By Jonathan Nehring | Disclaimer

As wetour the NCAA to look at the large role state income taxes could now play in the NCAA recruiting process, we stop today in the Midwest. First the Big Ten and later today the Big 12. 

The Big Ten has the smallest variance between the highest taxed school and the lowest taxed school within their conference. This could mean the Big Ten, unlike the SEC or PAC-12, would become the most “competitively balanced” conference should NCAA athletes be paid.

Although the Big Ten may benefit from little variation among teams within their conference, they will face stiff competition from teams outside their conference – only teams in the Big East or PAC-12 will average higher state income taxes than the Big Ten.

The biggest contributor to the Big Ten high average tax rates results from the high taxes of both Minnesota and Iowa – home to the Big Ten’s Gophers and Hawkeyes. Minnesota Gophers’ football players will bear the 9th highest tax rate among NCAA football programs while their basketball players will owe the 12th most of any basketball program.

Aside from the Oregon and California schools, the Gophers only trail their Iowa conference mates in state income tax burdens. Speaking of the Hawkeyes, while their basketball players will owe the 10th highest taxes, their football program will face even tougher upcoming challenges in recruiting. At the estimated football income rate, the 11-time Big Ten Champions will owe the 3rd most in state income taxes.

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By Jonathan Nehring | Disclaimer

As we continue to look at the effect that state income taxes would have should college athletes be paid, we now turn our attention to the league who may want to oppose paying players the most – the PAC 12.

If college athletes are to get paid, the PAC 12 would suffer the greatest set back as their average basketball player will make $5,917 less than the average NCAA basketball player and the PAC 12’s average football player would make $2,549 less than the average NCAA football player.

The biggest detriment to the PAC 12 is the fact that half of their schools reside in either Oregon or California – two states with some of the highest state income tax rates in the country. A football player for a team in either of these states would owe an average of $14,617 and a basketball player an average of $34,840. 

This is double what the average NCAA football or basketball player would owe.

Both Washington and WSU should send their legislature a big thank you note as their state’s lack of an income tax will cause those two teams to owe an average of $184 in state income taxes for football players and $964 for basketball players. Those two schools who have previously lost many battles against fellow PAC 12 powerhouses now can offer their football players $14,433 more than the flashy jerseys at Oregon once could and $33,876 more than the PAC 12’s California teams can. That’s a difference in salary nearly the size of an entire median income level in the US. 

With this large difference in salaries among PAC 12 schools, paying college athletes could cause a more dramatic shift in PAC 12 programs than the impact we noted yesterday among the SEC dominant powers. 

The PAC 12 not only holds the title for highest state taxes owed in both football and basketball but also holds the title for the most dramatic variation in state tax bills among their own programs. 

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By Jonathan Nehring | Disclaimer

Diving deeper into the numbers for what each college athlete would owe in state income taxes if they were to be paid, we turn first to the SEC teams. 

Of the conferences observed, SEC athletes would owe the third least in state taxes of all conferences. The average SEC athlete in both football ($6,921) and basketball ($15,394) would pay less in state taxes than their average NCAA football ($7,333) and basketball ($17,399) player. 

While most of the league will owe more than the NCAA average athlete would, the SEC benefits from their four schools located in states that don’t charge state income taxes – Texas, Tennessee, and Florida. 

Those four schools, Vanderbilt, Florida, Texas A&M, and Tennessee, could see a competitive boost in recruiting against fellow SEC schools as their athletes would net as little as $8,180 more than other SEC football programs or as much as $25,229 more than other SEC basketball programs.

The biggest winner in SEC basketball if athletes were to be paid would likely be the Florida Gators as only them or the Kentucky Wildcats have won the SEC regular season title in the past 5 years and Florida basketball players would make $21,326 more per year than the Wildcat’s players would make. 

Florida will also seem to benefit most in SEC football. They have won 33% of the SEC football titles since 1990. In the years Florida hasn’t won the SEC title, only five other schools have shared that title. The average state tax bill for those five other schools is $7,314 more than Florida players would have to pay. Compare Florida’s state tax bill against the SEC champions of the past 15 years (Alabama, Auburn, Georgia, and LSU) and you see that Florida would be able to offer their players $9,122 more per year than any of the other SEC contenders could have. 

Non-Florida fans will be able to find some solace however in the fact that, as we will see when we discuss the ACC, Florida will face stiff competition with Florida State and Miami University each year for player’s most interested in making maximum money. 

Winners aside, the SEC has a gap of “haves” and “have-not’s” within their conference but not as extreme as the Pac-12 or MWC as we will see later this week. 

However, as can be seen above, the gap would be significant enough to change the landscape of the SEC for years to come. 

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