Pac-12 Blog

          Breaking down the Pac-12 financials

          Doing your own tax returns is a headache. Reading someone else's? That's not a load of fun either.

          However, when it comes to reading the returns from the Pac-12, no one does it better than The Mercury News' Jon Wilner, who broke down the Pac-12's financials from the 2015 fiscal year, or CBS Sports' Jon Solomon, who also broke down the Pac-12's financials.

          One of the most surprising takeaways? That there are nine Pac-12 employees -- excluding commissioner Larry Scott, who raked in more than $4 million -- who are making more money than the second-highest-paid employee in the SEC, which (by the way) made about $88 million more than the Pac-12 during the FY2015.

          Their research is chock full of interesting tidbits. But, many Pac-12 fans are wondering what comes next for their beloved conference. Wilner takes a look (and it might scare you a bit).

          "From this corner of the galaxy, it appears the Pac-12 is approaching its revenue ceiling," he writes.

          He goes on: "The revenue streams for the SEC and Big Ten are growing at a much faster rate than those of the Pac-12. ... Really, the league’s best hope is to renegotiate its Tier 1 deal and hope changes in technology and consumer behavior allow it to reap the rewards of 100 percent ownership in the Pac12Nets. But that’s eight years away. Think about that -- about the possibility that for eight more years, the average Pac-12 school will receive $10 million less than the average Big Ten or SEC school."

          A few of the breakdowns from both Wilner and Solomon's research:

          Distribution per school vs. other conferences:

          • SEC: $32.7 million (86.6 percent of the SEC's revenue)

          • Big Ten: $32 million (complete conference finances have yet to be disclosed)

          • Pac-12: $25.1 millions (68.5 percent of the Pac-12's revenue)

          • Big 12: $23.3 millions (88 percent of the Big 12's revenue)

          Larry Scott's personal financials:

          • $2.55 million: Base salary

          • $1.25 million: Bonus

          • $142,459: Other reportable compensation

          • $77,500: Retirement and deferred compensation

          • $30,950: Nontaxable benefits

          Other Pac-12 employees pulling in more than $340K:

          • Scott (see above)

          • Lydia Murphy Stephens, president of Pac-12 Networks ($1,247,223)

          • Ronald McQuate, CFO ($461,790)

          • Arturo Marquez, senior VP of affiliate sales ($597,918)

          • Neil Davis, executive VP of sales ($568,493)

          • Brent Willman, senior VP of finance ($514,526)

          • Danette Leighton, CMO ($501,654)

          • Jonathan Leess, executive VP of ops ($478,798)

          • Kevin Weiberg, former deputy commissioner ($340,548)

          It's a lot of dense information, but Wilner and Solomon both do a good job of breaking it down and it's worth your time to take a look at the numbers in both of their reports.