Mike Slive got a 25 percent raise in the 2012-2013 fiscal year. (USATSI)
Mike Slive got a 25 percent raise in the 2012-2013 fiscal year. (USATSI)
The SEC's federal tax return showed revenues of more than $314 million for the fiscal year 2012-2013 -- a record figure for the league and some $24 million than the conference itself projected last spring. But it's not quite enough to match the Big Ten ... yet.

USA Today's Wednesday review of the league's 2012-2013 return showed a distribution of "around $21 million" per school for the 12 universities other than newcomers Missouri and Texas A&M. Those schools received $19.5 million, an increase of some $7 million apiece from their 2011-2012 distributions in the Big 12.

USA Today also reported that Mike Slive's "base compensation" for the 2012-2013 fiscal year was set at just under $1.2 million. Though that represents a 25 percent raise over his previous year's salary, it still left Slive's base pay behind the ACC's John Swofford, the Pac-12's Larry Scott, and the Big Ten's Jim Delany.

When the SEC announced distributions of $20.7 million per team at the end of its 2013 spring meetings, those figures lagged behind those reported for the Big Ten (which set the per-school distribution at $25.7 million). And the $314 million in total revenue for the SEC in 2012-2013 trailed the $315 million reported by the Big Ten for its 2011-2012 return. 

So the SEC still has a bit of a gap to close where the Big Ten is concerned, and likely still will when it releases its figures for the 2013-2014 fiscal year. But the SEC Network kicks off this August -- meaning that 2014-2015 is the year when the revenues arms race will truly be one worth watching.