Incredible new revenue projection released for SEC schools

In fiscal year 2020-21, the SEC paid out a hefty sum to its member schools. Now, an incredible new revenue projection suggests that number could increase greatly over the next few years.

Navigate, a market research company, released a projection saying the SEC could pay out more than $100 million to each school by 2028. That’s quite an increase from the $54.6 million the league paid to each university for the 2020-21 fiscal year.

In that time, the SEC is set to add two new schools: Oklahoma and Texas. That would take the league to 16 teams, and Navigate’s projections take that realignment into account.

Navigate also projects the Big Ten to pay out $94.5 million by 2029. The other Power 5 leagues — the ACC, Big 12 and Pac-12 — could pay out more than $50 million per school. The Big 12 had the lowest projected average payout of the Power 5 leagues at $51.9 million per school by 2029.

Navigate’s projections account for a hypothetical College Football Playoff agreement that would expand the format to eight teams. That’s because there’s still talk of expansion even though talks stalled earlier this offseason, maintaining a four-team format. The CFP could go to either eight or 12 teams down the road.

SEC reveals massive payouts to schools for 2020-21 fiscal year

Fiscal year 2020-21 was a good one for the SEC.

The league totaled $777.8 million in revenue and divided that among the conference’s 14 schools, the SEC announced Thursday. All told, more than $54.6 million went to each school, according to the league. Even during a pandemic year, revenue went up nearly $105 million and each school got roughly $9 million more than they did in fiscal year 2019-20, according to USA Today’s Steve Berkowitz.

“The commitment of the SEC’s 14 universities to provide an impactful and lasting student-athlete experience is enhanced exponentially by the substantial revenue distributed through the Southeastern Conference,” SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said in a statement. “As a direct result of this distribution, SEC universities provide their student-athletes exceptional instruction, training, equipment, academic counseling, medical care, mental health and wellness support and life-skill development that is unmatched in intercollegiate athletics.”

The total breaks down into $764.4 million from the league office and $13.4 million more to schools who played in bowl games in 2020-21. The latter figure helped cover travel and other expenses related to the bowl games. But that doesn’t account for the $23 million the league gave the schools to help with COVID-19-related losses, according to Sports Illustrated’s Ross Dellenger.

All told, SEC schools received roughly $77 million over the last year. To put that in perspective, 53 FBS schools have total athletic budgets of $77 million, Dellenger tweeted.