It didn’t make major news in Pac-12 territory, and some fans might have missed it entirely. But late last week, crammed between National Signing Day and the Super Bowl, a certain conference in the southeastern quadrant released its financial information for the 2015-16 fiscal year. Related Articles College Hotline links to Pac-12 issues

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The SEC delivered a big number, folks … a whopper of a number, in fact:

$40 million distributed to each school.

Forty. Million. Per school.

If you track these matters … and the Hotline absolutely follows the money … then $40 million/school did not come as a surprise. But that doesn’t make it any less impressive.

How does the Pac-12 compare?

Funny you should ask, except it’s no laughing matter to the campuses scrapping to balance the books.

Before we dig in, let’s first provide the standard (but critical) reminder: The Power Five conferences don’t release their finances at the same time, which makes comparisons a tad tricky.

The Pac-12 won’t make its FY16 financial information available until May. (It operates on a 10-month lag.) We know its FY15 distributions, but estimates are required for FY16 at this point.

And the Hotline’s estimates call for a slight year-over-year uptick:

*** The conference distributed $25.1 million per school in FY15, according to the tax documents released last spring.

*** I expect the increase in payouts from the ESPN/Fox deal (from $204.5 million to $215 million) to be offset by the drop in college football postseason revenue.

Remember, in the FY14 postseason cycle, Oregon went to the semifinal ($6 million) and Arizona to the Fiesta ($4 million, as a non-contract NY6 game).

But in FY15, the conference did not put a team in the playoff and had only one participant in the New Year’s Six: Stanford in the Rose, a contract game (guaranteed annual payout).

That’s a year-over-year drop of approximately $10 million to balance the $10.5 million Tier 1 increase.

*** However, the payouts from the Pac-12 Networks to the campuses should have increased to approximately $2 million per school (a $500,000/school bump), based on bumps in distribution/subs and advertising.

There are other revenue streams (March Madness) and, of course, plenty of expenses in the overall calculation. (We can make a reasonable guess on the expenses based on previous years.)

All in all, we’ll estimate $27 million per school in FY16 net distributions.

It could be a bit lower; it might be a tad higher. As always, I’d rather be high than low with estimates in exercises if this sort.

Which brings us to the comps …

Fiscal year 2015 school distributions (all figures confirmed):

SEC: $32.7 million

Big Ten: $32.4 million

Pac-12: $25.1 million

Fiscal year 2016 school distributions

SEC: $40 million (confirmed)

Big Ten: $35 million (approximate)

Pac-12: $27 million (approximate)

That looks bad … that is bad … but it’s about to get much worse for the Pac-12.

Remember: The Big Ten’s new Tier 1 deal begins in 2017-18, and it’s also a whopper, averaging $440 million per year.

Which brings us to …

Fiscal year 2017-18 school distributions …

Big Ten: $45 million (estimate)

SEC: $43 million (estimate)

Pac-12: $31 million (estimate)

What does it mean?

As a general rule among the Power Five, distributions from the conference office account for varying percentages of the athletic budgets of its memberships — for some, it’s 20-25 percent, for others, 35-40 percent.

That revenue stream helps pay coaches and pay debt service and pay cost of attendance and pay recruiting expenses … and much more.

A single-year deficit of $10M per school for the Pac-12 won’t have a measurable impact on its on-field/on-court performance over the long haul.

But this isn’t a single-year deficit, and the deficit could very well be larger than $10M per school.

The Pac-12’s Tier 1 deal runs through 2023-24. Until then … until it can renegotiate … it’s essentially locked in place. There is no expectation of a major new revenue stream.

In other words, each Pac-12 school could be $12M – $15M behind its SEC/Big Ten peers every year for the next seven years.

THAT’S serious money — more than enough to create a competitive disadvantage. (The ACC and Big 12 will be in similar predicaments.)

Could anything have been done to limit that disparity?

To be sure, the Pac-12 will never get the same Tier 1 deal as the SEC/Big Ten because of the difference in eyeballs, and it is the Hotline’s belief that commissioner Larry Scott got the very best deal from ESPN and Fox that was available at the time (thanks to Comcast’s entry into the bidding).

But the Pac-12 Networks are a different issue, because the conference chose one model over another.

Scott believes 100 percent ownership places the conference in perfect position to take advantage of consumer trends and new technologies when the Tier 1 deal is renegotiated prior to the FY24 expiration.

The Pac-12, at that point, will have all of its content available for the highest bidder/best deal, whether that’s ESPN, Fox, Google, Apple, Facebook, Netflix, etc.

But let’s also not forget:

Whatever’s next for the conference must not only be momentous enough to help create competitive balance starting in 2024-25.

Ideally, it also must offset the money that has been lost by following the 100 percent ownership model, as opposed to a partnership model, prior to that point.

Meanwhile, the revenue gap grows, inexorably and unforgivingly.

*** Follow me on Twitter: @WilnerHotline

*** The Hotline podcast is available on iTunes.