Average Revenue by Conference

[jfuchs91]

The revenue reports for the NCAA were released recently, but this article had some interesting breakdowns of the information.

What I found particularly interesting was the chart below, which details the average revenue per school by conferences:

The American is actually in a better position than I would have imagined. Yes, our TV contract is bad, but our average revenue is closer to the ACC than the next closest "G5" conference.

The article also specifically mentions UConn:
"The only non-power schools to break into that top group are AAC basketball powers UConn (44th; $71 million in revenue) and Cincinnati (52nd; $59 million). The lowest power-conference revenue stream belongs to Washington State, which ranked 54th at $54 million.

So, yep, the poorest power school brings in about as much money as the second-richest non-power."

Quick thoughts:

1) This further highlights the absurdity of our exclusion from a P5 conference. Our revenue number compare favorable to many power conference athletic departments despite our conference's poor payout. Put us in the B1G and I'd love to see where we ranked.

2) The American, while far from appealing, is not quite the wasteland that many make it out to be. We are pretty clearly the "best of the rest." The sooner we get out, the better, but this is the least undesirable place to be outside of the P5.

3) The authors were pretty generous to classify Cinci as a "basketball power."

 

[whaler11]

If the second highest school in the AAC is at $59 million how is the conference at $60 on average?

 

[specialisthusky]

If the second highest school in the AAC is at $59 million how is the conference at $60 on average?

I'm guessing but the numbers likely include Rutgers and Louisville as AAC schools since they were in the conference in 2013-2014.

 

[billybud]

Hmmmm...

...Take out Phil Knight's $95 million contribution to Oregon, and the PAC 12 average drops by about $8 million per school

....Texas' whopping $160 million, along with Oklahoma's bucks, skew the BIG 12 some...

....UConn's revenue was more than Georgia Tech's


Note....this monetary info link is from the last year of the BCS (2013-14) and does not include last year's playoff moola upgrade to the P5 conferences...

 

[billybud]

I am curious what the 2014-15 reports will show,,,,the effect of the playoff era money split.

 

[CTGoonie]

How is Washington State last at 54? With UConn and Cincy ahead of them there are more than 52 P-5 schools.

 

[specialisthusky]

How is Washington State last at 54? With UConn and Cincy ahead of them there are more than 52 P-5 schools.

No privates listed.

 

[Slasher]

Cincinnati is 19th overall in tournament appearances, 10th overall in final four appearances (ahead of UCONN), has two national titles. 20th overall in total program wins (also ahead of UCONN.) Cincinnati is no slouch.

 

[junglehusky]

Are these apples to apples comparisons? Plus the whole, you know, expenses thing.

 

[woomba]

Ideally subsidies would be removed from the revenue numbers at the very least but that's not done here.

 

[upstater]

Ideally subsidies would be removed from the revenue numbers at the very least but that's not done here.

Agreed, but the problem again would be how to eliminate other forms of subsidies, like facilities, full cost per student, private donations, branding royalties, etc.

Athletics and academics are enmeshed. Some schools take 100% of all clothing royalties, for instance, and count them as athletics revenue. Other schools take all money donated for facilities and count them as donations, then they bond out the buildings through academics. Schools like UConn meanwhile use state money for facilities (outside the academic budget).

In other words, you're never going to disentangle subsidies from the budget.

Another way to look at all this is to simply look at revenues from ticket sales, TV, licensing (i.e. tier 3, coaches' shows, etc.) and determine the relative strength/health of programs from that alone.

 

[jostar1]

Brett McMurphy ‏@McMurphyESPN · 2h2 hours ago
SEC distributes $455M in revenue, Big 12 “north of $250M” in past year, sources told @ESPN http://espn.go.com/college-sports/s...distribute-record-435m-revenue-member-schools …

 

[huskymedic]

McMurphyESPN 1:11pm via TweetDeck
Bob Bowlsby says from Big 12 meetings, league will distribute $27M to 8 members; TCU & WVU get $23M

Someone send BB a message that we'll take 1/2 of what TCU/WVU are getting.

(just kidding... partially)

 

[brasssbonanzaa]

No privates listed.

Bingo. These numbers, evaluated by conferences as whole, are meaningless without privates. Looking at them individually by school certainly is useful, however.

 

[John Greene]

Bingo. These numbers, evaluated by conferences as whole, are meaningless without privates. Looking at them individually by school certainly is useful, however.

Not sure I would say "meaningless". The B1G & SEC have one private, the Big 12 and PAC 12 two. Only the ACC has a large private school contingent.

 

[NEforceUConn]

Tick, tick, tick, each second UConn is closer to a big return.

 

[Antiobserver]

Cincinnati is 19th overall in tournament appearances, 10th overall in final four appearances (ahead of UCONN), has two national titles. 20th overall in total program wins (also ahead of UCONN.) Cincinnati is no slouch.

Outside the last 3 years and Bob Huggins' stint there Cincinnati hasn't done much since the early 60s.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

Outside the last 3 years and Bob Huggins' stint there Cincinnati hasn't done much anything since the early 60s.

Fixed it for you.

 

[junglehusky]

Andy Staples: Wild success of SEC Network creating Titanic Two of conference finances

Where the Pac-12 faltered was a failure to understand how much (or how little) its schools’ fans cared about watching the product. While Big Ten and SEC fans were willing to switch cable or satellite providers if it meant missing even one game, Pac-12 fans were far more apathetic. That automatically meant a lower subscriber fee. In its last available tax return (2013-14 school year), the Pac-12 listed 11 million subscribers in the footprint paying 80 cents a month.

If Pac-12 fans, or rather the markets where the live which may have different %s of diehard fans, are relatively "apathetic" it shouldn't shock anyone if B12 and ACC fans are the same.

 

[Slasher]

Outside the last 3 years and Bob Huggins' stint there Cincinnati hasn't done much since the early 60s.

They are just one of 11 schools that have made the NCAA tournament each of the past five years. But don't let facts get in the way...

 

[SAMCRO]

They are just one of 11 schools that have made the NCAA tournament each of the past five years. But don't let facts get in the way...

Cinci has been a consistently good BB team, this said I think we may be using different metrics to measure success.

 

[Dooley]

Cincinnati is a good program, but I still would not classify them as a basketball "power". Being a good program is nothing to shake a stick at though, especially considering that I would also classify their football program as "good". Having good hoops and football is an asset for them.