re: Is Kentucky the most important SEC member?

quote:

---

I like basketball, and it's definitely a major sport. However, at any school that plays any semblance of big time college football, football is exponentially more important financially than every other sport.

---

Yes and No

First of all it is more linear than exponential

Second, the basketball numbers are skewed because of the NCAA

NCAA skims over 1 billion off the top every year in basketball so basketball schools revenue numbers are seriously understated. Because CFB pays no money to the NCAA they have more to split among themselves.

Viewed another way Kentucky basketball = .25 Alabama football on say a game by game basis. However the basketball program at Kentucky might play 4 or 5 times the number of home games as Alabama does in football so you have to recalculate on a total numbers as opposed individual games. Also, accounting differences by school means biggest may not reflect reality. I think UK Athletics gives about 10 million a year to UK academics and seems like almost all of it comes out of the basketball budget.