The Big Ten Conference reclaimed the title as college athletics top conference when it comes to generating revenue.
According to tax returns obtained by Sportico, the Big Ten Conference generated $880 million in revenue in the fiscal year 2023, which spanned July 1, 2022, to June 30, 2023. This signifies a nearly $34 million increase from the 2022 fiscal year, in which the conference generated $845.6 million in revenue.
The $880 million surpassed the SEC’s revenue of $853 million for the top in college athletics for the Fiscal Year of 2023.
The report from Sportico also notes that each Big Ten member school earned $60 million from the conference for the school year, except Maryland and Rutgers, which both joined the conference in 2014 and, therefore, earned “slightly less” than their counterparts.
Additionally, according to the report, Jim Delany, the former Big Ten commissioner who served in that role from 1989 until 2010, was still the conference’s highest-paid employee in 2023, making $5.8 million.
With the Big Ten gaining four new member institutions this upcoming July in Oregon, UCLA, USC, and Washington, the conference could become the first collegiate athletics conference to break $1 billion in revenue.
With each of its current 14 member institutions accounting for approximately $62.8 million in revenue per year, the conference could theoretically see an increase of upwards of $250 million in revenue for the 2024-25 fiscal year, which could skyrocket the conference’s total revenue past the $1 billion threshold.
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