If there was ever a doubt about the value of having your own conference-branded television network or the College Football Playoff, look no further than the latest revenue distribution figures coming out. The SEC distributed an average of $41 million per school in the 2017 fiscal year according to tax documents obtained by USA Today. The same report reveals SEC commissioner Greg Sankey was paid $1.9 million in total compensation for 2016.
The University of Georgia received a distribution reported to be $42.8 million for the 2017 fiscal year, while four other unnamed schools received a share of $39.9 million. The combined revenue income to distribute totaled $650 million, and that is up from $639 million the previous year and $527 million the year prior to that according to USA Today.
More revenue distribution numbers will begin coming in as conferences settle their taxes and have their tax returns shared with the media, but the SEC is leading the charge with one of the top revenue distributions on record once again. The Big Ten is also expected to have a healthy revenue distribution to share, as it typically does. The Big Ten and SEC are typically among the leaders in the revenue distribution department, followed by the ACC, Big 12, and Pac-12.
The revenues continued to go up, although the rate of increase did see a slight loss in momentum. That could be expected though considering no major differences in the media rights game from 2016 to 2017. The total combined revenue of local radio rights dipped, but not enough to counter-balance the added revenue generated from postseason events for the conference as a whole.