This is just TV revenue. Look at OU's budget. Circa $100 million. And the TV revenue number is about $30 million. So 70% of the money coming in at OU has nothing to do with this. Just keeping it in perspective...
It's all a little misleading for the Big 12 and SEC and even the PAC anyway. What it means right now for the Big 12 is we can justify our individual greed and unwillingness to expand by saying "we're making all this money and it's more than everyone else!". That's true but it probably won't be true for long. I'm talking a couple of years here. Not long.
The ACC number (although they are the only P5 conference that hasn't had their 2013 IRS data reported yet) is pretty well locked in and is 5th with a bullet. ESPN owns all 3 Tiers of their content and there is no ACC Network to grow it so it is pretty much what it is, with slight contractual increases that everybody else gets too. Although they'll get some money for ND too.
The Big Ten Network can grow by adding cable subscribers from the additions of Rutgers and Maryland, although they will be splitting 14 ways (rather than 11.5 or whatever) and soon Nebraska will be getting a full share. So their numbers will fall but may also rise to either comfortably make up the difference or simply blow everyone away. It's very possible, especially if rumors are accurate that the BTN will be paired (by FOX) with YES (Yankees/NYC). Yikes! Our numbers might look quaint as compared to them.
But anyway on to the others...the PAC Networks are still growing and I'd expect their numbers to increase as well. They have some issues but actually have done pretty well so far. I'd guess the Big 12 ultimately dukes it out with the PAC for 3rd place on this list, yearly.
The SEC is about to get a sizable boost too with the SEC Network. Factoring in their rabid fanbases, just about every other household in their footprint is going to get it. That could be HUGE.
Keeping all of this in perspective, they would leave us in the absolute dust if it weren't for the Big 12 being able to keep their Tier 3 programming. Tier 3 is practically 100% of the olympic sports plus essentially one (bad) football game (sometimes two, I think) that the big networks don't want. For OU, that's usually the PPV game and I'd guess OU pockets pretty much all the money apart from production costs and a fee to the broadcaster.
Anyway, the point is - OU made about 30 million this year due to Sooner Sports TV (reports said $7.5 million per yr). Texas made about 38 million due to the LHN. And Kansas even made about 28 or 29 million because they have a really nice T3 deal with their basketball.
So #1, #2 and #3 on the overall list were Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas.
But the reality is, that number is not going to dramatically increase. Bowlsby's number of 40 million includes bowls and playoff and T3, so pretty much everything. This is what they do, pump as much sunshine as possible. Again, Texas already makes about 38 million (23 + 15 for the LHN).
So it all depends on what happens in the future. I'd guess in the next few years, we're gonna know who the big winners were here. The Big 12, aside from the sad sack ACC, could very well be left behind in this particular arms race. Especially by the SEC and B1G.
I don't know that that will happen for certain, but I do know it's far too early to be talking smack about A&M and Mizzou making their move...again this is just TV revenue, not donations and all the rest of it. The simple fact is the Big 12 is gambling, with our revenue model, that this is the way to go. The conferences with conference networks might just leave us behind. Or they might not. It looks good right now. But that could definitely change.
