NCAA Revenue Sharing Update

[Drew]

Keep in mind, at least as of now, you must sponsor 16 sports to be “division 1”. Who knows where that winds up in the future but there is also a huge amount of tuition revenue generated through these “non-revenue” sports.

Something like tennis as an example brings in a bunch of international students who pay tuition to UConn with little to no overhead cost on an annual basis. So while the athletic department may show -$100k for tennis or whatever, if 10 people are all paying ~$50k in tuition money that’s net $400k revenue for UConn as a school

 

[LIUCHusky]

And maybe that's not a bad thing. Does the world really need say Bowdoin men's and women's cross country teams?

Perhaps the world doesn’t but the students who enjoy competing at that level do.

 

[WrenchFan69]

And maybe that's not a bad thing. Does the world really need say Bowdoin men's and women's cross country teams?

Large-endowment, private D3 schools are the least troubled here imo. No athletic scholarships so many kids are paying to play, huge alumni engagement/donation generator, lower operating costs, no question about inappropriate public funding. Should CCSU or SCSU cross country exist? That's a harder question

 

[Fishy]

And maybe that's not a bad thing. Does the world really need say Bowdoin men's and women's cross country teams?

The world doesn’t need you, but here you are.

Weird take, kid.

 

[WrenchFan69]

Something like tennis as an example brings in a bunch of international students who pay tuition to UConn with little to no overhead cost on an annual basis. So while the athletic department may show -$100k for tennis or whatever, if 10 people are all paying ~$50k in tuition money that’s net $400k revenue for UConn as a school

That's almost certainly not true at UConn? We cut the men's tennis program. Women's tennis exists to match football scholarships so seems unlikely there's a ton of tuition money flowing in through that team. Also there are currently 9 athletes on the roster website

 

[Drew]

That's almost certainly not true at UConn? We cut the men's tennis program. Women's tennis exists to match football scholarships so seems unlikely there's a ton of tuition money flowing in through that team. Also there are currently 9 athletes on the roster website

How would that not be true at UConn? I was just using it as an example but they don’t give full scholarships for a sport like women’s tennis (nor do they for golf, track, etc). Baseball doesn’t even have full scholarships. Almost all of these student athletes are paying tuition to go to school at UConn.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Okay. There’s two components - the lawsuit from athletes suing for lost NIL opportunities they suffered before the NCAA allowed NIL. That lawsuit will involve retroactive payment to 15,000 athletes across a broad spectrum of sports. (House vs NCAA….Graham House was a swimmer at Arizona State, so you can see how broad the beneficiaries will be.)

We will be on the hook to pay football, basketball and women’s basketball players going back to 2016. Whether we would have to pay swimmers, soccer players, track athletes, hockey players….I don’t know. How big the hit will be to UConn? I don’t know. In any event, I don’t think this is the main source our troubles. Read on…

In the settlement of that case, there is expected to be a framework in place to pay athletes going forward - basically, NIL will come in house. The article theorizes a $20M top end per year with schools able to opt in and decide how much they’re going to share with their athletes. Opting out means oblivion; we’re likely going to have to match our ACC/Big 10/B12 peers or suffer the consequences.

In addition, you still have the Charlie Baker proposal out there that would create a subset of schools that would obligate themselves to pay something like $30,000 a year into a fund for every eligible athlete on campus. We have 600 athletes.

With the school proposing 15% across the board cuts to departments to cover the (poorly planned for) budget gaps over the next few years, one department that already loses $35,000,000 a year is going to need to either start losing $50,000,000 a year or sacrifice nearly everything other than our three revenue programs or try to compete while offering much less to student athletes.

Do you see the issue?

Doom and gloomers have correctly predicted 30 of the last 0 "this is the end of UConn athletics" events. They are one post away from saying that every Connecticut resident will have to pay for Ohio State's football team.

What Fishy fails to see in his rush to look at this from the worst possible angle for UConn is that the $4 billion settlement is not going to be allocated pro rata per school. The schools that have the biggest revenue are going to have the most exposure of that settlement. We are talking about money that is already spent and gone. The odd benefit for UConn is that our football program has generated almost no revenue the last 13 years, so there is not much that needs to be split with the players.

Texas, Alabama and Notre Dame, on the other hand, are potentially looking at 9 digit liabilities. Which in the doom and gloomers world, is bad for UConn.

