TY - JOUR AB - Purpose This study aims to predict the determinants of net income of 101 US university football programs.Design/methodology/approach Guided by stakeholder theory, financial capacity model and resource dependency theory, the dependent variable was net income (indicated as profit or loss) and independent variables were measured as the number of women and men’s team sports, average home attendances, win–loss records, conference ranking, endowment funds and age of football programs. Statistical analysis was performed using Kendell tau and binary logistic regression (BLR).Findings Net income was positively and statistically associated with home attendance, win–loss record, conference rankings and endowment funds, but not number of women’s sports, age of football program and number of men’s sports teams. The BLR indicated that home attendance was the best predictor of net income.Research limitations/implications The research was delimited to 101 Football Bowl Subdivision football programs from public universities.Practical implications The findings indicate that home attendance and conference rankings had the highest association with net income, but the former was the best predictor of net income and not football tradition nor number of sports teams.Originality/value The study was pioneering in the predictive evaluation of the possible determinants of loss or profitability in college football programs. VL - 17 IS - 3 SN - 1985-2517 DO - 10.1108/JFRA-04-2018-0028 UR - https://doi.org/10.1108/JFRA-04-2018-0028 AU - Omondi-Ochieng Peter PY - 2019 Y1 - 2019/01/01 TI - Profit or loss? On the determinants of net income of United States college football programs T2 - Journal of Financial Reporting and Accounting PB - Emerald Publishing Limited SP - 411 EP - 431 Y2 - 2024/04/25 ER -