Maryland helps ACC revenues increase sharply from 2014

The ACC had a large increase in revenue in 2015 and it has a former member to thank for it.

According to USA Today, the conference made $100 million more than it did in the 2014 fiscal year. 30 percent of that money was from the exit fee the conference negotiated with Maryland, which is now a member of the Big Ten.

The return — provided Friday in response to a request by USA TODAY Sports — shows the ACC had $403.1 million in total revenue during a fiscal year ending June 30, 2015. That figure that represents a nearly $100 million increase over what the conference reported receiving during its 2014 fiscal year, although $31.4 million came from the settlement with Maryland, which departed for the Big Ten Conference.

In 2014 — the ACC’s first fiscal year with Pittsburgh, Syracuse and Notre Dame — the conference’s reported a nearly $70 million revenue increase to $302.3 million, not including another $11 million that the conference used to reimburse schools for their expenses related to participating in conference championships.

Maryland had countersued the ACC in the parties' dispute over the amount of the exit fee. The two reached a settlement in early August.

Commissioner John Swofford got a nice pay bump too. He made approximately $2.7 million in the calendar year 2014, a near $600,000 increase from his salary in 2013.

If you're wondering how the ACC's revenue stacks up to other conferences, we've got you covered.

 

• The Big Ten's revenue in the 2015 fiscal year was nearly $450 million. Of course, the conference has a TV network that the ACC doesn't have.

 

• The SEC also has the SEC Network and it made almost $530 million from Sept. 1, 2014-Aug. 31, 2015.

 

• The Pac-12's Network isn't as widely distributed as the other two. It had revenue shy of $440 million in the 2015 fiscal year.

 

• The Big 12 had just under $270 million in revenue for the fiscal year. Unlike the three conferences listed above, it has 10 teams vs. 14.

 

Per the report, the ACC's revenue findings mean Power Five conferences had a combined revenue increase of over $500 million. Thank you, television contracts and the College Football Playoff.