Big 12 Conference Fourth Financially Among Leagues in Final Year of Power Five
IRVING, Texas – The Big 12 Conference meetings with the member school Presidents and Chancellors with Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark wrapped up yesterday in Irving, Texas. The final day news was headlined by Yormark announcing a strong earnings figure of $470 million by the conference in the past competition year. There was added money by the College Football Playoff and a strong bowl contingent and a decent showing in the NCAA Tournament. The overall figure was a record high, but with new mouths to feed it was also a shrinking of the figure paid out to the schools. The 10 remaining original or long-time members (minus Oklahoma and Texas) received $39.8 million each. The new members of BYU, Cincinnati, Houston, and UCF each received $18 million.
“Our 10 original members will see some dilution versus last year. The reason for that obviously was the addition of the G5 schools (and BYU), which this was their first year,” Yormark explained. “As you know and we’ve discussed this before, we went with stability as a conference and we felt it was investing in all the right ways and for all the right reasons, and clearly that was the right move for this conference as we think about where we’re going.”
The Big 12 finished last in overall earnings among the Power Five that existed as five for the final time in 2023-24. The Pac-12 is breaking up and four of the schools; Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, and Utah; will be in the Big 12 next school year, officially joining on Aug. 1.
| 2023-24 Major College Conference Earnings and Distribution to Member Schools |
| Conference | Overall Earnings | Distribution |
| Big Ten | $879.9 million | $60.5 million |
| SEC | $852.6 million | $51 million |
| ACC | $707 million | $44.8 million |
| Pac-12 | $603.9 million | $33.6 million |
| Big 12 | $470 million |
$39.8 million (10 schools) $18 million (4 schools) |
The Big 12 also heard over the past couple of days about some enterprising ideas from Yormark on monetizing the conference and money-making ideas for the conference in the wake of the upcoming settlement of the House vs. NCAA lawsuit. The word was Yormark not only challenged his membership to come up with ideas and be problem solvers in this oncoming economic situation, but he also brought ideas to the membership for them to consider.
“The overall, overarching theme for the (spring meetings) was all about creating value for our membership,” Yormark said. “Value creation is the number one initiative and priority.”
The Big 12 is fortunate in they have a creative and “think outside the box” commissioner in a time where that kind of leadership is urgently needed.