College Football Playoff: Conference Payouts

Last Updated on March 11, 2023

UPDATE: ACC, SEC, Big XII, Sun Belt, Pac-12 and Big Ten distribution has been added below. Additional conference models will be added as available.

Last week, I shared the revenue distribution model for the first year of the College Football Playoff. Now that pairings have been announced, we know how it works out for each conference (and yes, the Orange Bowl pays more than the CFP due to the nature of its contract – and next year when the Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowls aren’t hosting semifinals, they’ll have larger payouts, as detailed at the end).

Keep in mind that all of this money goes to the conference, not to the team playing in the game. Most conferences split it equally between all 12-14 teams with an equal share also going to the conference office (although some give a bonus to the team participating in the game).

Power Five:

ACC

$50 million base to the conference

$6 million to the conference for FSU (Rose Bowl – CFP semifinal)

$27.5 million to the conference for Georgia Tech (Orange Bowl)

Total: $83.5 million to the conference

Conference distribution model: all bowl revenue is divided equally after expense allotments for the participating teams and is included in annual distribution along with other conference revenue. The only exception is Notre Dame (as it relates to football revenue), which is handled separately under a conference agreement that has not been made public.

Big XII

$50 million base to the conference

$4 million to the conference for TCU (Peach Bowl)

$4 million to the conference for Baylor (Cotton Bowl)

Total: $58 million to the conference

Conference distribution model: Bowl revenues are divided evenly between the 10 member institutions after subsidies are provided to participating institutions.

Big Ten

$50 million base to the conference

$6 million to the conference for Ohio State (Sugar Bowl – CFP semifinal)

$4 million to the conference for Michigan State (Cotton Bowl)

Total: $60 million to the conference

Conference distribution model: all bowl revenue is distributed equally between member institutions (taking into account financial integration plans for newer members) after a pre-determined amount for travel and related expenses is provided to participating institutions.

Pac-12

$50 million base to the conference

$6 million to the conference for Oregon (Rose Bowl – CFP semifinal)

$4 million to the conference for Arizona (Fiesta Bowl)

Total: $60 million to the conference

Conference distribution model: divided equally between all members.

SEC

$50 million base to the conference

$6 million to the conference for Alabama (Sugar Bowl – CFP semifinal)

$4 million to the conference for Ole Miss (Peach Bowl)

$27.5 million to the conference for Mississippi State (Orange Bowl)

Total: $87.5 million to the conference

Conference distribution model: For bowl games with receipts of $4,000,000 – $5,999,999, the participating team retains $1.475 million (Ole Miss), plus a travel allowance determined by SEC. For bowl games with receipts of $6 million or more, the participating team receives $2 million (Alabama and Mississippi State), plus a travel allowance determined by the SEC. If an SEC team makes it to the championship game, it receives another $2.1 million, plus travel allowance. The remainder of the revenue from these bowls is divided 15 ways – one share for each of the 14 SEC teams and one share for the conference office. There’s also a distribution method for bowls with lower payouts, but I’m not covering that here.

Group of Five:

American

$12 million base to the conference (1/5th of $60 million, per Group of Five formula)*

C-USA

$12 million base to the conference (1/5th of $60 million, per Group of Five formula)*

MAC

$12 million base to the conference (1/5th of $60 million, per Group of Five formula)*

Mountain West

$12 million base to the conference (1/5th of $60 million, per Group of Five formula)*

$4 million to the conference for Boise State (Fiesta Bowl)

Sun Belt

$12 million base to the conference (1/5th of $60 million, per Group of Five formula)*

Conference distribution model: equal division after travel subsidies.

* Based on reports from several sources, and also detailed in this article. The Group of Five have another $15 million to split, which sources tell me they will split according to computer rankings. The conference whose teams rank the highest in the aggregate will receive $5 million, the conference in second place $4 million, the conference in third place $3 million, the conference in fourth place $2 million and the conference in last place $1 million. It is unclear which computer rankings, or combination of computer rankings, will be used to make this determination. However, varying reports about the Group of Five formula are circulating. I’ll update this with anything new I learn.

Keep in mind that two of the contract bowls – the Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl – are semifinal sites, meaning their contracts with the Big Ten/Pac-12 and SEC/Big XII, respectively, are not in play this year. In the years those games are played, each of those conferences will receive $40 million for playing in those games.

For full details on the payouts, including travel expenses and distributions to independents, and a comparison to the last year of the BCS, see this post.

College Football PlayoffCollege Football Playoff payoutconference distributions