• The KillerFrogs

Big 12 Revenue Update

The Big 12 filed their tax return for FY2017, so we have a good picture of how the Big 12 stacked up against its major conference brethren. A few interesting notes:

Link to Data Here

1. Big 12 member's total conference earnings, when adjusted for Tier 3 and compared to other major conferences, continue to rank a competitive third.

FY 2016-2017 Conference Distribution Per School
SEC: $42.6 million
Big 10: $38.5 million
Big 12: $37.3 million
Pac 12: $30.5 million
ACC: $27.4 million

The Big 12 continues to show that while it is behind the SEC and BIG, they are a substantially stronger conference (yes, with 10 members) than the PAC or ACC.

2. Texas made substantially more than they would have in the BIG or SEC, and Oklahoma almost accomplished the same feat.

FY 2016-2017 Adjusted Conference Distribution
Texas: $47.9 million
Oklahoma: $40.7 million
West Virginia: $37.4 million
Kansas: $36.9 million
Okla State: $35.5 million
Kansas State: $35.3 million
Iowa State: $35 million
Texas Tech: $34.8 million
Baylor: $34.8 million
TCU: $34.7 million

3. For the FY 2017-2018, here's the estimated conference distribution (Big 12's is adjusted, same as above)

Big 10: $50 million (new TV deal kicking in, very front loaded)
SEC: $44.5 million
Big 12: $39.9 million
Pac 12: $32.5 million
ACC: $32 million

Summary: The Big 12 is fine, and everyone should stop freaking out about it.
 

Wexahu

Full Member
I don't know if its been this way forever but just looking at $$$ when determining the strength of a conference seems dumb. Athletic budgets are pushing $100,000,000/year and in some cases exceeding that, is it really that big a deal if one conference's schools are bringing in $5M more each year than another's? In the grand scheme of things that's a drop in the bucket and almost immaterial.
 

Big Frog II

Active Member
Just curious to TCU's distribution compared to the other schools why the lowest when performance in all sports was at the top of the conference? Didn't the Big 12 hold money from Baylor too?
This does not reflect the portion help in "escrow" for Baylor.

We do need to work on our third tier rights.

I guess the biggest question, can we get another TV contract in 2025 to keep up with what we have.
 

TCUdirtbag

Active Member
Just curious to TCU's distribution compared to the other schools why the lowest when performance in all sports was at the top of the conference?

Tier 3 contract. That’s what UT (LHN) is way up. Virtually no difference between the bottom 6. Pretty shocking Tech’s Tier 3 deal isn’t better than ours with the many more alums they have.
 
I don't know if its been this way forever but just looking at $$$ when determining the strength of a conference seems dumb. Athletic budgets are pushing $100,000,000/year and in some cases exceeding that, is it really that big a deal if one conference's schools are bringing in $5M more each year than another's? In the grand scheme of things that's a drop in the bucket and almost immaterial.

What if I told you a University went out of its way to piss off its entire fan base to ONLY make $5 million?

Also, these contracts are 10 years long, so if we make $5 mill more annually, that’s really a $50 mill benefit before inflation. Pretty big deal.
 
Tier 3 contract. That’s what UT (LHN) is way up. Virtually no difference between the bottom 6. Pretty shocking Tech’s Tier 3 deal isn’t better than ours with the many more alums they have.

Their rights partnerships play a factor, as does the fact that Fox has a ton of inventory (supply) so they don’t really have an incentive to pay a premium (demand).
 

LeagueCityFrog

Active Member
If I was Arizona and Arizona State I may want to look at heading our way. Both from a revenue stand point and a political and cultural standpoint. The Big XII goes back to 12, those two schools join the Texas/Arizona "Southwestern" division. Pull an SEC move and drop down to 8 conference games to ensure even more conference bowl eligible teams and the associated bowl money that comes with that and call it good. TCU is probably in the best situation all things considered for the conference we are in. Our fans can get to our games by car or quick flight, our conference football championship is in the same county as TCU, and we are not blowing tons of money and student study time going to the west coast every other weekend. Regional rivalries generate money. See what happen to Missouri and Nebraska for fan rivalry interest after they left their traditional rivals of KU and Oklahoma. I hope our new athletic director still talks with CDC and Bowlsby. I'm sure he does. This time around, Big XII poaching 2 legit teams that are not in Texas helps secures TCU's power five status for quite some time I think.
 

