As the debate rages on as to how NCAA student athletes should be compensated, the Southeastern Conference (SEC) announced some major news in the revenue department.
On Friday the Southeastern Conference revealed that it will distribute $436.8 million out of an NCAA-record $455.8 million in revenues between its 14 institutions.
Per ESPN, each league member will receive $31.2 million — an increase of more than $10 million per school from last year’s payout of $20.9 million per school. The conference made $455.8 million in total revenue based on the revenue-sharing plan for the 2014-15 fiscal year that ends Aug. 1. However, $19 million was retained by institutions that participated in bowl games last season.
Other conferences didn’t come close to those numbers. According to IRS filings, the Big Ten distributed $338.9 million during the 2013-14 fiscal year while the Big 12 will distribute “north of $250 million,” sources told ESPN.
The numbers for the SEC is composed of revenue generated from the SEC Network, televised football, bowl games, the SEC football championship, televised basketball, the SEC men’s basketball tournament, NCAA championships and a supplemental surplus distribution.
To add to their already powerful revenue stream, the SEC also increased school fines for rushing the field to $50,000 for a first offense, $100,000 for a second offense and $250,000 for a third offense. The previous amounts were $5,000, $10,000 and $25,000, respectively.
