SEC announces $808.4 million revenue distribution for 2023-24 fiscal year, $52.5 million per school

On Thursday, the Southeastern Conference announced that $808.4 million of total revenue was divided among its 16 universities for the 2023-24 fiscal year ending August 31, 2024. Excluding bowl expenses retained by participants, SEC schools received an average of $52.5 million for full-year participation.

“The SEC’s annual distribution of revenue helps member universities maintain strong athletics programs while supporting the academic and athletic ambitions of thousands of student-athletes across the conference,” SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said.

“As the entire college athletics enterprise works through significant change, SEC universities are uniquely positioned to provide new financial benefits for student-athletes while continuing to deliver transformative, life-changing college experiences,” Sankey said. “Beyond providing an exceptional, debt-free education, this experience includes world-class support in coaching, training, academic counseling, medical care, mental health support, nutrition, life-skills development and post-eligibility healthcare coverage for SEC student-athletes.”

Oklahoma and Texas, which each joined the conference on July 1, 2024, each received $27.5 million since they were not participants for the full year. The payments came from television agreements and refundable application fees remitted to the conference in a prior fiscal year.

The SEC’s total revenue of $808.4 million distributed was an increase from the $741.0 million distributed for the 2022-23 fiscal year. Fans can only expect this number to continue to grow next year, considering Oklahoma and Texas will be full-year participants.

Greg Sankey calls out College Football Playoff seeding issues

The first 12-team College Football Playoff is in the rearview mirror. Nearly a month out from the National Championship, college football fans have been able to voice what they’d like to see changed in the CFP moving forward. During an appearance on The Paul Finebaum Show, Greg Sankey discussed a common complaint of fans: the CFP’s seeding system.

“The seeding issues, particularly moving teams into the Top 4, need to be looked at deeply,” Sankey said. “Now, any decisions for the coming year require unanimous agreement among the participants, so the 10 conferences, and then Notre Dame as an independent. That’s really tough to achieve. 

“We saw that in just trying to expand. We need to have those conversations. I think we need to look at what happened round to round and how we make some of the experiences consistent as you move from round to round.”

To be given a Top 4 seed in the current CFP format, they must be one of the four highest-ranked conference champions. This means that the four highest-ranked teams aren’t necessarily given a first-round bye.

However, this season showcased that the first-round bye wasn’t necessarily an advantage for those four conference champions. After all four of the teams who hosted first-round playoff games advanced to the quarterfinals — all four of those conference champions went on to lose their games.

On3’s Barkley Truax also contributed to this report.