Move to ACC pays big for Syracuse, Pitt, federal tax returns show

Steve Berkowitz | USA TODAY Sports

The Atlantic Coast Conference's additions of Pittsburgh, Syracuse and Notre Dame in 2013-14 paid off for the conference and the schools – especially for Pitt and Syracuse, new federal tax records show.

The returns – provided Friday in response to a request by USA TODAY Sports – showed that for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2014, the ACC had $302.3 million in total revenue, not including another $11 million that the conference used to reimburse schools for their expenses related to participating in conference championships. Altogether, the five power conferences reported $1.57 billion in revenue for 2013-14, up 63% from what they reported for 2010-11.

ACC commissioner John Swofford's total compensation for the 2013 calendar year was just more than $2.1 million, nearly all in base salary, the conference's new return showed. He made about $70,000 less in 2013 than he did in 2012. (Under IRS rules, a non-profit must report its revenue and expense data based on its fiscal year; but it must report compensation data based on the calendar year completed during its fiscal year).

The ACC's new revenue total is about 30% – nearly $70 million – greater than the amount the ACC reported for 2012-13. More than $50 million of the increase came from a spike in television revenue, the returns showed.

According to the new return, Syracuse received $19.2 million from the ACC in 2013-14 and Pittsburgh received $18.9 million. Those figures represent drastic increases in the amounts they received for their final year in the former version of the Big East, now known as the American Athletic Conference.

According to tax records filed last year by the AAC, Syracuse received $11.9 million in conference revenue during 2012-13, while Pittsburgh got $10.2 million. Syracuse and Pittsburgh each paid about $7.5 million in exit fees to the former version of the Big East.

Notre Dame received $6.8 million from the former Big East in 2012-13, according the AAC document filed last year; it got $4.9 million from the ACC in 2013-14, according to the ACC's new return. However, Notre Dame also received $500,000 from the AAC in 2013-14, according to the AAC's new return. Sports Illustrated and ESPN reported in 2013 that Notre Dame initially faced a $2.5 million exit fee for leaving the former Big East, but that the fee was waived when Notre Dame agreed not to seek any of the league's exit and entrance fee revenue.

The ACC's 12 incumbent members each saw their shares of conference revenue rise by about $1.5 million in 2013-14; the payouts ranged from a high of $21.3 million to Clemson to a low of $17.9 million to Wake Forest.

Maryland's share was to be just under $18 million, but that amount – along with about $16.8 million from 2012-13 – was withheld by the conference because Maryland announced it was leaving for the Big Ten. Maryland and the ACC became embroiled in a legal battle over its exit fee that settled basically for the amounts the conference had withheld. ACC spokeswoman Amy Yakola said the conference's distribution of the money withheld from Maryland will be reflected in the conference's tax return for the 2014-15 fiscal year.

The ACC's legal battle with Maryland was costly to the conference. IRS rules require non-profits to list amounts they paid to their five highest-paid independent contractors that received more than $100,000 during the fiscal year. The ACC's new return showed that its top three contractors were law firms to which it paid a combined total of nearly $2.3 million. Yakola said the litigation with Maryland was the primary reason for the payments. For 2012-13, the ACC listed one law firm to which it paid about $300,000.