The most-watched Alamo Bowl television broadcast of all time, pitting No. 17 BYU and No. 23 Colorado, drew a record 8 million viewers for the 33rd-annual affair at San Antonio’s Alamodome.
For BYU, it will never be forgotten, and not just because the Cougars played almost flawlessly in dismantling Coach Prime’s Buffaloes 36-14 in front of 64,261 fans, a sellout.
For nine-year head coach Kalani Sitake’s crew, it was priceless — but not as lucrative as it would have been if BYU wasn’t in a conference.
Still, it provided the highest payout for a bowl in which BYU has been involved, a combined $9.8 million, according to USA Today. But half of that money doesn’t go to the Cougars, as was the case when BYU was a college football independent and got to keep all of its payout.
All $9.8 million will go to the Big 12 coffers, because both BYU and Colorado are both members of that conference. That money and all other money from postseason games will be distributed in May to league members as part of the conference’s revenue-sharing system.
In essence, and in an interesting twist of irony, rival Utah will get more money from BYU’s dominating win in Texas than BYU will, because BYU and the other three schools that joined the league in 2023 — Houston, UCF and Cincinnati — are in their second and final year of receiving only a half-share of Big 12 revenue.
The so-called four-corner schools that joined in 2024 from the now-defunct Pac-12 — Utah, Colorado, Arizona and Arizona State — will receive full shares in their first year, which was part of the agreement when they joined.
In the 2025-26 fiscal year, all 16 Big 12 schools will receive full shares — estimated to be in the $50 million range as a new media rights deal kicks in for the Power Four conference.
Last May, as BYU’s first academic year in the Big 12 was wrapping up, Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark announced the conference would distribute a record $470 million in revenue to its 14 current members for the 2023-24 athletic year.
The previous record was $440 million of conference distribution comprised of revenue from media rights, bowl game payouts, NCAA Tournament units for the men’s and women’s Big Dances and other revenue streams.
BYU and the other newcomers received approximately $18 million each, while there was some “dilution” for the 10 original members due to the pot being divided among more schools, Yormark said. The legacy members (including Texas and Oklahoma, which are now in the SEC) earned an estimated $39.8 million, a drop from the $44 million they received for the 2022-23 athletic year.
Before the Alamo Bowl kicked off, BYU quarterback Jake Retzlaff drew the ire of Arizona State fans and others when he boldly proclaimed the game to be “the people’s Big 12 championship.” Obviously, the real Big 12 championship game was played earlier in the month, with ASU crushing Iowa State 45-17 in Arlington, Texas.
However, the Alamo Bowl did draw a larger TV audience, as the Big 12 championship game drew 6.9 million viewers, some 1.1 million fewer than the BYU-Colorado game.
