The EADA (Equity in Athletics Data Analysis) report for the 2017-18 athletic year is now available. Here are the total revenue (all sports) numbers for the top 10 FBS teams - and it's very interesting and unexpected...
Rank | Conf. | institution_name | Total Revenue |
1 | XII | The University of Texas | $210,370,940 |
2 | B1G | Ohio State University | $203,514,189 |
3 | SEC | The University of Alabama | $181,470,156 |
4 | ACC | Florida State University | $177,512,950 |
5 | SEC | University of Georgia | $176,699,894 |
6 | XII | University of Oklahoma | $175,325,500 |
7 | B1G | University of Michigan | $173,505,842 |
8 | B1G | Penn State | $165,373,212 |
9 | XII | University of Kansas | $164,738,351 |
10 | SEC | University of Florida | $157,240,476 |
#1 isn't unexpected - Texas is almost always the top revenue school. Ohio State and Alabama are familiar, too... but who's that sitting at #4... and $20 million ahead of 10th place Florida? How is this possible? I've asked this question on other boards and the best explanation anyone has offered so far is that it includes Jimbo Fisher's buyout -- but that's only about $7 million, right? FSU reported $144.7M in 2017 and $177.5M in 2018 -- an increase of $32.6M!
Does anyone here know where that extra money came from (because the other 13 ACC football schools are up by an average of only $7M from 2017 to 2018 - so FSU definitely stands out!). And before someone objects that this is EADA data - I agree that schools play with the EXPENSES side, but generally the REVENUES are pretty close. Any thoughts?
LINK: 2018 EADA Total Revenue, all P5 Teams on ACCFootballRx.