The Big 12 was one of three Power Five conferences that saw a decline in revenue for the first time in more than a decade in the 2024 fiscal year, according to a report earlier this week by USA Today.
In what has become an annual tradition, USA Today’s Steve Berkowitz compiled the federal tax records for the Power conferences, and the most recent fiscal year proved unlike any that came before it (since 2011, when USA Today first started compiling tax records).
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The SEC, Big 12 and Pac-12 all saw a decline in revenue in 2024, and it was a significant enough of a drop cumulatively that the combined revenues of all five Power conference leagues declined.
Reasons for the drop in revenue varied by conference. For the Big 12, there was one major culprit, per Berkowitz — bowl revenue.
“While revenue in four areas covered by the tax records increased, its bowl revenue dropped from just over $157 million in fiscal 2023 to $110.6 million in 2024,” Berkowitz wrote.
In a statement to USA Today, the Big 12 noted that the decline was primarily the result of College Football Playoff bowl rotation, “which resulted in the Big 12 not being contracted to appear in the Sugar Bowl during this fiscal cycle,” Berkowitz wrote.
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In all, the Big 12’s total revenue dropped by about $17 million year-over-year, and the conference had almost a $37 million operating deficit.
The 2024 fiscal year was Texas and Oklahoma’s last year in the conference before joining the SEC and was also the first year in the league for BYU, Houston, UCF and Cincinnati.
On a school-to-school basis — excluding the four new universities which all received payouts of $20 million — the Big 12 doled out between $37.8 million and $42.1 million to its members in 2024, the highest of those payments qualifying as the fourth-most among all Power conferences.
Per USA Today, the expectation is that revenue will increase for the conference in the 2025 fiscal year, thanks to the additions of Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah, even with the departures of Texas and Oklahoma.
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The SEC’s decline in revenue was similar to that of the Big 12’s — a result of the bowl rotation for the CFP — while the Pac-12’s decline was the result of lawsuits, a drop in bowl revenue and the then-pending demise of the conference, which “hurt sponsorship and other revenue.”
The Pac-12 is still a viable FBS conference at the moment, though, and has expanded beyond holdovers Oregon State and Washington State by adding Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State and Utah State as full members, as well as Gonzaga as a member in all sports except football.
In order to remain a viable FBS conference going forward — with potentially an argument for being one of the autonomous conferences again — the Pac-12 must still add another full member that sponsors football by the summer of 2026.
