Big 12 sees increase in revenue, but still lags behind SEC

Helped primarily by a healthy jump in its take from football bowl games, the Big 12 Conference had more than $313 million in total revenue for a fiscal year that ended June 30, 2016, according to its new federal tax return.

The new revenue figure made 2016 the second consecutive year in which the conference has increased annual revenue by more than $40 million. The figure also means that the Big 12 has nearly doubled its annual revenue since its 2012 fiscal year, when it reported $159.5 million.

The tax return, provided to USA TODAY Sports by the conference on Wednesday, showed that distributions to its 10 member schools ranged from $28.9 million for Oklahoma to just over $28 million for West Virginia. It was the first time that West Virginia and TCU have received full shares of revenue from the conference.

The distributions to schools included money from the conference’s reserve fund, spokesman Bob Burda said, so while its annual revenue increased, the conference ended up reporting a $3.9 million operating deficit for the year. Its net assets still remain at nearly $30 million, according to the new return.

The conference reported that its revenue from bowl games grew to just over $114.5 million in 2016, up from $74.5 million in 2015. According to Burda, the increased bowl revenue was due to the conference having seven bowl teams during the 2015 season, including Oklahoma in the College Football Playoff semifinals and Oklahoma State in the Sugar Bowl. The Big 12’s television revenue grew by just $8 million in 2016.

By contrast, the Southeastern Conference — so far the only other conference to release its tax records for the 2016 fiscal year – reported a nearly $110 million increase in its annual television and radio rights revenue as its SEC Network continued to take off. The SEC’s TV and radio rights revenue for fiscal 2016 — $420 million — far exceeded the Big 12’s total revenue for the year. The SEC reported per-school distributions for its 14 schools that ranged from $41.9 million to $39.1 million.

Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby’s compensation remained largely unchanged for a second consecutive year.

He was credited with $2,659,069 million in total compensation for the 2015 calendar year – an increase of just over $70,000 compared what was reported for him for 2014. (Under IRS rules, a non-profit must report its revenue and expense data based on its fiscal year; but it must report compensation data based on the calendar year completed during its fiscal year).

Bowlsby’s basic compensation for 2015 was reported at $1.8 million and he received $450,000 as bonus compensation – amounts that were identical to those reported for him in 2013 and 2014.

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