Saw this today on Jon Wilner's blog today about the SEC's revenue from this past year:
Total: $209 million.
According to the league, that’s the highest total in SEC history and represents a 57.7 percent increase from the $132.5 million distributed in 2008-2009.
Average per school: $17.3 million.
That’s about double (maybe a bit more than double) what the Pac-10 distributes to its schools and does not include what the schools generate from their local media deals.
At the end of the day, this is why the Pac-10 needs to expand. If Pac-10 schools want to stay relevant (a/k/a competitive) on the national scene, they have to find a lot more revenue to keep up with the SEC and the Big 10. Let's face it, at the end of the day running a successful athletics department costs money. Coaches' salaries and athletic facilities don't come cheaply. Outside of that other school across town, none of the Pac-10 has private revenue streams that can keep enough money coming into our programs to stay competitive. That is why I'm excited about the talk coming out of the Pac-10 about their aggressive proposal to bring in 6 high quality programs from the Big 12. That is the type of thinking that will keep our schools competitive with the big boys back east.