Ranking BYU Sports by Revenue Generated in Inaugural Big 12 Season

A new era of college spots is officially underway. Beginning in July, BYU athletics will be permitted to share a portion of revenue with its athletes. The revenue share cap for the first year is set at $20.5M. The revenue share will likely be distributed proportionally to the sports that generate the most revenue.

According to Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports, Power Four schools are expected to distribute ~90% of revenue to football and men's basketball.

With that in mind, we're looking at the revenue each sport generated at BYU in 2023. That's the most recent year of data available from the Department of Education.

In total, BYU generated $130 million in revenue in its inaugural Big 12 season. Of the $130 million, $79 million was attributed to specific sports. The remaining $51 million was not allocated a specific sport. That bucket of revenue likely includes things like conference media revenue distribution.

Ranking BYU Sports by Revenue Generated

1. Football - $44.5M
2. Men's Basketball - $18.4M
3. Women's Soccer - $2.8M
4. Men's Golf - $2.1M
5. Women's Volleyball - $2.0M
6. Men's Volleyball - $1.6M
7. Women's Golf - $1.5M
8. Baseball - $1.2M
9. Women's Tennis - $1.2M
10. Women's Basketball - $1.0M
11. Women's Track/Field - $0.7M
12. Men's Track/Field - $0.5M
13. Softball - $0.4M
14. Gymnastics - $0.4M
15. Women's Swim/Dive - $0.4M
16. Men's Swim/Dive - $0.3M
17. Men's Tennis - $0.2M

BYU is identical to other Power Four schools in that football and men's basketball generate the lion's share of the revenue. Of the revenue allocated to specific sports, football and men's basketball generated 79% of total revenue. At minimum, its safe to expect the football team and men's basketball team will receive most of the revenue shared by BYU.

Let's assume BYU is prepared to share the full $20.5M in revenue this year. If BYU allocated the $20.5M according to revenue generated, each sport would receive the following amount to share with its athletes:

• Football - $11.5M
• Men's Basketball - $4.8M
• Women's Soccer - $0.7M
• Men's Golf - $0.5M
• Women's Volleyball - $0.5M
• Men's Volleyball - $0.4M
• Women's Golf - $0.4M
• Baseball - $0.3M
• Women's Tennis - $0.3M
• Women's Basketball - $0.3M
• Women's Track/Field - $0.2M
• Men's Track/Field - $0.1M
• Softball - $0.1M
• Gymnastics - $0.1M
• Women's Swim/Dive - <$0.1M
• Men's Swim/Dive - <$0.1M
• Men's Tennis - <$0.1M

According to reports, football teams are expected to received $13 million - $16 million of the $20.5M in revenue. That's likely because a large portion of the unallocated revenue ($50.6M in BYU's case), is driven by football and basketball.