Big Ten revenues rise 33% in one year
With the addition of Maryland and Rutgers in July 2014, the Big Ten Conference began seriously flexing its financial strength, the conference’s new federal tax return shows.
The conference had $448.8 million in total revenue during a fiscal year ending June 30, 2015 — a figure that represents a nearly $110 million increase over what it pulled in during its 2014 fiscal year.
As a result, the conference distributed roughly $32.4 million to each of its longest-standing 11 members, amounts that put those schools on par with amounts the Southeastern Conference distributed to each of its 14 member schools from conference revenue that totaled $527.4 million.
Nebraska, Maryland and Rutgers are each on separately negotiated paths to full shares of Big Ten revenue. In fiscal 2015, Nebraska received $19.8 million, Maryland $24.1 million and Rutgers nearly $10.5 million.
Rutgers is pretty good at finishing last.
Rutgers sucks so much that their share is only slightly more than half of what the next lowest paid member school gets.
Also, I'd be pretty pissed if I were Nebraska. Maryland has been in the Big 10 for five minutes and is already getting more $.
I believe Maryland is receiving a substantial amount of money (over 10M) from the BTN, basically as a loan against future payments. So while they are getting more now, Nebraska will shortly jump to a full share while Maryland will be receiving less to make up for the upfront larger payments.
It appears that Maryland owes the ACC and ACC media quite a bit of money, so these are indeed payments to allow them to pay that debt down quicker. Maryland apparently wont get to cash in on the BTN deal fully for some time after Nebraska gets fully paid.
From an SBNation article in January.
As I recall, that was essentially part of the deal from the beginning, given the utter shambles that was their balance sheet on Day 1 of being a member of the Big Ten. If you will pardon the use of this jingle, Maryland had a structured settlement, but they needed cash now. They could have called JG Wentworth, but no, they had to join the Big Ten instead.
wasn't included in the $24 million they received, but the article wasn't clear on it. That would make more sense though. The loan was $11 million.
This is correct. Gold star.
Maryland got more money upfront to help pay off ACC exit fee and fund AD, but that is not included in the $24 million. Maryland received a $12 million advance in addition to $24 million ($36 million total). Big Ten paid the new members a share equivalent to what their share would have been in their old conference during their transition-year payments. ACC paid out more than the Big 12, and there was a jump in payouts from new conference media deals after the first round of conference realignment so Maryland was able to take advantage while Nebraska was not. Nebraska is actually receiving less than the Big 12 now because of the new Big 12 deal and fewer schools splitting up the pie. Nebraska did not get a great deal in comparison to Maryland.
Maryland was negotiating from much better position though. Nebraska wanted to get out of the Big 12 ASAP. The reason Rutgers is being paid so little is because they are coming from the AAC. I guess also because they are Rutgers too.
This Nebraska article explains it pretty well:
Sadly, almost all decisions in college football these days, whether they're the right decisions or not, are about money. Rutgers is lucky by way of one of the largest population centers on the planet being an hour away. Otherwise they don't ever sniff the Big Ten.
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1) Opens the NJ recruiting market to other B1G teams. Previously, the top talent in NJ would go to PSU or USC or a random Southern team. Now Michigan gets 4-7 good to great prospects/ year.
2) Allows NYC alumni a chance to go to an "away" game every other year. Last time Michigan visited Rutgers, the UM Alumni Association busses people down for the game and a lot of local alumni showed up. This is good for donations.
3) Appaently, Rutgers only gets paid $10M per year, while MD gets $20 and the rest get $30. Are Indiana, Perdue, and Illinois better than Rutgers (from a sports perspective). Absolutely. Are they worth an extra $20M each? Probably not, especially because they are not in the NYC market.
Rutgers will get a full share after transition period. I think the transition period is 6 years. So that $10 million number is only temporary. They will be getting the same amount as all the other Big Ten schools in 2020.
Nebraska will jumps to a full share next year BTW.
i agree with 1) but this is partly due to harbaugh no doubt
2) most nyc alum could afford to go to a game out in iowa and see a real football match. Rutgers within 10 years will be seen as a damn exhibition. It's not my problem or concern if they won't do so and we don't need the $
3) funny, i thought sports was about competition. Do i miss purdue and illinois? Not really. Do i miss wisconsin and iowa and even nebraska on a regular basis? Yes! Could we have added a more honorable opponent than rutgers? Yes!
They had the coach who threw basketballs at his players, that was interesting at least.
