Fansided

SEC made a whopping $455 million in revenue this past year

By Connor Muldowney

Dec 5, 2014; Atlanta, GA, USA; The Southeastern Conference logo is seen at midfield at the Georgia Dome. The Alabama Crimson Tide plays the Missouri Tigers in the SEC Championship on Saturday. Mandatory Credit: John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 5, 2014; Atlanta, GA, USA; The Southeastern Conference logo is seen at midfield at the Georgia Dome. The Alabama Crimson Tide plays the Missouri Tigers in the SEC Championship on Saturday. Mandatory Credit: John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports /
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Brett McMurphy of ESPN reported that the SEC made just about $455 million this past year while the Big 12 made just north of $250 million.

Many people believe these days that the NCAA is ripping off student athletes by making millions off of their accomplishments on the field as well as jersey and memorabilia sales off it. Conferences are making upwards of $100-plus million per year and the revenue is only getting higher.

Some college football and basketball teams sell out for every game, have fan bases that purchase a ton of jerseys and shirts and travel well to away games that universities are raising an absolute boatload of money from athletics.

While this can be seen as a great thing for each perspective university, the debate on whether student athletes should be paid or not on top of their scholarships will only begin to heat up even more.

According to Brett McMurphy os ESPN, the SEC made a whopping revenue amount for the past year.

That gigantic number almost puts the Big 12 to shame, making over $200 million more than what the seemingly next-closest conference generated.

College football does a lot to contribute to this dollar amount and the league, like the rest in the country, divides the amount evenly to each team in the conference. This might not seem fair to Alabama or Auburn or other teams seemingly near the top of the SEC in record as well as attendance/ticket sales, some basketball programs make up for their lack of revenue during football season.

You can’t forget sports such as women’s basketball, baseball, softball, among others.

Seeing that the revenue in 2009 was just $165 million is almost unreal. The fact that the conference raised $300 million more this year than it did six years ago is an astronomical leap.

For athletes in the SEC, you can bet the question and debate of ‘should we get paid?’ will start to be the topic of conversation once again — as if it hadn’t already been. Good for the SEC, though, as many questioned it’s supremacy on the field, it answered with big-time numbers.

The NCAA will have a lot of questions to answer when it comes to athletes’ compensation in the near future.

Next: Ranking the SEC football programs by All Time greatness

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