Big Ten Football: Biggest Shocks from Conference Profits This Past Year

The season is over, and we all saw where the chips fell in the Big Ten as the Badgers emerged on top, narrowly edging out the Spartans for the championship.

The Leaders as a whole shook out as follows—Wisconsin, Penn State, Purdue, Ohio State, Illinois and Indiana. On the other side, the Legends finished with Michigan State, Michigan, Nebraska, Iowa, Northwestern and Minnesota.

All in all for the first year of divisional play things worked out well, and as long as the league can figure out how to make the Big Ten Championship Game an event then things will continue to improve.

While we knew on the field results and the stats behind them, the numbers that really matter in today's world of college football are the finances.

The Business of College Sports has the financial data for 2010-11 of Big Ten schools from the Department of Education. There are a couple surprising figures, and as a whole these numbers show that the Big Ten is solid as far as the future goes.

Penn State posted profits of some $31.6 million for fiscal 2010-11. Obviously we'll see how that looks next year after the scandal and the dust settles.

For now though, the folks in State College, PA are rolling in dough and have firmly taken their place among the nation's elite cash earners—ahead of both Ohio State and Michigan, two schools who print money.

So this is the first big shock as Penn State beats out Ohio State—a team that went on to win the Sugar Bowl but also lost their head coach and took a media beating at the hands of the NCAA scandal.

While Penn State's mega-profitability was a bit of a surprise as they set the pace for the Big Ten, Wisconsin's utter lack of cashing out is equally striking. Rose Bowl trip, Big Ten title, Sweet 16 basketball team in 2011, and yet the Badgers can't find a way to generate more revenue.

Just $655 thousand in profit is not exactly what a school like Wisconsin should be gunning for. True, the Badgers do operate at the third highest cost of any athletic department in the conference, behind just Michigan and Ohio State.

On paper their huge small profit margin makes sense, but when you look deeper into it you realize there are some serious issues in spending. The Badgers athletic department does not carry anywhere near the load of Michigan or Ohio State.

Michigan is pushing 30 sports while Ohio State is over 30; yet the Badgers, at 23 sports, somehow can't find a way to spend their cash more efficiently. 

Obviously the zero profits of Northwestern and Minnesota are interesting to say the least. The teams are just getting by and somehow every penny earned is a penny spent.

When you look at the big picture the profits tell us a solid story—the Big Ten is a healthy league. The Big Ten Network is flourishing after many folks were uncertain as to what to make of the channel and its regional appeal.

Cable and satellite providers are offering it, and subscribers are picking up the tab with boatloads of cash flowing into the conference. Throw in the ESPN deal and the league is in prime position right now as far as being ready for the future.

Unlike the SEC, Big XII or the Pac-12 there is no hard cap on the earnings of the Big Ten which makes their situation high risk and high reward.

As more providers offer the BTN, even making it a part of the standard package, that means more money for the Midwestern league and that's a good thing for all of the schools involved.