Southeastern Conference to Distribute over $289 million to Member Schools

And Everyone Gets to Guess How Much of That Goes to the Football and Basketball Athletes That Generated It - 

Here's a Hint - The Number has a Lot of Zeros

Intercollegiate sports has long ago become the tail that wags the dog of higher education.  It used to be that the number one mission of higher education was to provide a perpetual, easy, comfortable life for senior faculty. (What, you expected the mission to  be undergraduate education? That’s not even in the top five.)  But some time ago the highest priority of colleges and university became entertainment of the public and the generation of millions of dollars from the athletic departments.

So the news that a single athletic conference will distribute $289 million to its member schools is not really news. 

The SEC announced Friday a payday of $289.4 million for fiscal year 2012-13), or $20.7 million per school. . . .

It's a continuation of growth. Ten years ago, the league distributed $101.9 million to members. This year's payday is an increase of more than $45 million – which means even with the addition of Missouri and Texas A&M, the pot got bigger.

And the news that this number will just get bigger in the future should not be surprising. 

College athletics is just another big entertainment business, with one exception.  The NCAA, which also makes tens of millions enforces to the maximum a rule that the players can get none of this.  The only hope is that lawsuits now in the courts will destroy this system, but courts will be loathe to take on the college athletic establishment just to bring fairness to college athletes.