Georgia Tech’s athletic fee has climbed from $127 to $173 a semester in two increases

Georgia Tech’s mandatory athletic fee is $173 per semester this fall, up from $163 the year before, according to the University System of Georgia’s approved mandatory fee schedule for fiscal 2027.1,2 The schedule lists, in the row for “Georgia Institute of Technology,” a line reading “Athletic 163 173,” under columns headed “APPROVED RATE FALL 2025” and “APPROVED RATE FALL 2026” — a $10 increase of 6.1%.1,3,2 The document is headed “MANDATORY FEE RATES PER SEMESTER - FISCAL YEAR 2027” and “EFFECTIVE FALL SEMESTER 2026,” so the $173 rate took effect with the semester now under way.4

The approved rate for fall 2026 is $46 above the $127 that stood in the fiscal 2024 schedule.1,5 The fiscal 2026 schedule lists “Athletic 127 163” — a $36 increase approved effective fall 2025 — and the fiscal 2027 schedule then adds $10 more.6,1 Before that the rate held flat: the fiscal 2024 schedule lists “Athletic 127 127” for Georgia Tech, and a fiscal 2023 schedule posted by Georgia Tech’s bursar also lists “Athletic 127 127.”5,7

The Georgia Tech Athletic Association’s audited financial statements for the year ended June 30, 2025 describe the year as a turning point for its finances: “As widely known, the landscape of collegiate athletics changed dramatically during the fiscal year ending June 30, 2025. Simply stated, these changes require significant growth in revenue to thrive at the Power Four level – which the Association remains fully committed to do.”8

Student representatives on Georgia Tech’s Mandatory Student Fee Advisory Committee recommended in January 2021 a plan to “Decrease the Athletics Fee by -$5 to a total of $122 starting Fall 2021 and by -$12.50 to a total of $109.50 starting Spring 2022,” in a joint statement posted by the Student Government Association.9,10 The earliest schedule the newsroom holds, for fiscal 2023, lists the athletic fee at “Athletic 127 127,” and these records do not show whether the recommended decrease was ever approved or in effect.7

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that “Georgia Tech’s Graduate Student Government Association has sent a poll to graduate students asking for feedback on a potential increase in student athletics fees,” and that the poll asked “if they are in favor of an athletics fees increase from $127 to $152 per semester for full-time in-person students and if they are in favor of an athletics fees increase from $0 to $152 per semester for online students.”11,12 The Journal-Constitution reported that “Tech athletics met with the Mandatory Student Fee Committee and presented its case for a possible increase in annual fees, starting in the fiscal year of 2026.”13 The $152 put to graduate students in that poll was a proposal for fiscal 2026, a year for which the Regents instead approved $163; the fiscal 2027 schedule adds $10 on top of that.12,6,1 That earlier coverage described a presentation to the fee committee and a poll of graduate students; what the fiscal 2027 schedule adds is the approved rate.11,12,13,1

Georgia Tech’s April 15, 2026 announcement of the Board of Regents’ action says “At Georgia Tech, mandatory student fees will increase by 1.3%, and online learning fees will increase by nearly 20%.”14 That 1.3% figure describes mandatory student fees in aggregate rather than the athletic line, and the fiscal 2027 schedule shows other Georgia Tech fees flat over the same two columns, including “Activity 52 52”; these records do not establish whether the 1.3% aggregate figure and the 6.1% athletic increase are inconsistent.14,1 The announcement directs readers to “the USG website for a full listing of tuition, fee, and rate changes,” which is where the system’s fiscal 2027 approved mandatory fee schedule is posted.15,16

The Association’s audited financial statements report “Student athletic fees $ 6,947,958 $ 6,601,428” for fiscal 2025 and fiscal 2024, an increase of $346,530, and identify the fee as money the Association actually receives, stating that “Cash flows from operations include receipts from customers, student fees, advertisers, donors, and conference distributions.”17,18 The Association attributes the increase to the number of students rather than a higher charge per student, writing: “In the fiscal years ending June 30, 2025 and 2024 student athletic fees increased due to a higher enrollment than the previous year. Overall the increase in this revenue was five percent.”19 The same statements list “Institutional support 9,181,989 9,534,332” for fiscal 2025 and fiscal 2024, a figure larger than the student athletic fees reported on the same page, but the two cannot be added: a note says “Institutional support revenues represent the amount of out-of-state tuition that Georgia Tech does not charge the Association in an effort to assist the operations (“tuition waivers”) as well as provide administrative salary and other support” — a mix of a charge not billed and support provided, in amounts the statements do not separate.20,21,17,22,23

Georgia Tech’s catalog says “Students registered for four or more credit hours in one academic term are charged all mandatory student fees which are due at the same time as tuition charges,” and lists the athletic fee among nine mandatory fees “used to provide cultural, social, and athletic programs for the entire student body.”24,25 A Spring 2022 Georgia Tech orientation document for the Online Master of Science in Computer Science said “OMSCS students do not pay the athletic fee, so arrangements may need to be made through the Bursar’s Office if you would like to purchase tickets”; that document is four years old and the newsroom holds no more recent statement of the exemption.26,27

Method and limits: this story publishes no dollars-per-student figure, because no source held here gives a published count of the Georgia Tech students actually assessed mandatory campus fees, and total enrollment is not that count.24,26 The newsroom does not hold the fiscal 2025 mandatory fee schedule, so the fee history above runs from the fiscal 2023 and fiscal 2024 schedules to the fiscal 2026 and fiscal 2027 schedules with that year absent.5,6 Nor do these records establish whether student fees and institutional support make up a larger share of the Association’s revenue than the Institute publicly describes, since they contain no Georgia Tech or Association characterization of athletics as self-supporting.23,18 The public words of the Association and the Institute quoted here come from the Association’s audited financial statements for the year ended June 30, 2025 and Georgia Tech’s April 15, 2026 announcement; the Clanker Times did not contact the Georgia Tech Athletic Association, the Georgia Institute of Technology, or the Board of Regents for this story.23,14