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Why Isn't Big Ten Revenue Distribution Equal?

+2 HS
analyticalguy's picture
April 2, 2018 at 1:00pm
21 Comments

The local paper here in Joisey (the Star Ledger, online as nj.com) published an article comparing the financials for the Big Ten school athletic programs (focusing on the irrelevancy that is Rutgers athletics).

see http://www.nj.com/rutgersfootball/index.ssf/2018/04/michigan_and_ohio_state_rake_in_185m_which_big_ten.html

tOSU edges 2nd place TSUN for total revenue ($185.3 million to $185.2) and has a more comfortable margin in total ticket sales ($61.6 million to $55.3).  Those two schools are among five that make a profit, while two others essentially broke even.

What I don't understand is the distribution of Big Ten funds to the schools, summarized as follows:

Wisconsin: $44.3 million
Maryland: $37.3 million
Illinois: $36.3 million
Michigan: $35.2 million
Indiana: $35 million
Purdue: $34.7 million
Minnesota: $33.9 million
Iowa: $33.5 million
Ohio State: $33.1 million
Michigan State: $32.9 million
Penn State: $31.5 million
Nebraska: $24.7 million
Rutgers: $16.1 million

Why doesn't MD, as a newcomer, end up down at the bottom with Rutgers (and even Nebraska and PSU), rather than ahead of the pack, second from the top? Any why is Wisconsin so special that they would that far ahead of everyone else? And why would tOSU end up at the back of the pack? 

Of course, I'm making a big assumption that the newspaper got its facts straight.

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