Despite Economy, Big 12 Turns Huge Profit

Even most colleges and conferences are feeling the financial strain in this poor economy. Not the Big 12 though. On Thursday, officials from the conference announced that they’d be distributing $130 millon to its members. That’s a record reimbursement – and outshines last year (the previous record) by 14.5%.

The Big 12 was never an unpopular conference, but they’ve also not the SEC…yet. With strong teams that have been solid year after year, such as Oklahoma and Texas, the conference is only growing in popularity.

Oklahoma vs. Texas in 2008, Image: Newscom

But remember – that’s just football. The Big 12 is still working on ways to cut costs across the board so that some of the more popular sports programs aren’t carrying some of the weaker programs. Some of the ways they could be trimming costs include eliminating non-traditonal playing seasons in less popular/successful sports (like volleybal), cutting travel to regional track and field championships, cutting foreign travel for all-star teams and individual teams, and elimination the printed media guides.

Says Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe,

“Cost-containment is important because we want to drive as much revenue as possible back to the schools. We need to be cognizant of returning revenue to our schools so they can support their programs. The conference itself is going to be stable, but we are trying to help schools make up for any losses.”