The Big 12 with the most per capita of any league per the NCAA regarding the CFP payouts. The ACC behind everyone else and more mouths to feed. Our previous home, the old Big East, now the AAC? Yuck. ![[sick]](http://l.yimg.com/j/assets/img/emoticons/sick/sick0006.r191677.gif "Sick [sick]")
Thanks, Ollie!![[laughing]](http://l.yimg.com/j/assets/img/emoticons/classic/laugh.r191677.gif "Laughing [laughing]")
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Dave Hickman: More evidence that WVU’s move to Big 12 was the right one
MORGANTOWN — There certainly are those who will argue that the bottom line in college athletics shouldn’t be, well, the bottom line.
They’re right, of course. It shouldn’t be. But that’s a Pollyanna viewpoint akin to insisting that money should have nothing to do with politics. That ship sailed long ago.
We bring the topic up — again — because of further evidence of just where West Virginia’s athletic program is today and where it could be.
It’s unfathomable to me that three years after the fact, there are those still arguing that the school’s move to the Big 12 was somehow the worst thing that has ever happened. It’s argued by those with a completely blind eye to reality.
Forget for a moment that all of West Virginia’s traditional rivals have escaped to greener pastures. There’s no going back even if the powers that be were wont to do so. Pitt and Penn State fled long ago. Ditto Syracuse and Rutgers and everyone else. They took the money and ran.
And that further evidence of which we spoke? It illustrates just how right WVU was to do exactly the same.
The financial numbers are out now from the first year of the College Football Playoff, and for schools like West Virginia — which is a Power 5 conference member thanks to that move to the Big 12 — the news is staggeringly good.
According to the NCAA, the Big 12’s share of revenue from the first CFP was $64,700,801. Of the five power conferences, that was just above the average. The Pac-12 made the most at roughly $69.3 million, the ACC the least at $58.2 million. The Big Ten was just shy of $64 million and the SEC was at about $65.6 million.
Now those numbers probably mean little to most. They need some perspective, right? Well, here’s the first part of the perspective: In the final year of the BCS, the standard payout was $34.2 million. So the Big 12 made an extra $30 million.
That’s not the real eye-opener, though. Call this the what-you-have and what-you-could-have moment:
The American Athletic Conference lost almost $12.7 million from the last year of the BCS to the first year of the CFP. It went from a share of $27.9 million as an automatic qualifier in the BCS to $15.2 million as a Group of Five member of the CFP.
Even of the five Group of Five conferences, it ranked just third in total payout.
And that’s the pie from which West Virginia would have drawn its share had it not fled the coop.
All the facilities upgrades in the works now at WVU? Forget them. As a member of the AAC, which would have been the school’s lot without the move to the Big 12, none of that would be happening.
Think of it this way, too: Four of those Group of Five conferences are rolling in money compared to their status in the BCS. Conference USA, for example, went from a share of just under $3 million in the final year of the BCS to $16.3 million in the CFP. The Mountain West got almost $23.5 million, which is nearly $20 million more than the BCS share.
The Mountain West payout under the CFP increased 553 percent, Conference USA 446 percent, the Mid-American 486 percent and the Sun Belt 186 percent. Among the Power 5 leagues, the Pac-12 made 149 percent more, the other leagues between 70 and 92 percent more.
Everyone won. Well, except the AAC, which lost 45 percent of its revenue.
Ouch.
Again, it would be nice if the bottom line regarding college athletics was not the bottom line, wouldn’t it? But that’s hardly the case.
Over the past few years, we’ve seen how West Virginia’s athletic revenues have grown in the Big 12 relative to the school’s days as a member of the Big East, which morphed into the AAC where football was concerned. WVU’s Big 12 share within the next few years could easily top $25 million annually, which we tend to relate to the average share of roughly $7 million in the Big East.
But as the CFP numbers illustrate, even that $7 million share could be headed downward — which is exactly the direction West Virginia’s athletic department would be headed were it not for the move to the Big 12.
