<p>The Big Ten pools revenue from its network TV contracts, football bowl and NCAA basketball tournament payouts, and revenue generated by the Big Ten Network, a cable TV network owned by the conference; it then pays out equal shares to conference members. Last year the conference paid out approximately $21 million to each school, roughly twice the next largest conference payout, the SEC’s. This is on top of the money each school generates for itself from ticket sales, concessions, parking, corporate “sponsorships” (e.g., fees paid by Nike or some other company to have the school’s athletes wear its shoes and such), and intellectual property rights on school-logo paraphernalia, all major revenue sources. </p>
<p>Football is king when it comes to college athletic revenue. Here’s how it breaks down at Michigan, for example:</p>
<p>Ticket sales (FY 2009-2010):</p>
<p>Football $33.8 million
Basketball $2.0 million
Hockey $1.8 million
All other sports $186,000</p>
<p>Conference Distributions:</p>
<p>Television revenue (football & basketball, but mainly football) $15.0 million
NCAA basketball distributions $2.7 million
Football bowl distributions $1.7 million</p>
<p>Michigan’s athletic department generates about a $10 million surplus annually. That’s after football, with lesser assistance from men’s basketball and hockey, pays for all other men’s and women’s athletic programs. If you took only football-related revenue and compared it to football-related expenditures, the surplus (or “profit,” if you will) from football would be enormous. The same is true at other Big Ten schools. Now I’m not saying that pattern holds nationally; the Big Ten benefits from an unusually lucrative network television contract for football, plus its own highly profitable Big Ten network, plus a huge fan base that fills some very large stadiums on a consistent basis, plus a lot of BCS bowl and NCAA tournament appearances. But those who would sweep with a broad brush and dismiss college sports in general or big-time football in particular as a secret money-loser obviously haven’t examined the finances of Big Ten football programs. Most colleges and universities do lose money on athletics as a whole. Some even lose money on football alone. But not Big Ten schools; far from it.</p>