I couldn't find this posted already, but a few tidbits on how other Texas schools are going to try to implement:
- UT is going to add 200 full scholarships in all sports
- Aggie is going to use their media-rights deal (like ours with Learfield) to get around the revenue share cap. So think something like "you want to run an ad during our radio broadcast, then you have to sign a player to endorse it." Those types of deals don't fall under the $20.5MM cap. Their AD is on the committee to ensure "fair implementation of the House settlement"
- Houston is going to over-fund MBB at the expense of football. So where TTU might be at $3.6MM for MBB, UH will be at $5MM
- The AAC is going to require member schools to spend at least $10MM on rev share or they could be kicked out of the conference
"Part of this settlement is there are no scholarship limitations on the sport- there's a roster limit," Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte said during a Town Hall in February. "So, sports and schools are saying, 'Wait a minute, I can keep it at four scholarships for golf, and I can have a roster of nine. But this school is really good at tennis; they're going to fund tennis to nine full scholarships, but they may keep men's swimming at nine, and other programs are going to go to 22.' They're picking and choosing what they're going to do. Some may do no sports because they have to share $20 million in revenue."
"This is the University of Texas. We're good at everything, we're going to fully fund every single one of our sports at the highest division."
Del Conte announced a projected $30-million increase in costs for Longhorn athletic programs, adding 200 scholarships across men's and women's sports ahead of the hearing. Since that number is above the $20.5 million spending cap of publicity rights revenue, the school will make up the remaining cost by raising season ticket prices for football by $80 per season ticket.
"This is the University of Texas," Del Conte continued. "We're good at everything, we're going to fully fund every single one of our sports at the highest division."
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Texas A&M has not yet publicly disclosed its plans for distributing the revenue, but it has signed a 15-year, $515 million media rights deal with Playfly Sports, a digital media company that manages the multimedia rights for 25 other universities. This agreement significantly surpasses the university's previous 10-year deal with Learfield, which was signed in 2015. The new media deal will increase the annual payout to the school by $34 million, enabling the Aggies to exceed the annual revenue share pool through authentic deals that clear the NIL clearinghouse. Alberts is also part of a proposed committee to ensure the fair implementation of the settlement.
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Not all programs have the luxury of spreading the wealth across sports. According to the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, Texas Tech will not increase the number of scholarships allotted because It would cut into the revenue-sharing cap, instead, it will distribute that $20.5-million by dedicating 74 percent of its revenue to football players ($15.1-million), 17-18-percent to men's basketball ($3.6 million), 2 percent to women's basketball and 1.9-percent (less than $500,000 each) to baseball and other smaller sports. This is a standard percentage plan that will be used by multiple schools, but could trigger Title IX concerns if athletes chose to sue for equitable pay.
Texas Tech football is the third-most valued program in the state at $389 million, according to a study published in the Wall Street Journal, though still a far cry from the value of Texas ($1.9 billion) or Texas A&M ($1 billion).
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Locally, the Houston Cougars plan to contribute the maximum spending cap of $20.5 million in revenue to its athletes as well. This is a significant step for a school with the smallest athletic budget among the Power Four conferences. According to the Houston Chronicle, UH has proposed allocating 68-69 percent for football, 23-25 percent for men's basketball, and the remainder among the university's 15 other varsity sports. That proposed amount for basketball would keep it competitive among the highest bidders in the sport, as it has proven to be a national-title contender.
“I’m not treating them just as a basketball program — I’m treating them as one of the elite basketball programs,” Houston athletic director Eddie Nuñez told the Houston Chronicle in January. “Their percentage is going to be higher than the average than most across the country. That’s a commitment we made."
