The Southeastern Conference announced Thursday that the league’s revenue distribution to its members for the 2024-25 fiscal year was $1.03 billion, a rise of over $200 million compared to the 2023-24 distribution of $808.4 million.
“The SEC’s annual revenue sharing allows member universities to support elite athletics programs, including sustained and meaningful investment in women’s and Olympic sports that enhances opportunities and strengthens resources, while advancing the academic and athletic aspirations of thousands of student-athletes,” SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said. “As college athletics continues to undergo significant change, SEC universities are well positioned to deliver new financial benefits for student-athletes while continuing to offer a transformative, life-changing college experience, including debt-free education and comprehensive support in coaching, training, academics, healthcare, mental wellness, nutrition, life skills, and post-eligibility medical coverage.”
The average take home total for the 14 members of the SEC that received a full share was a whopping $72.4 million, dwarfing the 2023-24 average of $53.8 million.
But Texas, as part of its agreement to join the league in July of 2024, didn’t get that full share and received $12.1 million.
“Our first year in the SEC, we knew something that was different,’ Texas athletics director Chris Del Conte said Wednesday. “We were not going to receive TV money. Does that make sense? Our first year, because we entered a year early, we were not going to receive TV dollars.”
Texas and Oklahoma were originally set to leave the Big 12 and join the SEC in July of 2025 but both schools negotiated an early exit from the league. Oklahoma received a $2.6 million distribution, per the SEC.
According to the league, the total for the 14 schools receiving a full revenue share is comprised of revenue generated from television agreements, post-season bowl games, the College Football Playoff, the SEC Football Championship Game, the SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament, and NCAA Championships.
Texas is scheduled to receive a full payout for the 2025-26 fiscal year, Del Conte said Wednesday.
The small comparative share was part of the reason why the Longhorns athletic department had a $26.7 million net loss in FY2024-25, per the school. According to Del Conte, Texas had $352.5 million in revenue and $379.3 million in expenses.
“We planned for this budget,” Del Conte said. “I went to the chairman of the board and our president and said we’re not going to have television money our first year. We’re going to have to deal with that. We knew that. We were going to be out about $47 million. We planned for a $47 million problem.”
Turns out, the problem wasn’t a $47 million loss. Just $26.7 million.
“Good work on (Texas deputy athletics director) Shawn Eichorst, (chief financial officer) Rob Novak, and our budget office, who did an amazing job,” Del Conte said. “Instead of losing $43 million, we came down to $26.7 (million), but we knew that and we planned for that.”
As usual, Texas athletics operated without any support from the university at large.
“Not one dime comes from the institution,” Del Conte said.
It wasn’t easy to make everything work in the era of House settlement revenue sharing and with new scholarships, but Del Conte and company were able to get it done the year before full SEC payoffs kick in.
“That’s the one year gap,” Del Conte said. “When you go back to the budget, we didn’t get that this year. Imagine me telling you that you’re going to leave early, you’re going to add $30 million to your budget in NIL and scholarships, and, by the way, you’re not getting $47 million for your television distributions.
“Would you have added scholarships and did NIL? Probably not. I went back and said if we do this correctly, I can minimize our damage because we have enough in our reserve to cover that and do everything we need to do: leave early, win eight conference championships, go to the CFP, win the Directors’ Cup, give $10 million in scholarships and do $20.5 (million in revenue sharing), knowing the following year we’d get the money.”
With SEC distributions rising from $741 million in 2022-23 to $808.4 million in 2023-24 to $1.03 billion in 2024-25, Texas could see a massive rise from what it was making as a member of the Big 12. According to reports, Texas brought in $42.05 million from the Big 12 in FY2023-24.
But for now, it will have to settle for $12.1 million from the league and look forward to what could approach a share of $1.4 billion.