By: Robert Craft

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

The SEC is college sports’ first billion-dollar conference. Or at least they’re the first to announce it.

The SEC made enough revenue this most recent fiscal year to distribute $1.03 billion to its 16 schools, the conference announced Thursday. That’s an increase from $808.4 million during the 2023-24 fiscal year.

That means SEC schools received an average payout of $72.4 million, up from $53.8 million in the previous year.

That payout also came in the last year before schools were required to share revenue with athletes, $20.6 million beginning this past fall. So,

if the current fiscal year payout ends up just a tick higher, the year-over-year increase would match what SEC teams are paying their athletes in NIL deals.

“As college athletics continues to undergo significant change, SEC universities are well-positioned to deliver new financial benefits for student-athletes while continuing to offer a transformative, life-changing college experience,” SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said in a statement.

The timing for the SEC’s massive increase is no surprise: 2024-25 was the SEC’s first year in its new ESPN contract, as well as the first with Oklahoma and Texas in the conference, and the year in which the College Football Playoff expanded to 12 teams.

The Big Ten is also expected to go above the $1 billion mark. Its total revenue was $928 million for the 2023-24 fiscal year, and while that was the first for its new television package, it then added Oregon, UCLA, USC and Washington.

The vast majority of conference revenue comes from television contracts; ESPN is paying the SEC more than $900 million (the exact figure has not been revealed).

That number is expected to increase by around $5 million more per school next year with the SEC agreeing to add a ninth conference game for football.

Other revenue comes from the NCAA basketball tournament, bowl payouts, the SEC football championship game, the SEC men’s basketball tournament and NCAA championships.

The SEC generally has an equal distribution policy, but teams that make the CFP also receive direct payouts, which were included in the $1.03 billion figure. Texas, for instance, received $12.1 million just for making the CFP semifinals.

The SEC’s announcement just means More $$$$$$$.