In the weeks since the House Settlement was finalized, schools across the country have started to outline their approaches in the first year of the new era, which begins officially on July 1.
The two key changes, if you aren’t already familiar with them:
1.) Schools have up to $20.5 million to distribute to athletes directly, and it is entirely up to them to determine who gets what. In general, football and men’s basketball programs will account for about 90% of that pool.
2.) There is also a shift from scholarship limits to roster limits—each roster spot can be given a full scholarship—means that most schools will be adding a significant amount of scholarships across the board. Baseball programs have 34 roster spots that can be fully funded, essentially tripling the previous 11.7-scholarship limit. Wrestling has gone from 9.9 to 30.
In taking a broad dive into what schools have been saying over the last couple of weeks, I noticed that the good ol’ letter-from-the-AD approach is common. UNC published such a missive yesterday, outlining that it will be spending to the cap, with the money spread between football, men’s and women’s basketball, and baseball. UNC is also going to fully fund every expanded roster spot, for a total of almost 200 additional scholarships.
The focus of revenue-sharing dollars on those four sports will be a common one, I expect, but you also have schools with priorities elsewhere that have opted to cut a few more slices. Texas A&M, for example, is also going to share revenue with softball and volleyball, in addition to the four primary sports. The Aggies are also going to fully fund every roster spot.
Kansas is going to share revenue with seven sports initially, adding softball, volleyball, and soccer to the big four. Oklahoma is also including softball and women’s gymnastics.
Priorities vary, of course. Some northern schools are punting on baseball, for instance. At Ohio State, the core four sports that’ll get funding in year one are football, men’s and women’s basketball, and women’s volleyball. Iowa is including men’s wrestling, not surprisingly. The Hawkeyes are also taking a more sport-specific funding approach:
On June 9, the university announced the introduction of a “Flight Funds” program, which, as described by the school, is “a new charitable avenue that allows donors to invest in student-athlete revenue sharing and help Iowa build championship-caliber programs.”
What does that mean? In short, donors can give toward one of four specific sports funds – football, men’s basketball, women’s basketball and men’s wrestling – or a general sports fund. Much like donors have made tax-deductible gifts for facilities improvements, these donations would help support Iowa’s ability to “max out” athlete spending annually.
In addition to the differing sport-specific priorities, there is a lot of variance in how schools are approaching the scholarship/roster limit matter. While several schools have announced blanket funding for all new roster spots, others have been more cautious, and that’s not necessarily a function of department budget size.
Penn State isn’t going to fund every spot right away, for one. Neither is Florida. In the SEC, schools are required to spend at least $2.5 million on added scholarships—this counts against the $20.5 million cap—so no one is being allowed to stand pat, though.
Which is what UCLA is doing. The Bruins are going to “preserve scholarship limits at their current levels for at least one year in order to distribute more revenue sharing money to each player.” That’s the most tight-wadded decision I’ve seen from a power-conference school, and very obviously a bad idea from a competitive standpoint, but UCLA has also gone nearly $220 million into the red over the last six years.
In the ACC, Louisville seems likely to include women’s volleyball in addition to hoops, football, and baseball. The Cards have been operating at a deficit recently as well.
Clemson is fully funding every roster spot, adding 150 scholarships in the process.
FSU and other public universities in Florida are allowed to take advantage of a $22.5 million auxiliary fund to cover revenue distribution, thanks to a recent amendment passed by the Florida Board of Governors. Handy! (NC State and UNC may soon derive an even larger benefit from state tax revenue on sports betting.)
Stanford is trying to fund this whole deal with Coldplay concerts. Ok, not really. Looks like stadium concerts are going to be more of a thing now, though.
NC State is one of many schools yet to comment publicly on specifics, but as you can see, there’s a lot to digest for everyone involved. It’s important to remember as well that nothing is being set in stone—these first-year approaches could all change dramatically in 2026. Schools could add scholarships incrementally, or double their investment in a sport from one year to the next, and all of this maneuvering is just within the official ledger. There’s also this going on.