Tom Dienhart, BTN.com Senior Writer, May 8, 2013

USA Today is out with another one of its exhaustive lists. This time, the paper looks at the 2012 finances of the schools, ranking them 1-228. The story looks at schools? revenue, expenses, total subsidy and percent of subsidy.

The Big Ten has 11 schools among the nation?s 35 best earners. This isn?t a shock, is it? Ohio State is No. 2 in the nation; Michigan is No. 3.

It?s impressive that some schools take no subsidies to run their athletic departments. They are self-sufficient. But others do. This hardly seems fair. Honestly, every athletic department should be self-sufficient. It doesn?t seem right to take money away from education, etc., to fund athletics. If you can?t afford it, don?t do it.

Here?s a look at the Big Ten schools that are subsidized:

Michigan $258,885

Iowa $543,574

Indiana $2,782,080

Illinois $3,937,890

Michigan State $4,206,730

Minnesota $6,961,066

Wisconsin $7,127,453

Here are the Big Ten schools that aren?t subsidized:

Nebraska

Ohio State

Penn State

Purdue

Since Northwestern is a private school, it released no data. But check out Rutgers, which will join the Big Ten in 2014-its subsidy was $27,996,056. Maryland-also joining in 2014-had a $17,244,084 subsidy in 2012.

About Tom Dienhart BTN.com senior writer Tom Dienhart is a veteran sports journalist who covers Big Ten football and men's basketball for BTN.com and BTN TV. Find him on Twitter and Facebook, read all of his work at btn.com/tomdienhart, and subscribe to his posts via RSS. Also, send questions to his weekly mailbag using the form below and read all of his previous answers in his reader mailbag section.

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