When it comes to college sports, there is a huge divide between the haves and the have-nots.
Of the 1,062 colleges and universities that field varsity athletic teams under the banner of the NCAA, only 396 — fewer than half — made at least $10 million off their sports teams in 2022, the most recent year with available data. Among those schools, only 56 — about 5% — made at least $100 million.
And there is a clear class division among the top 127 Football Bowl Subdivision schools.
All of the "Power 5" conferences that make up the elite of college sports are represented among the top 23 athletics revenue-producing schools. However, 10 are from the football powerhouse Southeastern Conference, and six of the schools are from the recently expanded Big Ten Conference.
The remaining seven schools represent the Atlantic Coast Conference, the Big 12 Conference, and the Pac-12 Conference. However, two of those schools will be moving to the SEC, and one will join the Big Ten in 2024.
We used data made available by the US Department of Education and calculated the average revenue generated by athletic programs for the three most recent years available, 2020 through 2022. Major sources of income include conference television contracts divided among the member schools, sponsorships, and ticket sales.
We also looked at the average annual revenue for the three sports that typically generate the most: football, men's basketball, and women's basketball.