Like most other power conferences, the ACC saw a boost in total revenue in the 2018 fiscal year. According to data acquired by USA Today, the ACC saw an increase of about 11% from the previous year, and each ACC member received a distribution of $29.5 million. The total amount of revenue reported by the ACC on its most recent tax filings came in just under $465 million, which is up from the $418.1 million reported a year ago.
Not that $29.5 million is chump change by any stretch of the imagination, but the ACC revenue share is more on par with the payments received by Pac-12 members than those received by members of the Big 12, Big Ten, and SEC. Notre Dame received $7.9 million from the ACC for their revenue share for being a partial member of the conference outside of football. Big Ten revenue totaled nearly $760 million with distribution shares of $54 million. SEC schools received payouts of $43.1 million from $627 million in revenue, and Big 12 schools received between $33.6 million and $36.6 million from the $373.9 million in revenue. The Pac-12 was the outlier with a decrease in revenue. With all of those figures in place, the 14-team ACC stands relatively low on the revenue ladder among power conferences.
ACC distributed an average of about $29.5 million to its 14 schools other than Notre Dame, which received $7.9 million. This means ACC's per-school distributions, per conferences' tax records, were basically equal to the Pac-12's
— Steve Berkowitz (@ByBerkowitz) May 24, 2019
All Power 5's have now released FY 18 tax returns.
— Steve Berkowitz (@ByBerkowitz) May 24, 2019
Per-school distributions for the year, according to the docs:
-Big Ten: $54M to 12 longest-standing schools
-SEC: $43.7M to all except Mississippi (postseason ban)
-Big 12: $34.7M
-Pac-12 and ACC: $29.5M each
It is worth a reminder the Big 12 is splitting its revenue distributions in uneven fashion among 10 members instead of 12 or 14 like the Pac-12 and ACC. The ACC could also be in for a bit of a windfall in the coming fiscal year with the recent national championship runs by Clemson’s football team and Virginia men’s basketball team. The upcoming launch of the ACC Network will eventually lead to some more potential revenue growth, although the impact of that will not be known for another two years once the tax return information for the 2019-2020 fiscal year are documented.
Naturally, revenue growth in a conference leads to salary growth for the commissioner. ACC commissioner John Swofford is no exception here with a compensation of $3.5 million for 2017, up from $3.3 million the previous year.
Power 5 conferences' combined annual revenues, per tax records:
— Steve Berkowitz (@ByBerkowitz) May 24, 2019
FY18: $2.75 billion
FY17: $2.46 billion
FY16: $2.3 billion
FY15: $2.1 billion
FY14: $1.57 billion