Top-50 Highest Athletics Department Revenues
Last Updated on March 25, 2012
This week, BusinessofCollegeSports.com has shown you the revenues, expenses and net income (profit) of athletics departments in the BCS AQ conferences. To conclude this series, BusinessofCollegeSports.com will rank the top-5o athletics departments with the highest revenues, expenses and net income. First up is athletics department revenues.
The data was obtained from the Department of Education and is from 2010-11. While this data is not perfect, it is the only data publicly available for both public and private institutions.
| School | Athletic Department Revenue | Conference |
| Texas | $150,295,932.00 | Big 12 |
| Ohio State | $131,815,819.00 | Big Ten |
| Alabama | $123,910,432.00 | SEC |
| Florida | $123,008,257.00 | SEC |
| Michigan | $122,486,490.00 | Big Ten |
| Penn State | $116,118,026.00 | Big Ten |
| LSU | $106,421,671.00 | SEC |
| Oklahoma | $104,338,843.00 | Big 12 |
| Auburn | $103,982,441.00 | SEC |
| Tennessee | $102,495,204.00 | SEC |
| Notre Dame | $94,507,919.00 | Big East |
| Wisconsin | $93,594,766.00 | Big Ten |
| Iowa | $92,903,555.00 | Big Ten |
| Georgia | $92,341,067.00 | SEC |
| Arkansas | $91,768,113.00 | SEC |
| Louisville | $87,736,320.00 | Big East |
| Florida State | $86,946,503.00 | ACC |
| Oregon | $85,740,068.00 | Pac-12 |
| Kentucky | $84,878,315.00 | SEC |
| South Carolina | $83,704,667.00 | SEC |
| Nebraska | $83,679,756.00 | Big Ten |
| Stanford | $81,125,476.00 | Pac-12 |
| Michigan State | $80,963,182.00 | Big Ten |
| Minnesota | $78,924,683.00 | Big Ten |
| Virginia | $78,439,006.00 | ACC |
| USC | $75,707,273.00 | Pac-12 |
| Texas A&M | $74,944,301.00 | Big 12 |
| North Carolina | $71,369,784.00 | ACC |
| Washington | $70,231,336.00 | Pac-12 |
| Indiana | $70,172,641.00 | Big Ten |
| Oklahoma State | $70,123,206.00 | Big 12 |
| Kansas | $70,028,683.00 | Big 12 |
| Kansas State | $68,875,266.00 | Big 12 |
| Duke | $67,986,188.00 | ACC |
| Purdue | $66,066,303.00 | Big Ten |
| UCLA | $66,003,893.00 | Pac-12 |
| California | $65,006,338.00 | Pac-12 |
| Boston College | $64,078,272.00 | ACC |
| Connecticut | $63,043,322.00 | Big East |
| Clemson | $61,174,977.00 | ACC |
| Virginia Tech | $61,077,122.00 | ACC |
| Colorado | $60,923,253.00 | Pac-12 |
| Miami | $60,325,003.00 | ACC |
| Baylor | $59,859,235.00 | Big 12 |
| Missouri | $59,005,954.00 | Big 12 |
| Arizona | $58,274,431.00 | Pac-12 |
| WVU | $58,003,719.00 | Big East |
| Maryland | $57,765,018.00 | ACC |
| Illinois | $57,539,367.00 | Big Ten |
| Northwestern | $56,214,293.00 | Big Ten |
Several things stand out in this list. First, every Big Ten team made the list. This is notable, as the SEC is typically viewed as the “power conference” when it comes to all things finance. The SEC had a great showing in the top-50, but only nine of its twelve athletics departments made the list. The conference with the least athletics departments on the list was the Big East, which only placed four of its members on the list.
The chart below depicts how many places each conference held in the list.
| Conference | # of Athletics Departments on List | % of Conference |
| ACC | 9 | 75% |
| Big 12 | 8 | 80% |
| Big East | 4 | 25% |
| Big Ten | 12 | 100% |
| Pac-12 | 8 | 67% |
| SEC | 9 | 75% |
Dick
July 25, 2013What you did not mention is that SEC had 9 of top 20 and those nine schools alone topped Big 10 revenue by $100 million
Andrew
August 9, 2014Dick, your math is wrong. Did you get an SEC education?