Last week, it was reported that the ACC's revenue for the 2014-15 fiscal year was $403 million. That was up a whopping $100 million from the 2013-14 fiscal year. A big chunk of the increase came from the Maryland exit fee paid to the conference ($31 million) and the College Football Playoff.
As a member, Pitt did quite well for itself. The Panthers already saw a big increase upon joining the ACC and reportedly earned $18.9 million in 2013-14. I haven't yet seen an exact number for the most recent fiscal year, but the Panthers fell somewhere in between Syracuse (at the bottom) with about $24 million and Florida State, who made the most, at $27.6 million. Even if they were near the bottom of that scale, they still earned about $5 million more than they did in the previous year.
How does that stack up compared to other conference? Well, the ACC is significantly behind the SEC ($530 million) and the Big Ten ($450 million). The Pac-12 could be ahead in overall revenue but as ESPN says, they actually paid out less per member school. This article from a couple of years ago, in fact, says that back in 2013, they paid out only 68% of revenue to members while other conferences were distributing over 90%. Some of that seems to stem from operating expenses of their network.
The ACC finished way ahead of the Big 12, which made about $270 million. However, also keep in mind that with only ten members, they have fewer schools than the ACC and members get a bigger slice of the pie.
The bottom line for Pitt here is that it's just more money coming in. And with planned facility upgrades, aggressive coaching hires, more money available to recruit, etc., it should result in more competitive programs. There are certainly schools making more money, but Pitt is also in a far better position than they were back in the Big East, making well under $10 million per year.
Be sure to join Cardiac Hill's Facebook page and follow us on Twitter@PittPantherBlog for our regular updates on Pitt athletics. Follow the author and founder/editor @AnsonWhaley.
