Big 12 Revenue Announcement Coming, The Conference will Top ACC and Pac-12
STILLWATER – Today was a day for the ACC and Pac-12 to do some bragging and boasting. Both conference released their end of the school year, college athletics (fiscal) year earnings and the per school payouts. The Big 12 is a couple of weeks away from that announcement that will likely top those two conferences.
The ACC, which had a rough week as a lot of anxiety and open frustration with the league’s long-term media rights agreement was aired out in Amelia Island, Fla. at their conference meetings. The agreement with ESPN that runs through 2036 guarantees they will fall way behind the two super leagues in the SEC and the Pac-12 and behind others as well. The ACC did announce a solid financial year in earnings and payouts. The overall income by the conference was reported at $617 million, up 6.7 percent from the 2021-22 athletic year. The ACC will have an average distribution of $39.5 million per school. That is a conference record and is up nine percent from the previous year.
The Pac-12, which is still in wait on their upcoming multimedia contract, showed total revenue of $581-million and an average per school distribution on $37 million.
The disappointment for both schools is that despite records their earnings are way behind those reported by the SEC ($721.8 million) and the Big Ten ($845.6 million) that will grow expodentially next year when their new contracts kick in.
Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark is scheduled to meet with the Big 12 Board of Directors late this month and has scheduled a video conference with media for Friday, June 2. It is expected that will be when the Big 12 earnings will come out. Two different sources told me the Big 12 is guaranteed to be ahead of both the ACC and Pac-12, but behind the Big Ten and SEC. The estimated value per school is right around $44-45 million.
Last athletic calendar year in 2021-22 the Big 12 reported earnings of $480.6 million. The total increased by just over $124 million after decreasing by $53 million in fiscal 2021. Then commissioner Bob Bowlsby promised the bigger numbers and the per school payout averaged right at $43 million.