For all the concerns about the Big Ten expanding beyond its Midwest roots and absorbing four West Coast school, we always knew the reason why the conference was doing it.
And we got a hard number on Friday.
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The Big Ten announced a distribution of $1.37 billion to its 18 member schools for the 2024-25 fiscal year, the largest conference distribution in the history of college sports. It works out to an average of $76.1 million per school.
Not every school will receive that amount, as ESPN broke down:
Sixteen of the Big Ten’s member schools are fully vested but received different revenue payouts because of CFP participation and other factors. Ohio State received a league-high $91.57 million for fiscal year 2024-25, and Penn State, a national semifinalist in football, received $88.92 million. Other full members received between $76.01 million and $79.87 million. Oregon and Washington are receiving partial revenue shares until 2030, but Oregon received slightly more ($48.4 million) than Washington ($46.7 million) for the 2024-25 fiscal year, after making the CFP.
For perspective, the SEC, the Big Ten’s only remaining financial rival, announced a distribution of $1.03 billion to its 16 schools in February, an average of $64.4 million.
The overall total is a 55% increase from last year’s distribution of $883 million, a jump you might expect with so much College Football Playoff success, the conference’s record TV deal and an increase to 18 schools with USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington.
