Even as the debate rages over what if any compensation over and above a scholarship football players should be given, the power conferences continue to rake in money hand over fist, and then back over the hand for good measure.
Friday afternoon, the commissioners of both the SEC and Big 12 announced that it set records for disbursement of revenues in a year.
The total revenue distributed by the SEC to its members schools was $309.6 million, Mike Slive confirmed. That breaks down to an average of $22.1 million per school, a figure that includes bowl revenue as well. A total of $292.8 million, or $20.9 million per school, comes from the conference.
Last fiscal year, the SEC distributed a then-record $304.7 million, or $21.7 million per school. In 2009, the SEC distributed a total of $165.9 million.
With the launch of the SEC Network this August, per-team revenues are expected to increase by at least $5 million over the next couple of years and could reach $10 million-plus within a handful years. Some projections have SEC teams bringing in excess of $40 million annually by the end of the decade.
And that’s without even mentioning the new College Football Playoff, which will be of great financial benefit to all of the Power Five conferences.
A little further west, the Big 12 announced that it distributed $213 million to its member institutions. As this conference has just 10 members, and just eight of them receive full shares, that octet actually trumped the SEC at $23 million per school. Newer members TCU and West Virginia received “just” $14 million apiece.
For the 2012-13 fiscal year, the Big 12 distributed $198 million.
Both the Big 12 and SEC, though, will (reportedly) pale in comparison to the Pac-12 this year, with the Left Coast conference set to distribute in the neighborhood of $334 million -- $27.8 million per school -- to its 12 members. For what it’s worth, the Big Ten is expected to distribute just north of $320 million to its 14 schools for 2013-14.