The Sun Belt Conference, home of South Alabama athletics, finished first among the non-automatic qualifying conferences in Bowl Championship Series revenue for the 2013 season, the final year of the BCS era.
The Sun Belt’s share of the performance-based revenue came to $4 million, ahead of the Mountain West Conference, Conference USA and the Mid-American Conference.
How the Money Was Divided
Performance-based revenue among the non-AQ leagues totaled $6 million and was divided by shares according to a conference ranking. By finishing first, the Sun Belt received four shares, the Mountain West three, and so on down the list.
The non-AQ revenue figures were:
- Sun Belt Conference — $4 million
- Mountain West Conference — $3.4 million
- Conference USA — $2.8 million
- Mid-American Conference — $2.28 million
The standings were determined by averaging the rank of each conference’s schools in the six BCS computer rankings. The Sun Belt ranked first with an average team rank of 77.39.
The MAC came close to a larger payout. Undefeated Northern Illinois lost the MAC championship game, missing out on a probable BCS bowl berth worth $6 million to the league, and the conference then went 0-5 in bowl games.
Bowl Wins Lift League Leaders
Louisiana-Lafayette was the Sun Belt’s highest-ranked team in the computers, averaging 52.5 after a win over Tulane in the New Orleans Bowl moved it up from 66th. Co-champion Arkansas State finished at 55.66, up from 73rd, after beating Ball State in the GoDaddy Bowl.
Neither Sun Belt team was among the highest-ranked non-BCS programs individually. The top five from those conferences in the computer averages were Fresno State (32.2), Northern Illinois (36.5), East Carolina (46.2), Rice (47.3) and Utah State (50.2). The Sun Belt’s overall ranking as a league, however, was higher than the other conferences’.
Playoff Era Brings Larger Payouts
The new College Football Playoff begins next season under a 12-year agreement. The five power conferences — the Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, ACC and SEC — will split 71.5 percent of approximately $400 million in revenue in the first year.
The American Athletic Conference will drop to non-AQ status and the five non-power conferences will split approximately $86.5 million, up from a maximum of $28 million under the BCS. For the Sun Belt, that represents roughly a tenfold increase, from about $100,000 per school to about $1 million per school.
Beginning next season, the highest-ranked team among those 59 schools, as determined by the playoff selection committee, will receive an automatic berth in one of the four major bowls outside the two national semifinals.
Membership Changes Ahead
The Sun Belt’s membership will change significantly next season. Western Kentucky will move to Conference USA, while former Football Championship Subdivision programs Georgia Southern and Appalachian State join the league along with independents Idaho and New Mexico State.
South Alabama, which plays its home football games at Ladd-Peebles Stadium in Mobile, is a member of the Sun Belt Conference.