Wexahu

Full Member
If I was Arizona and Arizona State I may want to look at heading our way. Both from a revenue stand point and a political and cultural standpoint. The Big XII goes back to 12, those two schools join the Texas/Arizona "Southwestern" division. Pull an SEC move and drop down to 8 conference games to ensure even more conference bowl eligible teams and the associated bowl money that comes with that and call it good. TCU is probably in the best situation all things considered for the conference we are in. Our fans can get to our games by car or quick flight, our conference football championship is in the same county as TCU, and we are not blowing tons of money and student study time going to the west coast every other weekend. Regional rivalries generate money. See what happen to Missouri and Nebraska for fan rivalry interest after they left their traditional rivals of KU and Oklahoma. I hope our new athletic director still talks with CDC and Bowlsby. I'm sure he does. This time around, Big XII poaching 2 legit teams that are not in Texas helps secures TCU's power five status for quite some time I think.

Not interested at all in dropping a conference game, don’t care about bowl game eligibility or any other “abvantage” that would present. In fact I’d rather play 10 than 8.
 

LeagueCityFrog

Active Member
I wonder what TCU's tier three content is worth to the Foxsports Southwest soon to be ESPN Regional Southwest? We enjoy watching TCU baseball games during the week and on weekends on that channel down here in Houston and it is great exposure for the school too. Hopefully if we can get baseball turned back around and continue broadcasting those baseball games and any remaining non nationally televised TCU basketball games on that new ESPN SW channel. Maybe that's worth $3 to $5 million annually to ESPN Southwest. Say we get $4 million a season. Soon that would put TCU athletics in 2018 , for example, if that's when the tier 3 deal is up at an estimated $43.9 million in annual media revenue. That is amazing when you think we made around $1 million that last year in the Mountain West. Of Louisville, Colorado, Nebraksa, A&M, and TCU, in my opinion there was not a single bigger beneficiary than TCU during that last round of realignment. I would put the on the field success of Louisville athletics over that same time span as #2. Missouri and UConn, I feel, were the two biggest losers. Mizzou for declining school reputation and overall sports performance and losing the third oldest rivalry in football against Kansas. UConn for their power 5 basketball being demoted to group of 5 because of their other sports and neighboring programs like Boston College and Syracuse advocating to keep them down as they were elevated. Go Frogs and it is time to start winning some national championships to solidify these efforts! My suspicion is the the Big 12 is still intact come 2025.
 
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I wonder what TCU's tier three content is worth to the Foxsports Southwest soon to be ESPN Regional Southwest? We enjoy watching TCU baseball games during the week and on weekends on that channel down here in Houston and it is great exposure for the school too. Hopefully if we can get baseball turned back around and continue broadcasting those baseball games and any remaining non nationally televised TCU basketball games on that new ESPN SW channel. Maybe that's worth $3 to $5 million annually to ESPN Southwest. Say we get $4 million a season. Soon that would put TCU athletics in 2018 , for example, if that's when the tier 3 deal is up at an estimated $43.9 million in annual media revenue. That is amazing when you think we made around $1 million that last year in the Mountain West. Of Louisville, Colorado, Nebraksa, A&M, and TCU, in my opinion there was not a single bigger beneficiary than TCU during that last round of realignment. I would put the on the field success of Louisville athletics over that same time span as #2. Missouri and UConn, I feel, were the two biggest losers. Mizzou for declining school reputation and overall sports performance and losing the third oldest rivalry in football against Kansas. UConn for their power 5 basketball being demoted to group of 5 because of their other sports and neighboring programs like Boston College and Syracuse advocating to keep them down as they were elevated. Go Frogs and it is time to start winning some national championships to solidify these efforts! My suspicion is the the Big 12 is still intact come 2025.

TCU will never get $4 million for Tier 3 rights by itself. CDC told me several years ago we could have gotten around $2 million a year but Fox told us that was only for one football game, a few basketball, and very few baseball. TCU made the decision at the time to try and work a deal that was more targeted at exposure rather than money, and thus we "bought" space on Fox regional networks.

All of this will be a moot point, as the league is making progress on broader tier 3 deal. TCU will likely step up and offer to handle broadcasting of all TCU baseball on the Big 12 Network via ESPN Plus, and thus you will benefit. And TCU should see $2-3 million a year from the deal, which while it would be the lowest in the league it would be the best of both worlds: Exposure and money.
 
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