 

[upstater]

Doom and gloomers have correctly predicted 30 of the last 0 "this is the end of UConn athletics" events. They are one post away from saying that every Connecticut resident will have to pay for Ohio State's football team.

What Fishy fails to see in his rush to look at this from the worst possible angle for UConn is that the $4 billion settlement is not going to be allocated pro rata per school. The schools that have the biggest revenue are going to have the most exposure of that settlement. We are talking about money that is already spent and gone. The odd benefit for UConn is that our football program has generated almost no revenue the last 13 years, so there is not much that needs to be split with the players.

Texas, Alabama and Notre Dame, on the other hand, are potentially looking at 9 digit liabilities. Which in the doom and gloomers world, is bad for UConn.

This money is going to come out of the NCAA's coffers or the coffers of any entity that follows.

 

[speckle]

And maybe that's not a bad thing. Does the world really need say Bowdoin men's and women's cross country teams?

And yet id somehow bet the Bowdoin xc team operates more financially responsibility than a large number of D1 athletics departments lol

 

[speckle]

Honestly I'm not worried at all, but some of that is bc I don't follow UCONN football. No hate at all, it's just not one of my teams. Who knows where things end up? What I do know is that a significant retroactive payout to former athletes will absolutely break the current ACC which will trigger a new realignment sequence. What I also know is that although my distain for the vast majority of politicians runs deep, there isn't a one of them that would allow UCONN basketball to fall through the cracks. They're more likely to circle up naked and sing kumbaya than kill off the uniformly loved Connecticut basketball machine.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

This money is going to come out of the NCAA's coffers or the coffers of any entity that follows.

What is the rationale for that?

Are you saying that Texas, Alabama, et all were able to create billions of dollars of liability for institutions that received virtually no revenue from college athletics?

 

[Jaydumo20]

The world doesn’t need you, but here you are.

Weird take, kid.

That's pretty funny.
I was watching a nature doc and some talking head was saying that housecats are super cute but in terms of evolution they serve no purpose. And I thought, 'wait, what purpose does this clown serve? Watching Redtube 3 hours a day, depleting the water supply and eating at Dennys 4 days a week?"

 

[nelsonmuntz]

That's pretty funny.
I was watching a nature doc and some talking head was saying that housecats are super cute but in terms of evolution they serve no purpose. And I thought, 'wait, what purpose does this clown serve? Watching Redtube 3 hours a day, depleting the water supply and eating at Dennys 4 days a week?"

House cats were domesticated because they hunt vermin. If your cat is not meeting its dead critter quota, fire it.

 

[Jaydumo20]

Honestly I'm not worried at all, but some of that is bc I don't follow UCONN football. No hate at all, it's just not one of my teams. Who knows where things end up? What I do know is that a significant retroactive payout to former athletes will absolutely break the current ACC which will trigger a new realignment sequence. What I also know is that although my distain for the vast majority of politicians runs deep, there isn't a one of them that would allow UCONN basketball to fall through the cracks. They're more likely to circle up naked and sing kumbaya than kill off the uniformly loved Connecticut basketball machine.

Ha. Hard to argue after seeing that video of Gov. Ned: they asked about Hurley going to KY and my man got serious real quick "I pay for success"

 

[upstater]

House cats were domesticated because they hunt vermin. If your cat is not meeting its dead critter quota, fire it.

The current recommendation is to shoot it, esp. if you're from a Plains state

 

[Jaydumo20]

The current recommendation is to shoot it, esp. if you're from a Plains state

Well played and absolutely terrifying

 

[superjohn]

Ha. Hard to argue after seeing that video of Gov. Ned: they asked about Hurley going to KY and my man got serious real quick "I pay for success"

Ned and his wife probably have half a billion dollars. Poor by Greenwich standards but still a lot of money. Ned knows money and the value of UConn basketball to the state, I'm a big Ned fan.

 

[speckle]

Ha. Hard to argue after seeing that video of Gov. Ned: they asked about Hurley going to KY and my man got serious real quick "I pay for success"

You could run for Governor of CT on a UCONN basketball platform and do ok. They'll find a way to make it work, not too sure about anything else though.

 

[Jaydumo20]

You could run for Governor of CT on a UCONN basketball platform and do ok. They'll find a way to make it work, not too sure about anything else though.

