The Big 12's annual spring meetings will unfold this week with a loaded agenda and daunting issues awaiting conference and campus executives, from College Football Playoff expansion and the possibility of the Big Ten and SEC breaking away to the industry's attempts to regulate NIL and secure antitrust protection from Congress.
Commissioner Brett Yormark and his senior staff will provide updates. Football and men's and women's basketball coaches are scheduled to attend. Same with athletic directors. And university presidents.
The location: Frisco, Texas.
The backdrop: A cash crunch.
Every issue in major college sports can trace its roots, directly or indirectly, to the relentless pursuit of every last dollar.
That isn't new. What's new is the rate of increase. With revenue sharing and NIL as the rocket fuel, the cost to field competitive football rosters is soaring — to the point that some schools will spend more than $40 million in 2026.
Meanwhile, the revenue gap is increasing within the power conference structure. The Big Ten and SEC are flush with cash, having distributed more than $70 million in the 2025 fiscal year to each of their full-share members.
The ACC was next at $47 million.
A distant fourth: the Big 12.
The conference sent an average of 39.5 million to its full-share members, a group of 12 that includes Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah — the former Pac-12 schools that joined in the summer of 2024.
Extend the gap over the final four years of the decade and Big 12 schools will be $30 million (per campus) behind their peers in the ACC.
Actually, check that.
The ACC's performance-based revenue model, when combined with the success of the ACC Network and the disparity in playoff revenue, could give the top football schools a multi-year cash advantage over their peers in the Big 12 that approaches $45 million or $50 million.
The gap turns into a canyon when comparing Big 12 distributions to those in the SEC and Big Ten.
And we aren't referring to the Georgias and Ohio States, which have innumerable advantages beyond their paychecks from conference headquarters.
For example: Mississippi State took home $72.4 million from the SEC in the 2025 fiscal year; Utah received $37.9 million from the Big 12. That difference of $34.5 million grows to $138 million when extended annually over the final four years of the decade.
Add a disparity of approximately $10 million in CFP revenue — a new distribution model begins in 2026 — and the chasm between Utah and Mississippi State becomes roughly $178 million.
What about comparisons to the Big Ten?
Minnesota received $79.2 million in 2025 while Arizona collected $38 million from the Big 12, according to the tax filings for each conference obtained by the Hotline.
Extend that difference of $41.2 million over the rest of the decade and the total is $164.8 million. Add an $8 million annual gap in CFP cash that favors the Big Ten and the disparity soars to $196.8 million.
That's right, folks. Minnesota will collect roughly $200 million more from the Big Ten over four years than Arizona will from the Big 12 — and that doesn't account for the annual percentage increases in the respective media rights contracts that favor the Big Ten.
Why the four-year timeframe? Because that coincides with what could be the end of major college football as we know it.
Two momentous events are set for 2030: the expiration of the Big Ten's current TV contract; and the plunge in ACC departure fees that would free Miami, Clemson, Florida State and North Carolina to switch conferences.
The double whammy could lead to a restructuring of the sport, with another round or realignment or the formation of a super league.
Every school in the Big 12 hopes to be included at the adult table for whatever meal is served. Invitations will be based primarily on football success.
Football success hinges on revenue.
The Big 12 is behind — and losing ground exponentially.
That's why Yormark partnered with private equity firms (RedBird and Weatherford) for a $12.5 million capital infusion for the conference to use in pursuit of new cash.
That's why the Big 12 takes unconventional approaches to sponsorships (e.g., the LED glass floor at the basketball tournaments).
And that's why the schools favor expanding March Madness to 76 teams and the football playoff to 24.
Larger postseason tournaments mean greater access. Greater access leads to happy donors. Happy donors lead to more revenue and more talented rosters and more wins.
And more wins, in theory, lead to not getting left behind.
The Big 12 has zero choice in the revenue game. It must act aggressively and think creatively, not only this week at the spring meetings but every hour of every day until the moment, unknowable but inevitable, that everything changes.
Most recent Big 12 stories
Related topics
Jon WilnerJon Wilner has been covering college sports for decades and is an AP Top 25 football and basketball voter as well as a Heisman Trophy voter. He was named Beat Writer of the Year in 2013 by the Football Writers Association of America for his coverage of the Pac-12, won first place for feature writing in 2016 in the Associated Press Sports Editors writing contest and is a five-time APSE honoree. You can follow him on Twitter @WilnerHotline or send an email at jwilner@bayareanewsgroup.com.
Pac-12 Hotline: Subscribe to the Pac-12 Hotline Newsletter. Pac-12 Hotline is not endorsed or sponsored by the Pac-12 Conference, and the views expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the views of the Conference.
