Leadoff: UGA, other SEC schools get almost $41M apiece from conference
Good morning. This is LEADOFF, today’s early look inside Atlanta sports.
It's no surprise that the SEC generates a lot of money, but the conference office Thursday provided its annual accounting of how much.
Georgia and the 13 other SEC athletics programs received an average of about $40.9 million apiece in distributions from the conference for the 2016-17 fiscal year, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey announced.
That’s up slightly from $40.4 million in 2015-16 and up dramatically from previously reported figures of $32.7 million in 2014-15 and $21 million in 2013-14.
The SEC Network fueled part of the growth.
The total amount distributed for 2016-17 was $573.8 million, which doesn’t include $23.1 million retained by schools that participated in football bowl games to offset travel and other expenses.
The distribution includes revenue generated from TV deals, bowl games, the College Football Playoff, the SEC Championship football game, the SEC men’s basketball tournament and NCAA championship events.
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About the Author
Tim Tucker, a long-time AJC sports reporter, often writes about the business side of the games. He also had stints as the AJC's Braves beat writer, UGA beat writer, sports notes columnist and executive sports editor. He was deputy managing editor of America's first all-sports newspaper, The National Sports Daily.
