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USA Today’s annual list of public Division I program finances is out.
Texas A&M ranks No. 1 for the second year in a row, after a slew of donations toward Kyle Field renovations pushed the Aggies ahead of the total non-rival Longhorns last year. A year earlier, Nike’s Phil Knight almost single-handedly put Oregon at No. 1 over Texas.
The rest of the top schools are exactly whom you’d expect: big schools with generational fan bases; schools that are often good at football and another sport or two.
Let’s look at the conference level and then throw conferences together into groups as well:
NCAA Division I conferences, ranked by average public school 2015-2016 revenue
| Rank | Conference | Average revenue | Leader (overall) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Conference | Average revenue | Leader (overall) |
| 1 | SEC | $132,926,762 | Texas A&M (1) |
| 2 | Big Ten | $116,142,464 | Ohio State (3) |
| - | P5 conference | $108,482,437 | Texas A&M (1) |
| 3 | Big 12 | $108,389,342 | Texas (2) |
| 4 | ACC | $98,188,650 | FSU (18) |
| 5 | Pac-12 | $86,764,968 | Oregon (23) |
| - | FBS conference | $72,719,150 | Texas A&M (1) |
| 6 | AAC | $55,848,775 | UConn (46) |
| - | DI conference | $42,470,494 | Texas A&M (1) |
| 7 | MWC | $40,825,795 | San Diego State (56) |
| - | G5 conference | $36,955,863 | UConn (46) |
| 8 | A-10 | $32,363,603 | UMass (70) |
| 9 | C-USA | $31,594,925 | Old Dominion (64) |
| 10 | MAC | $30,353,849 | WMU (72) |
| 11 | CAA | $28,386,913 | JMU (59) |
| 12 | Sun Belt | $26,155,973 | Arkansas State (68) |
| 13 | Big West | $23,541,264 | Hawaii (67) |
| 14 | MVC | $22,804,854 | Wichita State (101) |
| 15 | AEC | $21,666,990 | Stony Brook (90) |
| 16 | Big Sky | $17,596,467 | Sacramento State (110) |
| - | Non-FBS conference | $17,538,797 | JMU (59) |
| 17 | Summit | $16,100,568 | North Dakota State (121) |
| 18 | SoCon | $15,672,701 | East Tennessee State (142) |
| 19 | A-SUN | $15,232,208 | Kennesaw State (123) |
| 20 | WAC | $14,960,400 | New Mexico State (114) |
| 21 | Big South | $13,978,320 | Coastal Carolina (112) |
| 22 | OVC | $13,553,498 | Eastern Kentucky (146) |
| 23 | Southland | $13,415,616 | Sam Houston State (129) |
| 24 | Horizon | $13,373,953 | Illinois-Chicago (143) |
| 25 | MEAC | $9,545,606 | Delaware State (173) |
| 26 | SWAC | $8,587,791 | Alabama State (163) |
Based on per-team average revenue, the SEC leads the way. Six SEC teams rank in the top 10, and all 14 are in the top 34. The SEC also has seven of the 13 public schools cited by USA Today as taking in zero subsidy money.
The Big Ten isn’t as far ahead of the Big 12 as you might think. That’s one part the Big 12 including Texas and Oklahoma and one part the Big 12 having four fewer mouths to feed.
The ACC and Pac-12 appear to be at a little bit of a disadvantage among football Power 5 conferences (though since these numbers can only include public schools, they don’t include big-money athletic departments like USC’s and Duke’s; including Vanderbilt would also drag the SEC down a bit.) The ACC should be getting a boost soon with the launch of its own ESPN network.
The American tops all non-power conferences, with the FCS Atlantic 10 and Colonial ranking ahead of some FBS leagues.
A few things to remember:
- College sports accounting is fuzzy and often rigged to make schools look poorer than they are.
- This only includes public schools.
- This counts schools where they were last year, not next year. Coastal Carolina’s moving up to the Sun Belt, for one.
- Some schools are members of more than one conference. New Mexico State and Kennesaw State, for example, make money off football, unlike the other members of their primary, non-football conferences.