Dan Radakovich opens up on ACC revenue, concerns in comparison to other conferences

The ACC had a record revenue year in fiscal year 2021. Still, the league could find itself falling farther behind the SEC and Big Ten in the future as media rights deals come on the horizon — and Miami athletic director Dan Radakovich talked about that.

Radakovich saw the ACC grow during his time at Clemson before arriving at Miami this offseason. In fiscal year 2021, the ACC brought in $578.3 million, which was an $82 million increase from the previous fiscal year. But the SEC led the way with $833 million in revenue and the Big Ten was next at $679.8 million. On top of that, the Big Ten is reportedly on the verge of a massive media rights deal worth nearly $1 billion, which would likely increase that number even more.

That was all part of the question to Radakovich on the ESPN College Football Podcast, and he shared an honest answer with hosts Adam Rittenberg and David Hale.

“Yes, from an answer perspective. Yes. … We’re concerned,” Radakovich said. “It could be a threat. This is why we have commissioners and people in our home office in Greensboro, to be able to help work on that. The athletic directors talk about it all the time. ‘What can we do to help further our cause?’ There are contracts in place, there are rights agreements in place that are there and those contracts have been made. It’s going to be different.

“But I’m looking forward to continuing the conversation to see how we can impact that and possibly change it because if you just take the soliloquy that you just mentioned, we’re going to be a little bit behind the eight-ball as it relates to dollars. How you make that up, that reverts back to each individual campus and decisions that are made on each one of our campuses. We’ll continue to see how that works, but it’s certainly an everyday issue for Commissioner [Jim] Phillips and our staff in Greensboro.”

How other Power 5 conferences’ revenue numbers stacked up in fiscal year 2021

As the sports world started to bounce back from the COVID-19 pandemic in the 2021 fiscal year, the question was how revenue would be affected. Most leagues saw numbers increase — but not all, according to USA Today’s Steve Berkowitz.

The SEC and ACC played the most football games during that time and saw the biggest increases from fiscal year 2020. Meanwhile, the Big 12 and Big Ten had more of a down year. The Big 12 brought in $356 million in 2021, but that’s $53 million less than 2020.

The Pac-12 had the lowest revenue of the P5 leagues, making $343.5 million in fiscal year 2021. That’s a steep $190 million decrease from the previous year, and that goes back to playing fewer games. The Pac-12 played the least amount of football games of the P5 leagues.