The Pac-12 Conference brought in $603.8 million for the period between July 2022 and June 2023, the league’s final fiscal year before it began the painful and litigious process of whittling down from a dozen schools to a pair.
That FY23 revenue sum was an increase from the $580 million it reported earning in the fiscal year 2022, which had previously set the mark for the league’s greatest earnings. The year-over-year increase largely owed to the $389 million the conference took in from its television rights fees last fiscal year, as well as $140 million from postseason bowls.
“We are pleased to have generated record revenues for our members,” Pac-12 commissioner Teresa Gould said in a press release.
At the same time, according to its latest tax filings, the conference distributed about $33 million to each of its members, 10 of whom have since accepted bids to join rival conferences at the start of next academic year. Those FY23 distributions were about $3 million less than members received the previous fiscal year.
Members of the bar, however, enjoyed a jump in their Pac-12 allotments. The conference reported spending $6.7 million on legal fees, with the bulk of that money going to law firms Proskauer Rose and Cooley. Proskauer Rose has represented the conference in the unfair labor practice complaint filed against the Pac-12, USC, and the NCAA by the NLRB regional director. Cooley has represented the Pac-12 as a defendant in the Hubbard v. NCAA antitrust case.
Former commissioner George Kliavkoff, who presided over the league’s disastrous downfall over his three-year tenure, received $3.98 million in total compensation in FY23, which included a $500,000 bonus. Kliavkoff stepped down on March 1. His predecessor as league commissioner, Larry Scott, was paid $2.28 million, which included a $1.5 million severance.
The tax returns show that, as of last June, Scott had also yet to pay back a $1.86 million interest-free home loan he received from the conference upon taking the job in 2009. It is not clear whether Scott has since repaid that loan, which was due to be recouped by no later than June 30. (When asked over email, a league spokesperson declined to say.)
The conference’s highest-paid independent contractor was Advanced Systems Group, which received $4.23 million for the buildout of the Pac-12 Networks’ new studio productions facility.
In March, the Pac-12’s remaining members, Oregon State and Washington State, struck a $65-plus million settlement with the league’s 10 departing schools, each of which will have $5 million withheld from their FY24 revenue distributions while having to pay an additional $1.5 million to the Pac-12. That agreement will be reflected in the league’s next tax return, due to be filed next May.
