Big Ten overtakes SEC as highest-earning conference in college sports

The Big Ten and the SEC are arms-racing to be the top conference in college athletics these days. Now, per the latest numbers today, you can score one in favor of the former over the latter.

Per a report by Daniel Libit at Sportico, the Big Ten generated $880 million in revenue in FY23. That’s according to tax returns that they obtained earlier today per request. With that, the league overtook the Southeastern Conference as the highest-earning collegiate conference.

NEWS: The @BigTen earned $880 million in revenue in FY23–overtaking the @SEC as highest-earning college conference–according to tax returns obtained by @Sportico.

Ex-ex-commissioner Jim Delany was highest-paid employee earning $5.8M.

Lots more:https://t.co/TppKkrlBF3

— Daniel Libit (@DanielLibit) May 20, 2024

“The Big Ten Conference took in $880 million in the fiscal year stretching from July 1, 2022, to June 30, 2023—the period that immediately preceded the league’s rich new television deal—according to tax returns obtained by Sportico,” wrote Libit. “Nevertheless, that haul earned the Big Ten the top spot in college conference revenue, usurping the $853 million the Big Ten’s fellow super league, the SEC, took in in FY23.”

This FY23 return takes into the account the final year of the league’s previous media rights deal. Since then, their new contract with FOX, CBS, and NBC, which is a seven-year agreement worth seven billion dollars, has begun with it starting on July 1st, 2023.

These earnings led to a distribution of $60 million apiece to their 14 members from last year. However, Maryland and Rutgers, who each joined back in 2014, received slightly less. This all comes before their four new teams in Oregon, UCLA, USC, and Washington arrive for the next seasons.

Kevin Warren, the previous commissioner of the Big Ten, received $3.7 million for his work. Jim Delany, the commissioner before Warren, was the conference’s highest-paid employee, though, with a payout of $5.8 million. He retired from the job in June of 2020. Meanwhile, Warren left a year ago to become the president of the Chicago Bears. Tony Pettiti has since been the league’s commissioner for the last year and is their seventh all-time.

The Big Ten released their tax filings earlier today. That was following an in-person request from Sportico at the conference’s headquarters in Rosemont, Illinois around Chicago. Per a previous report, the other leagues will also be releasing their own filings over the course of this week.

With where they’re each trending in college sports, the Big Ten and SEC both project to be billion-dollar enterprises very soon. For now, though, the Big Ten won this round over their competitor based on these numbers that they’ve accumulated over the last year or so.