Reach Dave Hickman at 304-348-1734 or dphickman1@aol.com or follow him at Twitter.com/dphickman1.
- See more at: http://www.wvgazette.com/article/20150520/GZ02/150529866/1143#sthash.fXeG7L4E.dpuf
Thanks, Ollie!
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Dave Hickman: More evidence that WVU’s move to Big 12 was the right one
MORGANTOWN — There certainly are those who will argue that the bottom line in college athletics shouldn’t be, well, the bottom line.
They’re right, of course. It shouldn’t be. But that’s a Pollyanna viewpoint akin to insisting that money should have nothing to do with politics. That ship sailed long ago.
We bring the topic up — again — because of further evidence of just where West Virginia’s athletic program is today and where it could be.
It’s unfathomable to me that three years after the fact, there are those still arguing that the school’s move to the Big 12 was somehow the worst thing that has ever happened. It’s argued by those with a completely blind eye to reality.
Forget for a moment that all of West Virginia’s traditional rivals have escaped to greener pastures. There’s no going back even if the powers that be were wont to do so. Pitt and Penn State fled long ago. Ditto Syracuse and Rutgers and everyone else. They took the money and ran.
And that further evidence of which we spoke? It illustrates just how right WVU was to do exactly the same.
The financial numbers are out now from the first year of the College Football Playoff, and for schools like West Virginia — which is a Power 5 conference member thanks to that move to the Big 12 — the news is staggeringly good.
According to the NCAA, the Big 12’s share of revenue from the first CFP was $64,700,801. Of the five power conferences, that was just above the average. The Pac-12 made the most at roughly $69.3 million, the ACC the least at $58.2 million. The Big Ten was just shy of $64 million and the SEC was at about $65.6 million.
Now those numbers probably mean little to most. They need some perspective, right? Well, here’s the first part of the perspective: In the final year of the BCS, the standard payout was $34.2 million. So the Big 12 made an extra $30 million.
That’s not the real eye-opener, though. Call this the what-you-have and what-you-could-have moment:
The American Athletic Conference lost almost $12.7 million from the last year of the BCS to the first year of the CFP. It went from a share of $27.9 million as an automatic qualifier in the BCS to $15.2 million as a Group of Five member of the CFP.
Even of the five Group of Five conferences, it ranked just third in total payout.
And that’s the pie from which West Virginia would have drawn its share had it not fled the coop.
All the facilities upgrades in the works now at WVU? Forget them. As a member of the AAC, which would have been the school’s lot without the move to the Big 12, none of that would be happening.
Think of it this way, too: Four of those Group of Five conferences are rolling in money compared to their status in the BCS. Conference USA, for example, went from a share of just under $3 million in the final year of the BCS to $16.3 million in the CFP. The Mountain West got almost $23.5 million, which is nearly $20 million more than the BCS share.
The Mountain West payout under the CFP increased 553 percent, Conference USA 446 percent, the Mid-American 486 percent and the Sun Belt 186 percent. Among the Power 5 leagues, the Pac-12 made 149 percent more, the other leagues between 70 and 92 percent more.
Everyone won. Well, except the AAC, which lost 45 percent of its revenue.
Ouch.
Again, it would be nice if the bottom line regarding college athletics was not the bottom line, wouldn’t it? But that’s hardly the case.
Over the past few years, we’ve seen how West Virginia’s athletic revenues have grown in the Big 12 relative to the school’s days as a member of the Big East, which morphed into the AAC where football was concerned. WVU’s Big 12 share within the next few years could easily top $25 million annually, which we tend to relate to the average share of roughly $7 million in the Big East.
But as the CFP numbers illustrate, even that $7 million share could be headed downward — which is exactly the direction West Virginia’s athletic department would be headed were it not for the move to the Big 12.
Reach Dave Hickman at 304-348-1734 or dphickman1@aol.com or follow him at Twitter.com/dphickman1.
- See more at: http://www.wvgazette.com/article/20150520/GZ02/150529866/1143#sthash.fXeG7L4E.dpuf
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