The Big Ten was left out of the College Football Playoff for the first time in four years but the 14-team conference will still receive the biggest playoff payout.
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Wisconsin's loss to Ohio State in the Big Ten Championship and the Buckeyes' subsequent exclusion from the four-team field excluded the conference from a $6-million guaranteed payday. That amount is paid to each conference for each playoff participant, according to Kristi Dosh of Forbes.
This year, the SEC gets $12 million for Alabama and Georgia's semifinal appearances, while both the ACC and Big 12 receiver $6 million apiece for Clemson and Oklahoma, respectively.
The Big Ten, however, still cashed thanks to the Badgers and Buckeyes reaching New Year's Six bowl games, the Orange Bowl and Fiesta Bowl, respectively. The Orange Bowl payout is a whopping $27.5 million while the Fiesta Bowl payout is $4 million.
The $27.5 million accounts for nearly one-third of the Big Ten's entire College Football Playoff payout and gives the conference the highest payout of any conference.
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Here's a brief breakdown of the Power Five conference payouts. You can view a more comprehensive breakdown at Forbes, along with information on Group of Five conferences, Notre Dame and the FCS and how the conference distributes the money to their schools.
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1. Big Ten – $89.5 million
As mentioned, nearly one-third of the Big Ten's total payout comes from the Orange Bowl. The bulk of the remaining $65 million is a $54-million base payout from the College Football Playoff, which includes $300,000 for each conference member that meets the NCAA's APR (academic progress rate) postseason standard.
2. ACC – $87.5 million
In addition to the ACC's $54-million base payout, they also get $27.5 million for Miami's Orange Bowl appearance and $6 million for Clemson's semifinal berth.
3. SEC – $70 million
Despite having two playoff participants, the SEC is receiving nearly $20 million less than the Big Ten. Twelve million dollars comes from Georgia and Alabama's berths in the semifinals, and $4 million is received from Auburn's Peach Bowl berth.
4. Pac-12 – $62 million
Not only did the Pac-12 miss on a $6-million playoff payday, they didn't have a big-time revenue game like the Orange Bowl. The conference did, however, have two teams in New Year's Six bowls that earned $4 million each: USC in the Cotton Bowl and Washington in the Fiesta Bowl.
5. Big 12 – $60 million
The Big 12's revenue distribution only contains two pieces: The $54-million base payout and $6 million for Oklahoma's playoff berth.
