The future of college athletics is here, and there’s no going back.
On Friday night, Senior District Judge Claudia Wilken approved the House v. NCAA settlement, ushering in an age of college sports that includes direct payments from schools to athletes.
The historic settlement goes into effect July 1, at which time schools will be able to make those payments to athletes. In financial year 2025, which is July 2025 through June 2026, institutions will be able to pay up to a projected $20.5 million dollars, the vast majority of which will go toward football and men’s basketball players.
Another aspect of the settlement that will impact schools like Utah? The NCAA will pay out $2.7 billion in back pay to athletes from 2016-24. That money will come from withholding a portion of NCAA financial distribution to schools via conferences (from payments like March Madness revenue). That loss of revenue is expected to cost a school like Utah less than 1% of its annual budget.
The real change comes in Utah’s ability to pay athletes that $20.5 million per year, which works out to about 22% of a Power Four athletic department’s budget.
From the start, Utah athletic director Mark Harlan has said that the Utes were “all-in” on whatever the settlement ended up at.
Now that it is finalized, that’s still the case.
“We are all-in on investing up to the maximum allowable in revenue share, which is approximately $20.5 million for 2025-26, though we are finalizing our plans for how the revenue will be shared,” Harlan said in a letter posted on the Utah athletics website.
“We also will add 23 new scholarships with a total value of $1.15 million, implement NIL contracts between the institution and student-athletes, and expand student-athlete endorsement opportunities with businesses and organizations.”
A new twist
In addition to revenue sharing, name, image and likeness (NIL) deals are here to stay, but with a twist.
Now, NIL deals will be sent through a clearinghouse managed by accounting firm Deloitte, which will assess those deals and has the ability to approve or deny each NIL deal according to if it meets “fair market value.”
In other words, Deloitte is trying to establish “true NIL” and attempt to ensure companies aren’t overpaying for a player’s services to help their school. Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger reported that Deloitte officials shared data with Power Four administration that revealed that 70% of current NIL deals from boosters would have been denied in the upcoming system.
Now, the responsibility of paying players what a school thinks it needs to be paid to remain on their team falls on the athletic department, which is why Utah moved their official collective in-house.
Utah’s new program for athletes to be connected with brands that want to do NIL deals is called “Elevate U.”
“Through our existing Elevate U program, we have increased our investment with the addition of a Brand Strategy and Governance team dedicated to providing Utah student-athletes comprehensive support as they build their brand, enter into non-exclusive contracts for limited-use rights to their NIL, and profit,” Harlan wrote.
Of course, freeing up an additional $20.5 million in the current budget is going to take some work.
Last year, Harlan hired Patrick Nowlin as the school’s chief revenue officer. Armed with experience in a similar position at Notre Dame, Nowlin will be tasked with finding creative ways to increase revenue at Utah.
Fundraising and increasing donations is going to be the major factor in how Utah reaches that $20.5 million goal — Harlan said in January that Utah was coming off “the best year-end fundraising drive in the history of the department” — but it stands to reason that money is also going to have to be cut somewhere.
Already, Utah cut its beach volleyball program — Harlan cited the landscape of the sport as part of the decision (beach volleyball has only 12 programs among power conference institutions, with just four remaining in the Big 12) — but revenue sharing likely didn’t play a part in the decision.
That money is just a drop in the bucket of the $20.5 million — the program cost the school $379,986 in expenses, per the school’s FY24 report, and brought in a total revenue of $222,990, for a net loss of $156,996.
Amid revenue sharing, keeping sports at Utah is a priority of Harlan’s, dating back to his comments at last July’s Big 12 media day. To help women’s sports, Utah received a $14 million donation earmarked for those programs, which joined a $6 million donation from Harriet and Leo Hopf.
Friday marked a turning point in college athletics, and essentially the end of true amateurism. From now on, your favorite football players are going to be paid directly from universities for the first time ever.
“I’m incredibly proud of the work that has been done by our tremendous Utah athletics staff to prepare for this moment,” Harlan said.
“That work includes a reorganization of our staff to create a dedicated team that will focus on delivering expanded resources and education to empower Utah student-athletes to be standout brand ambassadors and grow their own brands while thriving in the new opportunities afforded to them.”
What about roster limits?
Roster limits are a key part of the settlement, though Wilken’s approval came with a condition that all current players be allowed to be grandfathered in. Schools can decide on their own and don’t have to grandfather players in, but significant change in terms of rosters could still be up to four years away, depending on what most schools do.
Once the rules go into effect, rosters will be limited, but schools will have the ability to offer a scholarship to every player on the roster.
Under the old roster system, football schools had an average of 121 players but just 85 scholarships. Under the new system, the roster is limited to 105 players, but all 105 players can be awarded scholarships by the university.
Once enacted fully, this will have a huge rippling effect on every sport, and some teams will have to cut players that used to be allowed on the team as walk-ons. On the other hand, available scholarships will rise.
For sports like baseball, available scholarships are being increased from 11.7 scholarships to 34, but depending on how many walk-ons each sport utilizes, that sport could see a decrease in overall players on the roster.
