Federal tax records show that the "early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic all but halted the Power Five college sports conferences’ seemingly unstoppable revenue growth." After averaging collective annual increases of nearly $252M over the previous six years, the conferences’ combined revenue rose by less than $11M in FY '20 and remained just over $2.9B. Two of the five (Big Ten and Big 12) saw income declines, and another (ACC) operated at a "modest loss even though its revenue increased." Four conferences "provided their new returns this week," while the SEC "made its return public in early February." The documents "provided new information about commissioners’ pre-pandemic pay" and revealed "fresh insight" into spending on lobbying related to NIL (USA TODAY, 5/20).
| POWER FIVE FY '20 REVENUE BY CONFERENCE | ||
| CONFERENCE | REVENUE | +/- FROM FY '19 |
| ACC | $497M | +$40M |
| Big Ten | $768.9M | -$12.6M |
| Big 12 | $409M | -$30M |
| Pac-12 | $533.8M | +$3M |
| SEC | $729M | +$8.4M |
