SEC revenue to jump 50% with new TV deal
by Steve Berkowitz USA TODAY Sports, USA TODAY
Already home to many of the nation’s best-financed college athletics programs, the Southeastern Conference is about two years from distributing at least $10 million — and perhaps as much as $14 million — more per school than it did during the 2011-12 fiscal year, a USA TODAY Sports analysis projects.
This would represent at least a 50% increase in the SEC’s per-school take, which could get close to $34 million in 2014-15 and for a few years exceed the revenue each of the Big Ten Conference schools get from their shares of conference and NCAA revenues. In part because of the Big Ten Network’s success, most Big Ten schools recently have been receiving $1 million to $4 million more per year than SEC schools – roughly $23 million to $25 million apiece.
However, because of a pending re-configuration of the SEC’s television arrangements and a major increase in postseason football payouts that will occur when the Bowl Championship Series is replaced by a four-team playoff in the 2014-15 season, SEC revenue is about to escalate dramatically.
The SEC has been renegotiating its long-term rights deals with ESPN and CBS to take into consideration the conference’s recent additions of Missouri and Texas A&M. When those deals began in with the 2009-10 school year, they were worth $3 billion over 15 years (with the conference having grown to 14 schools, that now works out to an annual average of $14.3 million per school).
In an interview with USA TODAY Sports in mid-December, SEC commissioner Mike Slive all but said one outcome will be the formation of the conference’s own network. “Given the networks that have been developed, is there room for any more?” Slive asked. “And the answer is: ‘At least one.’ “
The additional revenue will further separate the SEC schools from others in terms of overall revenue and expense, including the compensation paid to football coaches. In turn, this seems likely to increase the pressure on other schools to keep up.
According to data compiled by USA TODAY Sports:
–During the 2012 football season, the SEC had four of the eight highest-paid head coaches, four of the … [For more on SEC revenue set to jump 50% with playoff, new TV deals, click here.]
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