Just days after the SEC announced plans for the SEC Network and suggested it would be like nothing we have seen before, comes a report suggesting that the Big Ten is still going to be on pretty solid ground with their own network.
Each Big Ten school will receive a payout of $25.7 million this year, including a $7.6 million payout from the Big Ten Network according to a report by St. Louis Dispatch. The figures for these payouts was obtained by the St. Louis paper through a review of University of Illinois documents. As the report states, and to the surprise of nobody perhaps, the Big Ten continues to pay out more money to their conference members than any other conference.
Each Big Ten school received $24.6 million from the Big Ten a season ago, with $8.1 million coming from the Big Ten Network pot of gold. So total revenue shares increased by nearly one million this year but the Big Ten Network cut dipped. Why is that? This is a result of Nebraska now being eligible for a full revenue share after completing a second year in the Big Ten. The Big Ten Network share may have dipped but nobody is exactly close to shedding a tear for the Big Ten members given the overall increase in revenue shares.
Maryland and Rutgers will join the conference in 2014, and with the additions of the New York and Washington D.C. area television markets it is expected the big Ten will see some increasing revenues on the horizon once again. By the time Rutgers and Maryland are eligible for their full conference revenue splits, will Big Ten Network shares dip or increase with the added television sets potentially to be added? Whatever the case may be, the Big Ten is going to be profitable for a long time to come.
If you were wondering, Penn State is eligible for these payouts despite serving NCAA sanctions. Penn State misses out on bowl revenue while finishing out the next three years of NCAA sanctions. So while Penn state loses out on about $13 million in bowl revenue, the school is still allowed to receive checks consisting of $19 million from ESPN, $7.6 million from the Big Ten Network and the remaining sum from CBS.
As for the SEC, it is being predicted SEC schools will be receiving revenue shares of $28.5 million once the SEC Network launches in 2014. That is some serious cheese that will give the Big Ten a legitimate run for their money. The SEC also has to focus on getting the network on available by as many carriers as possible before calculating those future earnings. We're confident that will happen, but it could take some time. The Big Ten and Big Ten Network have fought those carrier battles for years, which has helped play in to the trend that Big Ten Network revenue splits have gone up every year since the network launched through 2012. The SEC might be able to catch on quicker in the south, but that is one thing to just keep in mind.
Kevin McGuire is the host of the No 2-Minute Warning podcast. Follow him on Twitter, Google+ and Facebook.
