OU among top college sports revenue producers before moving to SEC

Make no mistake, college athletics, particularly at the highest level, is a business. It's been that way for some time, but none more so than in the last 10 to 15 years with the explosion of conference realignment, the free-agent highway known as the transfer portal and student-athlete compensation through the use of name, image and likeness, more simply referred to as NIL money.

Athletic programs like at the University of Oklahoma are constantly evolving to stay ahead of the economic curve and fund as many as 19 different men's and women's sports. Operating revenues are a key and critical part of this process and football is the prime revenue producer at every school that has a football component.

It was only a couple of years ago that payment of any kind beyond that earned through an athletic or academic scholarship was strictly prohibited by NCAA rules. John Williams, a staff writer for Sooners Wire, an OU-dedicated website affiliated with the USA Today network, wrote in a recent article that "athletic departments will soon pay players directly," and that name, image and likeness efforts like Oklahoma's newly consolidated 1Oklahoma initiative "will be moved in house with the full backing and support from the universities."

In moving to the SEC, Oklahoma should continue to be a major player in a number of sports, but of course most of the discussion the past couple of years has been about the Sooners' readiness to compete and contend in the SEC in football, the sport that has always been OU's claim to national recognition and fame

As new members of the SEC, Oklahoma and Texas will receive a higher revenue share than they received in the Big 12, which clearly was a major incentive to join the league. That difference was close to $11 million comparing the just ended 2023-24 academic year. But the Sooners and Longhorns are also huge revenue producers. That in itself will boost the revenue pie and eventual payout in the SEC, plus the annual media revenue from the new $3 billion, 10-year contract with ESPN will boost the annual revenue payout to the now 16 SEC schools even higher.

Sportico, a website that covers the latest trends and developments in the business of sports and other business categories, recently issued a report listing the college football schools with the highest total operating revenue for the 2022-23 academic year, the latest period for which these financial numbers are available.

Oklahoma was No. 3 on the list with operating revenue from football of $143.1 million. That trailed only Texas ($183 million) and Georgia ($152.7 million). For the Sooners, that represented a $12 million increase over 2021-22, despite Oklahoma going just 6-7 in Brent Venables' first season as head coach (in the fall of 2022).

Nine of the 14 SEC schools for the period covered are ranked in the top 25, and if you were to add Oklahoma and Texas that number would jump to 11 of the current 16 SEC schools.

Regarding the Sportico report, private schools and service academies are not required to disclose financial information, so schools like USC, Notre Dame, Duke, TCU, Baylor amd the service academies are not included.

Of the top 25 schools based on operating revenue from football in 2022-23, only three schools will compete outside of the SEC and Big Ten in 2024-25