You may be right. I would, but I'm from Greenwich. I'd be seen as un-relatable

 

[speckle]

You may be right. I would, but I'm from Greenwich. I'd be seen as un-relatable

No worries, I live in Kirkland WA, right btwn MSFT and AMZN so not relatable at all.

Little deeper article on the NCAA discussions. What would House v. NCAA settlement mean? A revenue-sharing model to end college amateurism

 

[storrsroars]

So it appears that all the potential legal fines and revenue sharing apply only to P5 schools. So, maybe UConn dodged a bullet for now.

House v. NCAA Settlement Fails to Address Biggest Question

Panic around paying damages in the House case has put it at the forefront of industry leaders’ minds. But employee classification is the NCAA’s biggest bogeyman.

frontofficesports.com

 

[nelsonmuntz]

So it appears that all the potential legal fines and revenue sharing apply only to P5 schools. So, maybe UConn dodged a bullet for now.

House v. NCAA Settlement Fails to Address Biggest Question

Panic around paying damages in the House case has put it at the forefront of industry leaders’ minds. But employee classification is the NCAA’s biggest bogeyman.

frontofficesports.com

There is going to be a war over who has to pay that settlement. Even if the plaintiffs settle for 75% of the prospective judgment, which would be very generous on their part, the P5 schools are looking at a MASSIVE fine that most of them do not have the money to pay. If it is based on the revenues generated by school, the biggest revenue producers are looking at staggering liability.

I disagree with the writer about making the athletes employees being a problem. I feel like doing that protects the schools as much as anything.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

No worries, I live in Kirkland WA, right btwn MSFT and AMZN so not relatable at all.

Little deeper article on the NCAA discussions. What would House v. NCAA settlement mean? A revenue-sharing model to end college amateurism

It is in the P4's and especially the P2's interest to keep the G5 conferences engaged. If the G5 leagues break away, the entire sport will get unstable because overall interest will start to drop off dramatically if competition at the highest levels is officially limited to 50 or so schools. Fan interest will decline, and risks collapsing if the overall decline in interest is enough to start impacting the fans of the major programs. We have evidence that the P4 conferences feel this way, because they have offered fairly generous splits of CFP revenue with the G5 schools.

I also stand by my earlier prediction that there are a subset of top academic institutions that will not participate in the world the P4 are creating. I do not see Northwestern, Vanderbilt, Cal, Stanford and Rice sticking with something like this long-term. If those schools pull out, there is a chance that Duke and ND join, and then privates like Wake and Tulane, and maybe even some top academic state schools will be beating a path to join this league.

 

[speckle]

It is in the P4's and especially the P2's interest to keep the G5 conferences engaged. If the G5 leagues break away, the entire sport will get unstable because overall interest will start to drop off dramatically if competition at the highest levels is officially limited to 50 or so schools. Fan interest will decline, and risks collapsing if the overall decline in interest is enough to start impacting the fans of the major programs. We have evidence that the P4 conferences feel this way, because they have offered fairly generous splits of CFP revenue with the G5 schools.

I also stand by my earlier prediction that there are a subset of top academic institutions that will not participate in the world the P4 are creating. I do not see Northwestern, Vanderbilt, Cal, Stanford and Rice sticking with something like this long-term. If those schools pull out, there is a chance that Duke and ND join, and then privates like Wake and Tulane, and maybe even some top academic state schools will be beating a path to join this league.

The whole thing feels like trying to solve a 10000 piece jigsaw puzzle from the inside out. There's barely 40 schools that are causing real problems for the entire collegiate athletics system. Making college athletes employees seems to have one glaring issue that's rarely talked about. The value of the students' scholarships and benefits would become federally taxable income. So schools would have to pay these kids additionally to at least absorb the fed tax bill incurred receiving the scholarship?! The whole thing gets unwieldy at step 1. I'm still very optimistic for UConn and it's exceptional basketball product. I do believe the acc will dissolve this calendar year and will open up some interesting opportunities for us. And I do think you're right about the higher end academic schools and basically all the privates eventually opting away from the mega football schools.

 

[How Sway?!]

Looks like NIL will come in house per ESPN

"Nick Carparelli, executive director of Bowl Season, told ESPN at the Fiesta Bowl Spring Summit this week that his understanding from speaking with conference commissioners and NCAA president Charlie Baker is that NIL collectives are destined to be brought in-house and there have been discussions about contracts in exchange for NIL payments."