College Football 2012: Big Ten Beats out SEC in Net Profits for 2010-2011

Earlier this week, in our conference rankings, we listed the SEC as the top league entering the spring of 2012. Well with the numbers out from the Department of Education, one thing is for certain; the SEC is not the king when it comes to reported profits. Keep in mind those numbers are from 2010-2011, and what that means is they are pre-Pac-12, pre-Nebraska Big Ten and pre-Sandusky scandal at Penn State.

We've already taken a look at the Big Ten numbers by themselves, where Penn State was the top dog for the time period; now we get a picture of all 48 schools that were able to turn a profit according to the report numbers.

The numbers are striking, as the Big Ten flat out dominates the top of the reported income by putting four schools in the top 10 and two schools in the top three spots. The Big 12 is the next closest league, with three schools in the top 10, and the SEC, Pac-12 and Notre Dame finalize the list.

The biggest takeaway is that Jim Delany comes out looking like a genius from a financial standpoint. By moving the Big Ten to their own network in addition to the ABC/ESPN contract, he has put nine of his conference's 11 schools in the green.

Minnesota and Northwestern are breaking even thanks to some fancy accounting, but the Big Ten overall is coming up roses, as everyone is getting paid. Even Purdue, a team with no bowl trip in 2010 and a second-round NCAA tournament exit in 2011, is pulling in cash.

In short, the Big Ten Network is working and everyone is getting paid. Cable and satellite providers are picking up the network, customers are subscribing to it and the money is flowing in the Midwest. With the recent addition of Nebraska and the Big Ten Championship, we should expect next year's figures to look quite similar.

For the SEC, the league is out there dominating on the field when it comes to BCS Championships, but they only put one team, Alabama, in the top 10 of overall net income.

However, for their lack of top-level power, the league does stand up there with the Big Ten when it comes to everyone getting paid. Eleven of the 12 SEC schools saw at least a little money to pocket, and that's a testament to Mike Slive's original television deal with ESPN and CBS that started the new "get more money" movement in college football.

The Big 12 is another surprise because for all of the disgruntled parties involved, the league as a whole is turning a profit. No, they are not even near equal with Texas, topping out at $24 million, but the schools are not sitting in the poor house.

Poor Colorado, a Pinstripe Bowl-participating Kansas State and the very angry Aggies were among the 10 schools in the 12-team league to report positive income. Only Kansas and Baylor are out in the cold when it comes to cash for fiscal 2010-2011 in the Big 12.

Props should be given to Utah as well for being the only non-BCS conference team in the mix to make money. Not Boise State, not TCU; the Utes made the money by banking $1.1 million in a season where they ended up in the Las Vegas Bowl. Someone in Salt Lake City knows what they are doing financially. It should be exciting for them to get the Pac-12 payday in the coming years and really see what they can become.

Now for the not so great: the ACC and the Big East. The ACC did have eight schools report a profit; unfortunately, five of them were below the $1 million mark. Only Virginia, Virginia Tech and Miami topped the $1 million mark. Of those three, UVA is probably the biggest surprise on the national scale, and for those with knowledge of Virginia's gigantic athletic department, the feat is even more impressive.

In the Big East, we see just three schools make the cut for finishing in the black. Louisville, Syracuse and UConn are carrying the torch for the league, which is in a bit of disarray as it stands now. West Virginia does not make the list and with these numbers, is it any wonder why the Mountaineers are headed to the Big 12 to get their money up?

All in all, this paints a pretty healthy picture for the schools in the BCS leagues, as 73 percent of their members are making enough money to cover their costs. Obviously these numbers don't tell the whole story, but they do shed some light on who has it and who doesn't.

It is no surprise that non-BCS schools want to get into the mix, as only one of their teams reported positive earnings in 2010-2011. For schools like Mizzou, Texas A&M and Nebraska, all of which are showing returns, the moves were less about being dead broke and more about closing the wealth gap between themselves and the big boys at the top.

With the new money deals taking form in the Pac-12 and Big 12, the SEC due up for a renegotiation this summer and the expansion of the Big Ten Network's footprint, it will be interesting to see how this list looks a year from now.