McMurphy: SEC to provide each member university $23m to offset COVID losses

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Brett McMurphy
@Brett_McMurphy

SEC provides each member university $23 million supplemental revenue distribution to help mitigate financial impact of COVID pandemic on SEC athletics programs. SEC is using future conference revenues to provide the 1-time supplement for regular 2020-21 fiscal year distributions

4:09 PM · May 19, 2021

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This one-time supplemental distribution of revenue is designed to help offset a portion of lost revenue that each campus experienced while operating in the COVID-19 environment. Revenue shortfalls varied across SEC members but averaged approximately $45 million per SEC athletics program. [In particular, the SEC noted the extraordinarily high costs of testing its athletes for COVID-19 multiple times per week -- at least $2 million per program, Sankey told Ross Dellenger of Sports Illustrated.]

The SEC is using future increases in media rights revenue to facilitate this supplemental distribution to its 14 member schools. Beginning in 2025, the SEC will allocate a portion of the media rights fees to be received by the conference to fund the supplemental distribution. The SEC projects that its annual distribution to each school will still increase in 2025 and beyond, even after a portion of the new revenue is reallocated.

While each athletic department will be permitted to utilize the supplemental funds at its discretion, the expectation is that the supplemental revenue will be used to maintain each school's historically high standards for academic, athletic, medical, nutritional and mental health support for their student-athletes and help offset the significant costs associated with COVID testing during the 2020-21 athletic year.

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