue and expense reporting, as even more changes are expected in the coming year.
New and updated revenue categories
The guide's revenue section includes 19 primary categories, with several notable additions and clarifications:
- Category 12 – Total NCAA Distributions and NCAA Host Revenue Settlements: Revenue from NCAA distributions (12A) is now split into the following categories: NCAA Host Revenue Settlements (12B) and Post-Season Non-Football NCAA Expense Reimbursements (12C)
- Category 13 – Conference Distributions: Clarification and updates were made to Category 13 and 13A to include revenue for all sports in post-season play, instead of just football as previously required
- Category 19 – Post-Season Football Expense Reimbursements: Renamed from Football Bowl Revenues and includes ticket sales, travel reimbursements and other bowl-related income
New and updated expense categories
The 2025 guide expands the expense categories to 44, with several new and refined classifications:
- Category 35A – Facilities Maintenance and Operations: Added in 2025 to further breakdown direct overhead and administrative expense. Will include facilities maintenance, utilities and equipment repair
- Category 41-42B – Postseason Expenses (Football and Non-Football): Split into main expenses, coaching compensation/bonuses (41A/42A) and host settlements (41B/42B). Provides more granular tracking of postseason financial activity and breaks down football and non-football expenses
- Category 43 – Enhance Educational Benefits (Alston or other): New in 2025, this category captures direct institutional payments to student-athletes for NIL usage. Includes payments from institutional designees or contractors
Updated NCAA bylaw reference
For Division I institutions, Bylaw 20.2.4.18 now represents the requirement for annual submission of detailed financial data, including all athletics-related revenues, expenses and capital.
AUP testing updates
- Testing thresholds remain the same: No procedures require for categories <4% of total. Variance analysis required for categories >10% deviation from prior year or budget
- Testing for NIL and Alston: While the guide does not give specific expanded instruction regarding testing in these areas, we expect this to be subject to further scrutiny in the future
- Terminology updates: Language and testing were modernized to reflect current NCAA practices and updated categories in 2025
Final thoughts
The 2025 NCAA AUP guide represents a significant step forward in standardizing and strengthening financial oversight in collegiate athletics. Institutions are encouraged to familiarize themselves with the new requirements and ensure timely and accurate compliance to avoid penalties and maintain eligibility for NCAA distributions.
Baker Tilly specializes in NCAA and other regulatory compliance requirements for colleges and universities. For more information, or to learn how our higher education team can help your institution navigate AUP changes, connect with us today.
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