SEC Tops $1 Billion in Total School Payouts for 2024-25 Fiscal Year

Average payouts for most schools while league newcomers Texas and Oklahoma receive reduced transition shares.

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey on the stage during SEC Media Days at the College Football Hall of Fame. | Dale Zanine-Imagn Images

The Southeastern Conference didn’t just open the checkbook for the 2024-25 fiscal year.

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey flipped it upside down and shook it until more than $1 billion fell out for its schools. Considering Arkansas is scraping nickels together these days that's probably welcome news.

According to figures released by the league, the SEC distributed over $1 billion to its 16 member universities for the fiscal year that ended Aug. 31, 2024. That’s not a typo. That’s a “billion with a B,” and it represents a jump of more than $200 million from the previous year.

In plain terms, the rich didn’t just get richer. They upgraded the vault.

For schools that were fully in the conference for the entire fiscal year, the average payout came out to about $72.4 million per university. That number alone is roughly $18.6 million higher than the average distribution from the 2023-24 year.

That’s the kind of increase that makes athletic directors sleep better and accountants double-check the spreadsheet just to make sure no one added an extra zero.

SEC distributed $1.03 billion to its school in the 2024-25 fiscal year - an increase of $200 million from the previous year.

Average per schools: $72.4 million. pic.twitter.com/iFTighD3pr

— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) February 5, 2026

Of course, not every SEC logo saw the same amount hit its bank account. Texas and Oklahoma, the league’s newest neighbors, were still settling in and didn’t receive full shares.

Texas received $12.1 million, while Oklahoma brought in $2.6 million, reflecting their partial-year participation as they transitioned into the conference. It’s not exactly couch-change money, but it’s a far cry from what the long-time members pocketed.

Still, the bigger picture tells the real story. The SEC’s financial machine continues to churn, and it’s doing so at a pace that leaves the rest of college athletics squinting at the numbers.

This distribution covers revenue from television agreements, postseason bowl games, the College Football Playoff, the SEC championship game, the conference’s men’s basketball tournament and NCAA championships. In other words, just about every place where the SEC shows up on national television and says, “Watch this.”

That steady stream of high-profile exposure keeps turning into steady streams of revenue, which then funnel back to the schools that help create it.

Some of that money never even made it into the shared pool.

Schools that participated in bowl games and the College Football Playoff retained $37.4 million combined, keeping those earnings rather than placing them into the conference distribution system. Success, it turns out, still comes with perks.

SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey | Andrew Nelles / Tennessean.com, Nashville Tennessean via Imagn Content Services, LLC

What the Billion-Dollar SEC Payout Really Means

For fans, this kind of financial headline can feel distant, like it lives somewhere between conference meetings and budget reports. But that money shows up all over campus, even if it doesn’t always announce itself.

These distributions help fund everything from coaching salaries and facility upgrades to travel budgets, equipment purchases and support staff. They also play a role in keeping non-revenue sports alive, the ones that don’t sell out stadiums but still matter to campuses and communities.

The size of the payout also reinforces why the SEC continues to drive conversations about the future of college sports. When one conference can clear a billion dollars in annual distributions, it shapes how everyone else plans, negotiates and competes.

The gap between the SEC and other leagues isn’t just about wins and losses anymore. It’s about resources, stability and the ability to absorb changes in the sport without blinking.

Texas and Oklahoma will eventually join the full-share crowd, which means future distributions could climb even higher. The league already proved this year that adding schools didn’t slow the money train down. If anything, it sped it up.

For now, the takeaway is simple. The SEC isn’t just leading college athletics on the field. It’s lapping the competition on the balance sheet.

And judging by the numbers, it doesn’t look like it’s done counting yet.