The Big Ten Conference “maintained its status as the nation's highest-revenue college sports league” in FY ‘13, according to federal tax records cited by Steve Berkowitz of USA TODAY. The 12-team Big Ten reported $318.4M in “total revenue for a fiscal year that ended June 30, 2013.” That is “just ahead” of the $314.5M “reported by the 14-team SEC for a fiscal year that ended Aug. 31, 2013.” The tax return showed Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany was “credited with nearly” $1.8M in “total compensation” for the ‘12 calendar year. Each Big Ten school received about $25.9M from the conference in FY ’13 "except Nebraska, which is still receiving a partial share after moving from the Big 12, and Penn State," which received about $2.3M less because NCAA sanctions made them ineligible for football bowl games during that FY. The new tax return “also showed the league-owned Big Ten Network increasing its annual after-tax profit for the league.” The net “generated an after-tax profit” of $13.4M for the conference in FY ‘13, up about $2.4M from FY ’12 (USA TODAY, 5/17).
POWER PLAY: In Omaha, Lee Barfknecht wrote fans of Nebraska athletics “got a reminder last week why they should regularly thank Chancellor Harvey Perlman and former Athletic Director Tom Osborne for the Huskers’ move to the Big Ten.” The switch “assured NU ... a spot at the ‘adult table’ for a long, long time.” For much of the previous 20 years, “maintaining power-conference membership in Lincoln was far shakier than you might like to believe.” Barfknecht: “Yes, you can moan and groan about extra travel in the Big Ten and how the scheduling makes little sense and how the divisions are aligned and how the football is down and other things. Guess what? Those aren’t big deals. What is a big deal is that Nebraska, by being in the Big Ten, will help decide what the future athletic landscape will look like, instead of having to react to change” (OMAHA WORLD-HERALD, 5/19).
