Report: Big Ten outpaced SEC by $88 million in revenue for financial year 2024

USA Today’s Steve Berkowitz revealed the revenue and per-school payouts for the Big Ten and SEC Wednesday. That included the Big Ten reeling in over $928 million in revenue for the 2024 fiscal year, topping the SEC.

As far as the SEC is concerned, the conference brought in $840 million for the fiscal year. Based on the total money, Berkowitz broke down the payouts, including to the newer members of the conference.

The total payouts can be seen below. It’s certainly a wonder if the Big Ten and SEC could break $1 billion in revenue in the coming years.

FY24 revenue and per-school payouts: Big Ten: $928M, $63.2M to 12 longest-standing schools ($61.5M to U-Md, Rutgers),” Berkowitz wrote on Twitter. “SEC: $840M, $52.5M to 14 longest-standing ($27.5M to Texas, OU, which was $15M refundable application fees + $12.5M transition payments funded by ESPN).”

Speaking of the word “billion,” Berkowitz’s reporting indicates that the Big Ten could creak that in the 2025 fiscal year.

“However, the new records, along with documents and data released by three Big Ten member schools in recent years strongly indicate that the conference’s revenue for its ongoing 2025 fiscal year will increase to somewhere between $1.2 billion and $1.4 billion, with the new TV deals taking full effect and the additions of UCLA, Southern California, Oregon and Washington increasing its membership to 18 schools,” Berkowitz wrote. “The Big Ten’s document was provided by the conference on May 6 in response to a request from USA TODAY Sports. The Big Ten’s per-school distributions for fiscal 2025 seem likely to be around $75 million for all except Oregon and Washington, whose shares are being phased in over seven years.”

For comparison to the Big Ten and SEC, the NCAA reported $1.38 billion in revenue for the 2024 fiscal year. The conferences are closing in fast.

“The Big Ten generally provides its longest standing members with equal amounts,” Berkowitz wrote. “When Nebraska, Maryland and Rutgers, respectively, joined the conference, their shares were scaled up to full amounts over a period of years. UCLA and Southern California, however, are scheduled to receive full shares immediately while, according to an Oregon athletics budget document for fiscal 2025, Oregon projects $54 million in ‘NCAA/Big Ten’ revenue. (Another Oregon document from September 2023 said the Big Ten’s ‘media deal with Fox, NBC and CBS will pay both UO and University of Washington each an average of $32.5 million a year for the first six years and that amount should more than double when the two schools receive a full share of Big Ten media rights revenues beginning in the 7th year.’ But that TV revenue will be supplemented by money from other Big Ten sources such as the College Football Playoff and Big Ten championships.).”