The official acknowledged that because of the length and structure of the SEC’s current television contract, adding Texas A&M and a 14th member would not be financially beneficial from a rights standpoint.
Texas A&M and Team No. 14 are expected to receive a pro rata share equal to what the SEC’s 12 current universities are making: an average of about $18 million in league payouts. (Individual universities can make more money from their separate television deals.)
The SEC deal, which ends in 2025, has a few windows when it can be renegotiated but no one from the SEC or the networks expects any radical change.
So the notion that Texas A&M will see a significant financial gain by going to the SEC is not true. While the SEC offers more long-term security, the Big 12 could end up with a television deal in four years that surpasses the annual payout of the SEC, according to Joel Lulla, a New York-based lawyer who is the Big 12’s television consultant. Starting next season, A&M is guaranteed $20 million of total revenue from the Big 12. Once the Big 12 negotiates its deal that expires in four years, Texas A&M would be poised to make more money. Texas A&M also has to deal with a potentially significant buyout that will be in the neighborhood of $15 million.
“Economically, unless the SEC opens their TV deals to the extent where they make more than a pro rata increase, it makes no sense at all,” Lulla said.