Harvard Athletics Coaching Salary Gap Narrows, Athlete Participation Bounces Back

Harvard narrowed the salary gap between the women’s and men’s head coaches by more than $10,000 in 2025, shrinking the difference to roughly $26,500 – the lowest in more than a decade.

The data was released in October under the federal Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act, which requires colleges to report detailed information on athletic participation, staffing, revenues, and expenses for men’s and women’s sports programs.

The average salary for the head coach of a women’s team increased by $10,160 in 2025, while salaries for head coaches of men’s teams remained largely unchanged. After years of persistent disparity, assistant coaches for women’s teams also saw a nearly $5,000 pay increase – three times larger than the raise received by assistant coaches on men’s teams.

Harvard Athletics Director Erin McDermott has previously said the department uses “gender-neutral” factors in accordance with the Massachusetts Equal Pay Act when determining coaches’ compensation.

Athlete participation rebounded in 2025, increasing by 35 students after a notable decline in 2023. But the growth was uneven across programs. Rowing drove the increase, adding 25 athletes on the men’s rowing team and 7 on the women’s team.

Track and field and cross country, meanwhile, experienced the steepest losses, shedding 10 athletes overall — seven on men’s teams and three on women’s teams.

Recruiting expenses also rose for both men’s and women’s teams from 2024 to 2025, but the increase was significantly larger for the men’s programs. Recruiting spending for women’s teams’ grew by $61,894, while men’s recruiting expenses rose by $154,932 — widening the gap by nearly $100,000.

Overall athletics spending at Harvard has nearly doubled over the past decade, reaching $34,338,806 in 2025 — excluding roughly $13 million not tied to a specific sport.

The increase comes as the Ivy League continues to navigate changes stemming from name, image, and likeness litigation. In 2024, the Ivy League opted out of a proposed National Collegiate Athletic Association settlement that would have allowed schools to directly compensate athletes through revenue sharing.

As the NCAA begins paying off a $2.8 billion settlement with former college athletes who were barred from participating in brand deals, Harvard is expected to lose between 1 and 2 percent of its athletic revenue over the next decade — a reduction that would total roughly $500,000.

Harvard has lost some of its top athletes as of late, including star quarterback Jaden Craig, who announced last month that he will transfer to Texas Christian University next fall.

But Harvard reports fewer of these unallocated expenses than some Ivy League peers, including Yale University, which reported $45 million, and the University of Pennsylvania, which reported $37 million. Yale, for its part, attributed the additional costs to department administration, renovation, and other overhead.

As a recipient of federal funding, Harvard is also bound by Title IX, which mandates equal treatment and opportunities for male and female athletes, including access to facilities, equipment, participation, and support services.

Harvard Athletics spokesperson Imry Halevi said team budgets are determined by roster size, competitive schedules, and operational needs, while maintaining a commitment to “equitable support” across all programs.

Gameday spending has increased sharply since 2022, rising from approximately $6.3 million to $9.2 million in 2025. However, the increase widened the spending gap between men’s and women’s teams.

Since 2024, gameday expenses rose by about $50,000 for men’s teams but fell by roughly $82,000 for women’s teams.

The biggest expenses in 2025 came from football and rowing. Football’s spending increased by $650,000 to nearly $5 million, while rowing’s rose by nearly $700,000 to more than $4 million.

Not all programs saw increased spending; however, lacrosse expenditures fell by $508,146, while golf spending declined by $165,078.

—Staff writer Julia A. Karabolli can be reached at [email protected] and on Signal at juliak.80.

—Staff writer Tanya J. Vidhun can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on X @tanyavidhun.