It’s time again for the annual look at what conference reigns supreme. Not on the football field like you might think, but instead, in terms of which conference ranks in the most money.
That conference, once again, is the Big Ten with an annual reported revenue of $781.5 Million for 2019, ahead of the second-place SEC with $721 Million in annual revenue. The other Power Five conferences were further behind with the Pac-12 finishing third with $530.4 Million, the ACC with $455.4 Million, and the ten-team Big 12 with $439 Million.
The results come from a look at each conference’s annual tax returns examined by USA TODAY’s Steve Berkowitz. The returns are usually out in May but the deadline for filing was extended because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
These are healthy numbers, but it leads to one glaring piont. The Power Five teams are raking in cash, and the main cash cow is college football. If seasons cannot be played because of the COVID-19 pandemic, you can expect the numbers to be drastically different. There’s simply no way that type of money won’t have some sort of significant impact on the immediate and sustainable future of some athletic programs across the country.
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