Big 12 to distribute record $470 million amid realignment - ESPN
IRVING, Texas — Big 12 schools will share in a record $470 million of revenue distribution, the conference announced Friday when wrapping up its first spring meetings as a 14-team league and before growing by two more teams.
While the 10 full-share members will get smaller amounts than they got last year because of the addition of the four schools that joined the league for the 2023-24 academic year, Commissioner Brett Yormark said the conference is more relevant than it has ever been.
«We went with stability as a conference and we felt it was investing in all the right ways and for all the right reasons,» Yormark said. «Clearly that was the right one for this conference as we think about where we're going.»
First-year members BYU, Cincinnati, Houston and UCF each will get partial shares of about $18 million each. That leaves about $398 million to be split among the league's other 10 schools, including Oklahoma and Texas before they move this summer to the Southeastern Conference.
About $440 million was distributed last year.
The Big 12 will grow to 16 teams with the additions of Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah from the Pac-12, officially on Aug. 1. The four incoming schools took part in this week's meetings, while Oklahoma and Texas did not.
Yormark said the increases came as a result of bigger College Football Playoff and bowl revenues, growth in ticket revenue across all of the conference championships and sponsorship after streamlining that to be handled directly by the conference instead of using outside parties.
According to tax filings released last week, the five power conferences generated $3.55 billion in the 2022-23 fiscal year, with the Big Ten reporting revenue of $879.9 million compared with