After a one-year downturn in revenue, the Southeastern Conference returned to its usual path of increasing income during its 2023 fiscal year, the conference’s new federal tax records show.

The document – provided by the conference on Thursday in response to a request from USA TODAY Sports ‒ shows the SEC with total revenue of nearly $853 million for a year ending Aug. 31, 2023, about $50 million more (6%) than its total for 2022.

That resulted in an average of about $51.3 million being distributed to each of its 14 member schools.

The conference reported just over $802 million in revenue for its 2022 fiscal year, and average distributions of about $49.9 million per school.

Not adjusting for inflation, the total was a little more than $833 million in 2021.

The new total appears to put the SEC on a path toward $1 billion to $1.1 billion in revenue in its 2024-25 fiscal year, when Oklahoma and Texas will join the conference, ESPN/ABC will take over the Saturday afternoon football TV package that CBS has held and the College Football Playoff will expand to 12 teams from four, while the number of power conferences will shrink to four from five.

The SEC said in a statement answering questions from USA TODAY Sports that the official start date of its new football TV deal is Sept. 1, 2024, so none of the associated revenue will hit the conference’s books during its current fiscal year.    

How SEC stacks up, and where new money came from

The SEC is the first of the Power Five conferences to release its tax records for fiscal 2023. Its total revenue likely will be surpassed by the Big Ten’s. In 2022, the Big Ten’s revenue total was nearly $846 million; its per-school distribution was about $58.8 million for each school other than relative newcomers Nebraska, Maryland and Rutgers, which still were not yet receiving full shares.

While the SEC was second to the Big Ten in 2022, it was $185 million ahead of the third-highest total by a Power Five conference — the Atlantic Coast’s $617 million.

The SEC’s new document showed that its television/radio rights fees revenue was basically unchanged in 2023 ($544 million vs. $540 million in 2022).

The increase came from revenue attributed to postseason events, including bowl games, and investment income that the SEC said resulted from rising interest rates. The conference reported on the new return that its net assets stood at $191 million as of Aug. 31, 2023.

SEC loans and repayment

However, the interest-rate environment hurt the SEC in another way. Its interest expense nearly tripled to $21 million, as the conference continued to have $350 million in outstanding loans it took in 2021 to provide each of its schools with a $23.3 million advance on future conference distributions, to ease the budgetary impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Added to figures from prior tax records, this means that, through Aug. 31, 2023, the conference had paid about $32 million in interest on the loans.

The SEC said it will begin repaying the loans during the 2024-25 fiscal year, “with an option to pay over three years or five years.”

This has the prospect of some interesting impacts on schools’ revenue shares as Oklahoma and Texas join the conference.

Oklahoma and Texas will be getting no money from the SEC’s primary revenue sharing pool in 2024-25, according to the schools' entry agreements. However, they stand to collect millions through football- and men’s-basketball-specific distributions that already existed under the SEC’s bylaws. They could receive additional money through other specially negotiated terms. And they will get what their agreements describe as “transition” payments being funded by ESPN.

Meanwhile, as the SEC’s revenues grow substantially, the amounts of the enhanced revenue shares will be smaller than they otherwise would have been as the conference repays the loans. Texas and Oklahoma will begin receiving full shares from the SEC in 2025-26, their agreements with the conference say.

But the conference’s bylaws state: “Before any revenues of the Conference are allocated and distributed as otherwise provided in (the bylaws), the Commissioner shall make provision for payment of principal, interest, fees and any other amounts payable with respect to indebtedness of the Conference when and as such amounts become due.”

SEC commissioner’s pay

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey was credited with just over $3.6 million in total compensation during the 2022 calendar year, the new return shows. That's down from just over $3.7 million reported for him in 2021.

The amount for 2022 included a $175,000 decrease in Sankey’s base salary compared to the one reported for him in 2021.

(Non-profit organizations must report figures for the most highly paid employees based on the calendar year completed during their fiscal years.)

However, the conference said in its statement that the difference “is related to a one-time merit bonus provided to Commissioner Sankey in 2021 for his leadership through COVID.”

The conference declined to provide the amount of the bonus. It said the amount was included in Sankey's base pay because it was "additional compensation that was written into his employment contract" as part of an extension announced in August 2021 and "considered to be a nondiscretionary payment." In July 2023, the SEC announced another contract extension with Sankey that is set to carry the agreement through at least 2028.

Sankey’s pay for 2022 is nearly identical to the amount the Big Ten reported for then-commissioner Kevin Warren for 2021.