Big 12 Conference announces record $426 million revenue distribution among programs

The Big 12 distributed a record total to its member schools during the 2021-22 school year, the league announced.

A record $426 million was divided up to all 10 of the schools in the Big 12. That’s a 25% increase since last school year and a 10% jump from the pre-pandemic peak, according to the Associated Press.

“We clearly had some bumps in there, although … I think we we got all but about three football games played and we got all but about eight basketball games played in 2021,” Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby said, via the AP’s Stephen Hawkins. “And so we didn’t take as big a hit as it looked like we could have, when we were sitting in August 2020 and not knowing if we were even going to play football. … We came through it better than we could have, that’s for sure.”

As the league enters the final year of its media rights deal, the revenue totals are expected to increase again. However, it’s unclear how things will change when Oklahoma and Texas leave the Big 12 to join the SEC.

The distribution numbers come a few weeks after USA Today reported revenue figures for fiscal year 2021. That means the figures the league announced Friday are different.

Big 12 total revenue dipped in Fiscal Year 2021

As the sports world started to bounce back from the COVID-19 pandemic in the 2021 fiscal year, the question was how revenue would be affected. Most leagues saw numbers increase — but not all, according to USA Today’s Steve Berkowitz.

The SEC and ACC played the most football games during that time and saw the biggest increases from fiscal year 2020. The SEC brought in $833 million — an increase of $105 million from the 2020 fiscal year. Meanwhile, the ACC made $578.3 million, which is $82 million more than the league brought in the previous year.

The Big 12 and Big 10 had more of a down year, though. The Big 10 made $679.8 million — second-most of the Power 5 conferences. However, that’s $89 million less than the league made in fiscal year 2020. The Big 12 brought in $356 million in 2021, but that’s $53 million less than 2020.

The Pac-12 had the lowest revenue of the P5 leagues, making $343.5 million in fiscal year 2021. That’s a steep $190 million decrease from the previous year, and that goes back to playing fewer games. The Pac-12 played the least amount of football games of the P5 leagues.