Pac-12, Big Ten, Big 12 revenue fell in fiscal year of pandemic, while ACC, SEC saw increases

In the summer and fall of 2020, the Atlantic Coast Conference joined the Southeastern Conference in having college sports’ most aggressive approach to playing football games amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The ACC also ended up joining the SEC as the only Power Five conferences to show revenue increases for the corresponding 2021 fiscal year, new federal tax records show.

The Big 12, Big Ten and Pac-12 were more conservative and, in some cases, unlucky in their efforts to stage football games -- and they ended up with respective revenue downturns of $53 million, $89 million and $190 million.

Because of the pandemic, the Pac-12 said, only one of 35 football games scheduled for the conference-owned Pac-12 Networks was played, and the networks ended up with a $14 million operating deficit after showing a $36 million surplus in fiscal 2020. This helped result in per-school payouts dropping to $19.8 million in 2021, from $33.6 million in 2020.

The conferences other than the SEC provided their new returns this week in response to requests from USA TODAY Sports, which also obtained additional comments from those four conferences. The SEC made its return public in February, and it showed total revenue of just over $833 million – a $105 million increase over what it reported for fiscal 2020. Its member schools received an average of $54.6 million in fiscal 2021, plus a $23.3 million advance on future conference distributions.

Collectively, the conferences’ documents showed that three commissioners who served for the entire 2020 calendar year took significant total-pay reductions – the Pac-12’s Larry Scott, the Big 12’s Bob Bowlsby and the ACC’s John Swofford.

MORE: SEC increased its revenue by $105 million in 2021, reaching a total of $833 million

CASHING IN: What pandemic? These college coaches cashed in big.

Jim Delany, who retired from the Big Ten in the middle of 2020, was credited with a net total of $4.7 million, including nearly $3 million that represented the third year’s worth of money from the more than $20 million in future bonuses for which he became eligible in July 2015 and the conference said he will be receiving over a 10-year span.

The documents also showed that the conferences’ overall spending on lobbying nearly doubled to $2 million and spending on outside legal services more than doubled to nearly $23 million amid the Alston antitrust case and contentiousness surrounding athletes’ ability to make money from their name, image and likeness. The NCAA and the Power Five conferences combined to rack up more than $75 million in outside legal costs in fiscal 2021.

On the revenue side, the ACC improved by nearly $82 million to a little more than $578 million, as its teams were set up to play 11 regular season games – 10 in conference play. Notre Dame played the 2020 football season as an ACC school rather than an independent, and it received a full revenue share rather the smaller amount it normally receives for participating in ACC sports other than football. The conference also was helped by continued growth of the ACC Network.

The documents and comments from Big 12, Big Ten and Pac-12 officials provided insight into moves those conferences made to limit their revenue losses and/or preserve payouts to schools, even though there may be future impacts.

For example, the Big Ten exercised a pre-existing option to sell 20% of its interest in the Big Ten Network to Fox, the company with which it has roughly shared ownership of the network since it was formed in 2006. The deal put about $100 million in cash or receivables on the Big Ten’s books, and the conference said about $3.5 million of that went to each of the 14 member schools in fiscal 2021.

That helped offset the TV revenue decline from what the conference said was a 47% decrease in overall football game inventory across all carriers that resulted from its decision to delay the start of the season and then cancelations that occurred during the season. The Big Ten does not specifically report TV revenue on its tax records, but what it terms “Sports Revenue” fell from nearly $678 million in fiscal 2020 to just over $583 million in 2021.

Overall, the conference reported nearly $680 million in revenue for 2021, down from $769 million in 2020.

But its reported payout to schools fell by much less – to $671 million in 2021, compared to $689 million in 2020. However, the 2021 payout does not take into account roughly $52 million that the schools had to pay back to the conference because the conference set up and financed a COVID testing program. In addition, Maryland and Rutgers received full revenue shares for the first time.

Other conference-by-conference facts, figures and details:

ACC

Payouts to schools: Ranged from $35 million to $38.1 million. (In 2020, they ranged $30.9 million to $37 million, except for Notre Dame, which got $10.8 million.) The conference declined to comment on whether Notre Dame’s full participation in the 2020 football season resulted in an increase in TV rights fees. It said that the ACC Network was about 80% of full distribution in fiscal 2020, and reached full distribution in December 2021; this should result in increased revenue for fiscal 2022.

Commissioner’s pay: Swofford credited with more than $3.6 million in total compensation for 2020 calendar year, down from just over $4 million in 2019.

Big 12

Payouts to schools: Ranged from $34.7 million to $36.5 million. (In 2020, they ranged from $37 million to $40.5 million.) To support payouts in 2021, the conference ran an operating deficit for the year of just less than $16 million, the second consecutive year in which it reported a deficit. The conference said it is on track to stay on budget for fiscal 2022.

Commissioner’s pay: Bowlsby credited with nearly $3.1 million in total compensation for 2020 calendar year, down from $4.4 million in 2019. After getting bonuses of at least $450,000 in each of the previous seven years, Bowlsby received no bonus in 2020. The conference said that, in terms of base salary, he took a 10% decrease in May 2020, a 20% decrease from June through September, and 30% decrease from October 2020 to April 2021.

Big Ten

Payouts to schools: Ranged from $43.1 million to $49.1 million. (In 2020, they were about $54.3 million for each of its 12 longest-standing members, $27.6 million for Maryland and $11.4 million for Rutgers. Maryland and Rutgers also received loans from the conference.) Payouts to schools other than Maryland and Rutgers were helped by those two schools beginning to repay loans they had received while receiving smaller annual shares. Combined, they returned $29 million to the conference in fiscal 2021. They still owe $145 million, with most due from Maryland.

Commissioner’s pay: Delany’s successor, Kevin Warren, was credited with nearly $3.5 million for 2020, his first full calendar year as commissioner.

Pac-12

Payouts to schools: See above. While they were the lowest among the Power Five by a significant margin, they could have been lower. The conference said distributors of the Pac-12 Networks paid their usual full amounts “even though there was a recognition that there would need to be a settlement due to the delivery of less football games.” The distributors took credits in fiscal 2022 “once it could be determined how much should be credited.”

Commissioner’s pay: Scott, who has now departed, was credited with just over $3.7 million for the 2020 calendar year. That’s down from just over $4.6 million in 2019 and the first time he was credited with less than $4 million since 2013.

His $750,000 bonus for 2020 was his lowest bonus since 2010, when he received $626,000. He continued to have the benefit of nearly $1.9 million loan from the conference.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Pac-12, Big Ten, Big 12 revenue fell in fiscal year of pandemic