The power conferences continue to swim in money, and the ACC is absolutely no exception. Like the Big 12 and the SEC, the ACC set a record high for revenue in the most recent fiscal year according to information reported on the conference’s tax return for the 2013-2014 year.
Here are the details courtesy of David Teel of Daily Press in Newport News, Virginia:Just received #ACC 2013-14 tax return. Total revenue up 30% to $302,306,749. Biggest jumps: TV to $197.2M and bowls to $48.8M.
— David Teel (@DavidTeelatDP) June 12, 2015
A year ago the ACC celebrated a record high revenue of $291.7 million. That was an increase of $56.6 million from the previous season, which had included the conference’s expansion with the additions of Pittsburgh and Syracuse. Louisville joined the ACC last year. Also accounting for another spike in revenue was the introduction of the College Football Playoff, which has been spitting out dollars to the power conferences in great sums. Florida State participated in the four-team playoff and Georgia Tech represented the ACC in the Orange Bowl, two of the New Years Six bowl games. In all, 11 ACC members played in a postseason bowl game, including Florida State’s Rose Bowl appearance for the playoff.
#ACC distributions, not including champ reimbursements: VT $19.3M, UVa $18.3M, Clemson $21.3M, Duke & FSU $20.2M, UNC $19.8M ...
— David Teel (@DavidTeelatDP) June 12, 2015
More #ACC distributions: Miami $19.5M, BC $19.4M, GT $19.2M, Cuse $19.2M, Pitt $18.9M, WF $17.9M, ND $4.9M.
— David Teel (@DavidTeelatDP) June 12, 2015
Also of note, Maryland is reported as receiving $18 million. However, because the university left the ACC for the Big Ten, the Terps’ revenue share is actually retained by the conference and is split between remaining ACC members (once a court issue is cleared). We are still waiting on Big Ten revenue numbers, but Maryland will not be due a full share of the Big Ten revenue this year as a first-year member (the same goes for Rutgers). This is typical for teams moving from one conference to another. As you can also see, Louisville did not get a cut of the ACC pie just yet, and Notre Dame was cut just under $5 million as a partial conference member.
For the sake of comparisons, here is how the conference revenue share numbers stack up so far for the most recent year (Big Ten data is pending);
1. $435 million - SEC
2. $302 million - ACC
3. $254 million - Pac-12 (source)
4. $252 million - Big 12