SEC and Big 12 spring meetings wrap up Friday, with each athletics director bringing home a big Publisher's Clearinghouse check from this year's revenue haul. While we don't know the final figures yet, ESPN's Brett McMurphy got his hands on this year's revenue totals:
The point here isn't to belittle the Big 12's haul - nothing wrong with $25 million per school minus the conference office's cut, especially considering the numbers don't include Tier 3 deals like Longhorn Network or OU's deal with Fox Sports Southwest - but to stand in awe at the SEC's revenues. Nearly half a billion dollars. Even giving the Birmingham office a full cut, each of the 14 SEC schools will take home north of $30 million this year.And the SEC Network revenues haven't even fully hit yet, either. While football will always receive the bulk of the attention, this new money will help the rest of the conference's sports the most. See Mississippi State's hiring of Ben Howland as its basketball coach, or five of this year's eight Women's College World Series participants hailing from the SEC. Look at the explosion of growth of late:
The league is up $382 million from 15 years ago, $344 million from a decade ago, and an unthinkable $165 million from just two years ago.