As he addressed the University of Michigan's Board of Regents Thursday in Ann Arbor, Michigan, veteran UM athletics director Warde Manuel said the Wolverines' athletics budget was projected to top $210 million and that the department also expected to receive an extra $5-million-plus from its Big Ten share.
Earlier this year, the Big Ten announced a record distribution of almost $850m to its membership. While the 11 members with longer tenure than Maryland, Nebraska and Rutgers received more revenue due to their presence earlier on the Big Ten Network, the league distributed on average almost exactly $59 million per team.
Now, Manuel told Regents, the Big Ten has informed its members of its intention to distribute some $5.2 million more per member in its revenue distribution, pushing the Wolverines and 10 others to be in line for $64m paydays.
College and industry sources have stressed to FootballScoop that once the Big Ten formally welcomes both UCLA and USC into its membership ranks next year and begins competing with those teams as part of its conference, revenues are expected to spike dramatically for the league's members.
Multiple sources have told FootballScoop that the Big Ten can become the first "mega-conference" to see its members earn perhaps $100m revenue distributions based off the additions of the two West Coast powerhouses and burgeoning broadcasting rights deals.
In addition to revealing the Big Ten distribution news, Manuel also shared that his Michigan athletics department was projected to have a $214.5 million operating budget. Michigan athletics, as noted by The Detroit News, operated with a $200,000 surplus the last year. The Wolverines' teams spent $214.9m and brought in revenues of $215.1m.
Per the Knight-Newhouse Data collected by Syracuse University, Michigan was one of five collegiate athletics programs to recognize more than $200m in revenues, following: Ohio State, Texas, Alabama and preceding Georgia.