I can't think of one positive attribute or good, tangible value that Rutgers has added to the Big Ten other than the fact that it happens to be close to NYC.
being a revenue sport. No one cares about lacrosse.
Lacrosse has a ways to go before becoming a revenue sport. Women's basketball is closer to being a revenue sport.
I agree with you though. Lacrosse is an extremely regional & niche sport right now. It may get an extra boost because people with high incomes played and watch the sport, but that is about it.
LaCrosse is growing at a very fast rate & will easily surpass WBB soon.
For parents concerned concerned about their boys suffering concussions/injuries in football, it's the # 1 alternative.
You are so insecure that you go back and downvote 50 of my posts, WOW, not compensatory at all, nope....
Why you so butt hurt, bro?
Fake as they come right here, otherwise known as an 'internet personality'.
Quality work son, quality work!
Keep livin that internet life, son!
Harbaugh.
I guess this means that Pointy Haired Boss isn't going anywhere soon... I dislike Delany (shocker, I know...). I'll put a dollar up that says some random imbecile off the street could show a profit running the B1G.
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at Dave Brandon's office.
Needs more Just for Men.
But after the Brandon experiment, it seems like the random imbecile can do a lot of harm fast. Actually, I think a random imbecile would have done less harm than Brandon but no point debating that.....
You saying a simian isn't allowed to make money?
What am I missing? According to this, the Pac12 is nearly dead even with the Big Ten in revenues and the SEC is way ahead.
Yet for years the narrative has been that the Big Ten is far ahead of everyone else in terms of $$$.
What happened to that peerless Big Ten money cannon? Is there more info than what we are seeing here?
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Is that enough to explain the delta?
Confused because you didn't note which number you were looking at. Were you looking at the Pac-12 total revenues of $439 million? That number is misleading because the Pac-12 owns 100% of their network. They don't include their network expenses in that number, and that is why their per school payout does not match up with their total revenue.
Actually, Pac-12 people are pretty disappointed with these numbers:
I am looking at total conference revenues:
Revenue is not profit. The Pac-12 expenses are much higher. That is the missing piece of the puzzle. It all depends on how you do your accounting as well.
The Pac-12 revenues look better because they receive 100% of the revenues from their network. But they also have to shoulder 100% of the expenses which they don't include in that number. Most of the conferences distribute around 90% of their revenues to their member schools. The Pac-12 only distributes around 70% of their revenues due to their expenses. And it shows as their per school distribution is much lower than the Big Ten.
The gap is mainly due to the fact the Big Ten is at the end of their media rights deal while the Pac-12 and SEC are on new rights deals negotiated within the last couple years. The Big Ten is about to make a huge leap in revenue with their new deal (assuming a second partner is willing to pay as much as Fox for half of the rights). The Pac-12 actually only distributed around $1.5 million per school from their conference network which is worse than what most schools in the Big 12 get for their Tier 3 rights.
It is covered in the article I posted below:
Yes, that is a very good article and explains very well what is going on from the Pac 12 side of things.
It also makes it clear that the world is the Big Ten and SEC . . . and everybody else, far behind.
Not sure what you are looking at. The Big Ten distributed $32.4 million per school while the Pac-12 distributed $25.1 million. And this is while the Big Ten is on the last year of their media rights deal while the Pac-12 is on a new one that runs for around another decade. Are you looking at Pac-12 total revenue?
BTW, the SEC distributed $32.7 million per school, but this only included 9 months of SEC Network income.
The Pac-12 was higher than both the B1G and SEC last year. That was solely because of the Pac-12 Network.
The Pac owns and operates 100% of the channel, so it gets all the profits. BTN for example is 50% owned by Fox. ESPN owns SEC Network.
The Pac-12 revenue does not account for their network expenses. The Pac-12 is not making much money off their network. They had signficant startup costs that the Big Ten and SEC did not have because of their partners. They are still having problems negotiating carriage deals because they can't leverage without partners like Fox and ESPN/Disney. The Pac-12 is still not on Directv and doesn't look they will be in the near future.
The Pac-12 Network quite honestly is a mess. The model they used with 6 different regional networks was insane to begin with because there is barely enough content for one network as it is.
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is that before or after penn state got hammered by a federal judge to pay most of the $90 mil settlements?
yeah i don't care about revenue at a 'non profit' once it covers the **necessary** expenses in order to function. After that point, like john oliver said it starts going toward a rocket ship, over 100 staff more than the AD had when Bo was winning titles, and brady hoke's buyout, not lower ticket prices or compensation to the athletes
ok enough tangent, the real indicator of this 'success' going forward will be the impact of cord cutting