The first year of the College Football Playoff and SEC Network contributed to $527.4 million of total revenue for the Southeastern Conference.
The figures come from a tax return for the fiscal year ending in Aug. 2015 the SEC submitted to USA Today upon request. The tax return showed the SEC paid Mike Slive just less than $3.7 million for his final year as commissioner, a 75 percent raise from 2013 and more than three times what he made in 2012.
For comparison's sake, the SEC split $455.8 million of revenue from the final BCS season and before the arrival of the SEC Network between its member institutions this time last year. Each SEC school got about $31.2 million, a figure that increased by about $10 million from the previous year, ESPN reported in May.
Slive retired from what AL.com called "the most powerful job in sports" at the end of May, at which point he began a four-year stint as a consultant for the SEC. Greg Sankey became the conference's new commissioner in June.
Yahoo Sports pointed out that the SEC was not the first collegiate athletics conference to get its own TV network, but joined the Big Ten and Pac-12 in that regard. However, the SEC Network, as well as Texas' Longhorn Network, are handled by ESPN.
As of Oct., The Atlanta Journal Constitution reported, talks between ESPN and the ACC for a new TV network were on hold.
USA Today noted the NCAA's most recent tax return on record showed was from the fiscal year ending in Aug. 2014 and showed $906 million of revenue. That year the SEC made up just about half that figure, so it is not unlikely the same will happen this time.
