College sports are big business, and there is no bigger conference in college sports than the Big Ten. That was proven to be true recently when USA Today released a report, provided by the conference, stating that the Big Ten Conference recorded a startling $759 million in revenue for the 2018 fiscal year.
This is by far the highest total ever recorded by a conference, with the SEC recording around $660 million for 2018. The revenue spike was largely attributed to a new TV deal that took effect at the beginning of the 2017-18 school year and paid $54 million to 12 of the 14 teams in the Big Ten, with Maryland and Rutgers receiving a smaller payout as newer teams.
For reference, the Big 12 reported a revenue intake of, essentially, half of what the Big Ten made, reporting $374 million in revenue for the year.
This isn’t that surprising to me. The Big Ten is a very deep conference in a number of sports, and has a number of teams like MSU, U of M, Ohio State, Wisconsin, and Iowa who have competitive teams in both basketball and football.
