The Power 4 Conferences Reveal Revenue Figures for 2025: Here's Where Each Conference Stands

The college football financial arms race is being paced by the Big Ten Conference.

The league, led by commissioner Tony Petitti and his proposal for a 24-team College Football Playoff, reported $1.47 billion in revenue for fiscal year 2025, according to IRS filings obtained by USA Today. As a result of the record-breaking revenues for the Big Ten, 16 of the 18 schools in the conference received at least a $76 million distribution. Oregon and Washington, the league's two newest members, received between $46 and $48 million each, in accordance with their respective agreements to join the Big Ten from the Pac-12 as new entrants. Ohio State led the way with $91.6 million distributed to the school thanks to winning the national championship in football during the 2025 fiscal year.

The record $1.47 billion in revenue was a $540 million increase from fiscal year 2024, thanks to the escalating media revenue tied to the second season of a $7 billion television agreement with Fox, CBS and NBC.

The SEC, unsurprisingly, recorded the second-highest revenue in the Power 4

The SEC continued to keep up in the college football arms race, as the conference led by commissioner Greg Sankey also eclipsed the $1 billion mark, coming in at $1.11 billion. The league distributed at least $70.3 million to 14 of its 16 members. Much like the Big Ten, the SEC had two new members receive lower payouts, with Oklahoma receiving just $2.6 million, while Texas earned $12.1 million from the conference. Georgia recorded the highest distribution in the SEC, coming in at $74.5 million.

The jump to $1.11 billion represented a $269 million increase from fiscal year 2024, driven by the conference's new $3 billion television deal with ESPN/ABC that debuted last season.

How did the ACC and Big 12 fare? And what about the Pac-12?

The ACC came in third in the financial arms race for fiscal year 2025, as the conference saw a record revenue of $826.5 million. This represented a $115.1 million revenue increase from fiscal year 2024, thanks in large part to the television revenue associated with broadcasting games for Cal, Stanford and SMU, the league's newest members. The television revenue alone accounted for nearly a 102 million increase in revenue for the ACC.

Most ACC members received at least $42.8 million in distribution, with the exception of Notre Dame, Cal, Stanford and SMU. Those four schools received between $17 million and $23 million apiece. Clemson led the conference with a $55.1 million payout.

Out of the Power 4 conferences, the Big 12 was last in revenue in 2025. The league earned $610.9 million, positioning it well behind the SEC's $1.47 billion. This really paints a picture of how wide the gap is among the four power leagues, with an even larger gap when considering the smaller Group of 6 conferences. Even still, the Big 12 increased its revenue by $117.9 million year-over-year, thanks to the television contract revenue associated with the additions of Colorado, Arizona, Arizona State and Utah from the Pac-12. Television revenue jumped about $42 million from FY24 to FY25, while postseason bowl revenue jumped nearly $82 million.

The Big 12 distributed at least $37.9 million to most of its members, with newer schools BYU, Houston, UCF and Cincinnati receiving between $19 million and $23 million. Arizona State, thanks to its College Football Playoff appearance, received a league-best $43 million.

As for the Pac-12, the league's revenue dropped $455 million from fiscal year 2024 thanks to being left with only Washington State and Oregon State following the latest round of conference realignment. Those two schools will spearhead a newly constructed Pac-12 moving forward, but don't expect this conference to compete on the same playing field as the Power Four from a revenue standpoint moving forward.

More College Football from Sports Illustrated

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• Big Ten and Tony Petitti Turn Up Pressure on SEC in 24-Team CFP Debate
• Projecting Every Big 12 Starting Quarterback Ahead of the 2026 College Football Season
• Lincoln Riley Believes ‘It's Time' for USC to Return to College Football's Upper-Echelon

This article was originally published on www.si.com as The Power 4 Conferences Reveal Revenue Figures for 2025: Here's Where Each Conference Stands.

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This story was originally published May 22, 2026 at 1:33 PM.