Conference Revenue Gap look back

Great review from HokieMark at http://accfootballrx.blogspot.com/


http://accfootballrx.blogspot.com/#!/2017/06/revenue-gap-look-back.html

This year there was a very big gap between the ACC and the top two conferences in terms of TV revenue - the SEC and the Big Ten. To understand how it got that way and whether things are trending better or worse, we must look at history.

A look back at the value of TV deals: 2009

Conf	Total/year	#Teams	$/team	ACC gap
Big Ten	242 million	11	22 million	16.4 million
SEC	205 million	12	17 million	11.5 million
Big XII	78 million	12	6.5 million	1 million
ACC	67 million	12	5.5 million
Pac 10	58 million	10	5.8 million	216,667
Big East	33 million	16	2 million	-3,5 million

These are the numbers that got people panicky in the first place. It's amazing how far ahead the Big Ten and SEC were in terms of revenue even back then!

(SOURCE: ACC TV Deal Almost Complete: $155 Million per Year).

That helps provide some context for the ACC's ill-fated 2010 TV Contract.

How does that compare to recently published numbers for the 2015-16 season?

Conf	$M/team	ACC gap
SEC	40.4 million	16.6 million
B1G	34.8 million	11 million
Big XII	28.4 million	4.6 million
Pac-12	24.7 million	0.9 million
ACC	23.8 million

(NOTE: There is an infographic floating around which shows projected 2016-17 revenue for the Big XII, but here I'm using consistent fiscal year data for all conferences to the best of my knowledge).

ANALYSIS: Each power conference has grown in total revenue, albeit in spurts rather than a smooth growth (this particular data from 2015-16 represents a down year for the ACC, for example).

I was a bit surprised to see that dollar value of the overall the gap is about the same it was 6 years ago. That's actually good news for the ACC, because that $16 million gap with the top competitor (which is currently the SEC rather than the Big Ten) used to put the ACC at just 25% of the top payout, but the percentages are better now...

Conf	% in 2009	% in 2016
SEC	32%	59%
B1G	25%	68%
Big XII	85%	84%
Pac-12	95%	96%

ACC revenue relative to the Pac-12 and Big XII are virtually unchanged, percentage-wise. Meanwhile, all three of those leagues have made up significant ground on the leaders - even as the total pie size has grown dramatically.

BOTTOM LINE: At some point the ACC needs to eat into the absolute value of that revenue gap, but I guess closing the percent gap will have to do for now.