SEC becomes 1 of 2 Power 5 conferences to show revenue increases in fiscal 2021
By Keith Farner
Published:
More financial figures from Power 5 conferences have been released, and the SEC once again is at the top of the heap in terms of revenue.
The ACC joined the SEC as the only Power 5 conferences to show revenue increases for the corresponding 2021 fiscal year, new federal tax records show, USA Today reported. The SEC saw an increase of revenue by $105 million, to $833 million from fiscal 2020.
The SEC, which made its return public in February, gave its member schools an average of $54.6 million in fiscal 2021, plus a $23.3 million advance on future conference distributions.
By contrast, the conferences that were most cautious during the pandemic saw a downturn in revenues.
The Big 12, Big Ten and Pac-12 saw their respective revenue downturns of $53 million, $89 million and $190 million.
The documents also showed that the conferences’ overall spending on lobbying nearly doubled to $2 million and spending on outside legal services more than doubled to nearly $23 million amid the Alston antitrust case and contentiousness surrounding athletes’ ability to make money from their name, image and likeness. The NCAA and the Power Five conferences combined to rack up more than $75 million in outside legal costs in fiscal 2021.
Total revenue by conference for FY21, when ACC and SEC played the most football games and Pac-12 the least:
SEC: $833 M (+$105M vs. FY20)
B1G: $679.8 M (-$89M)
ACC: $578.3M (+82M)
Big 12: $356M (-$53M)
Pac-12: $343.5M (-$190M) https://t.co/h9ioUhg6P1— Steve Berkowitz (@ByBerkowitz) May 20, 2022
A former newspaper veteran, Keith Farner is a news manager for Saturday Down South.
