Cash Cow

From SEC release...

The Southeastern Conference will distribute approximately $132.5 million to the 12 league institutions in the revenue sharing plan for the 2008-2009 fiscal year, which ends Aug. 31, 2009, according to league commissioner Mike Slive.

The $132.5 million is the highest total ever distributed in SEC history and represents a 4.0 percent increase from the $127.6 million distributed to the schools in 2007-2008.

The revenue sharing plans include money generated by football television, bowls, the SEC Football Championship, basketball television, the SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament and NCAA Championships.

Broken down by categories and rounded off, the $132.5 million was derived from $52 million from football television, $25.4 million from bowls, $14.3 million from the SEC Football Championship, $13.6 million from basketball television, $4.1 million from the SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament and $23.1 million from NCAA Championships.

The average amount distributed to each school was $11.1 million.

Not included in the $132.5 million was $11.6 million retained by the institutions participating in bowls and $744,000 divided among all 12 institutions by the NCAA for academic enhancement.

Other yearly money distributions, since 1980, are as follows: 1980 ($4.1 million); 1981 ($5.57 million); 1982 ($7.24 million); 1983 ($9.53 million); 1984 ($18.4 million); 1985 ($9.34 million); 1986 ($13.1 million); 1987 ($13.56 million); 1988 ($14.34 million); 1989 ($13.85 million); 1990 ($16.3 million); 1991 ($20.6 million); 1992 ($27.7 million); 1993 ($34.34 million); 1994 ($34.36 million); 1995 ($40.3 million); 1996 ($45.5 million); 1997 ($58.9 million); 1998 ($61.2 million); 1999 ($68.5 million); 2000 ($73.2 million); 2001 ($78.1 million); 2002 ($95.7 million); 2003 ($101.9 million); 2004 ($108.8 million); 2005 ($110.7 million); 2006 ($116.1 million); 2007 ($122.0 million); 2008 ($127.6 million) and 2009 ($132.5 million).

NOTE FROM DAVID: Pay close attention to those numbers in the last graph... the revenue has doubled in the last 10 years and increased nearly 400 percent in the past 15 years. Wow.