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SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey announced Thursday that league schools will receive an average of over $40 million in revenue from the 2015-2016 fiscal year…all of this money just for being a part of the conference. The revenue does not include bowl money that is retained by each school.
The $584.2 million of total revenue is about a 20 percent boost from the previous year, where the schools received $32.7 million each.
It may be stunning, but this total is not far from double the total two years ago.
Sankey said the distribution helps SEC athletic programs continue to fully support opportunities for many of its student-athletes in all sports.
SEC Revenue Distributions
2013-14: $21 million per school
2014-15: $32.7 million per school
2015-16: $40.4 million per school— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) February 2, 2017
Where is the Money Coming From?
The revenue is made up of money from television agreements, post-season bowl games, the College Football Playoff, the SEC Football Championship, the SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament, NCAA Championships and a supplemental excess distribution.
Television agreements have been a significant boost since the creation of the SEC Network which was launched in late 2014.
Since the creation of SEC Network, the revenue given to member schools has risen by 240 percent since 2009’s $165.9 million allotment to each member institution.
Where will the Money Go?
With this trend, it doesn’t seem that the immense revenue will diminish in the upcoming years. So as these numbers keep rising, where will this money be going?
At this moment more than 5,400 female and male student athletes across the SEC receive financial aid and, counting non-scholarship participants, more than 7,800 total student-athletes participate in sports sponsored by SEC institutions…but is that really enough?
SEC payout: $40 million per school
How much it would cost to pay $100,000 to every football + men's/women's hoops player: $14 million https://t.co/21FpXonF0f— Rodger Sherman (@rodger_sherman) February 2, 2017
In addition to all of this cash, the NCAA also gifts $1 million to the SEC to be split equally to each school solely for academics. With all this cash going to member schools, there is an increasing call for players to share in those revenues and that is part of the reason a “total cost of attendance” stipend has been given to athletes to help support the scholarship money they receive.
SEC Revenue checks are in route – each School will get $40 million each – players get $0. Top last year $32 mil
— TJ LSU DAD (@tj_lsudad) February 2, 2017
Sankey said this revenue is to give SEC institutions the flexibility to invest in whatever will help their teams.
“Besides providing superior support in coaching, equipment, training, academic counseling, medical care and life-skills development for student-athletes, athletics programs in the SEC have been known to provide significant financial support to the academic side of their institutions,” Sankey said. “Whether in the direct transfer of funds, in assistance with the construction and renovation of academic facilities or in support of academic scholarship opportunities or academic programs.”
