Now I understand the Big East Love

[billoliver40]

I've been reading watch out for big east basketball in years to come....now I can see a bit more clearly.....
Most of these schools are one sport schools....basketball.
No need to split off 50-75% of revenues to anyone. Basketball gets it all.

 

[LineSkiCat14]

Big East Basketball is set to be a big winner from this 20mil ruling. Heck even their other non-football sports will get a leg up with funding.

 

[Xmayor]

Going to be a big deal in basketball. B1G and SEC care about football and it shows in their negotiations.

 

[bthaunert]

An important aspect of this is that since they don’t have football, the revenue at most of the schools is much less than power programs. I’d say most of them are probably under $50 million. For example, they get $8 million per school for the TV deal.

The settlement says that NCAA Division I schools will be able to share up to 22% of their athletic department revenue with student-athletes. If department revenue is only $40 million, then the way I read it, they would only have a max of $8.8 million for the entire athletic department. Someone correct me if I’m wrong.

While it might be a little more than UK gives to basketball, it won’t be much more for a majority of the schools.

 

[bthaunert]

Big East Basketball is set to be a big winner from this 20mil ruling. Heck even their other non-football sports will get a leg up with funding.

No way most of these schools can afford anywhere close to $20 million in revenue sharing. Most of the Big East schools will be way less than $20 million.

 

[Digger-Cat]

No way most of these schools can afford anywhere close to $20 million in revenue sharing. Most of the Big East schools will be way less than $20 million.

Yeah, their problem is, they will struggle to raise even half of that 20 million.

 

[bucsrule8872]

No way most of these schools can afford anywhere close to $20 million in revenue sharing. Most of the Big East schools will be way less than $20 million.

That’s what I would think as well.

If football generates the most revenue, then a school with no football could not generate as much revenue as a school with football.

Doesn’t it all balance out? Football is the most expensive sport, but it also generates the most revenue.

Without football, you won’t get that expense, but you also won’t have that revenue.

Or am I missing something?

 

[Ron Mehico]

An important aspect of this is that since they don’t have football, the revenue at most of the schools is much less than power programs. I’d say most of them are probably under $50 million. For example, they get $8 million per school for the TV deal.

The settlement says that NCAA Division I schools will be able to share up to 22% of their athletic department revenue with student-athletes. If department revenue is only $40 million, then the way I read it, they would only have a max of $8.8 million for the entire athletic department. Someone correct me if I’m wrong.

While it might be a little more than UK gives to basketball, it won’t be much more for a majority of the schools.

Thank you. Villanova or whoever is not in a better position than Ohio State or Texas 😂. At the end of the day the schools with the most money will, you know, be in the better position to buy players. After 10 years of a school consistently making 20 million more a year the other school will not be able to compete. From facilities to coaching staffs to general infrastructure and organization.

 

[LineSkiCat14]

That’s what I would think as well.

If football generates the most revenue, then a school with no football could not generate as much revenue as a school with football.

Doesn’t it all balance out? Football is the most expensive sport, but it also generates the most revenue.

Without football, you won’t get that expense, but you also won’t have that revenue.

Or am I missing something?

I cant pretend to know how all the finances work.. but Villanova is reported to have a $1.3 Billion endowment. I would think they would be OK to use some of that for their premier athletic program. But.. maybe they cant, maybe they dont want to put a ton into it. Or maybe they are fine with NIL as their way to build a basketball team.

But these big east schools still have a shit ton of money. And basketball is king for schools like Uconn and St. Johns.

 

[bthaunert]

I cant pretend to know how all the finances work.. but Villanova is reported to have a $1.3 Billion endowment. I would think they would be OK to use some of that for their premier athletic program. But.. maybe they cant, maybe they dont want to put a ton into it. Or maybe they are fine with NIL as their way to build a basketball team.

But these big east schools still have a shit ton of money. And basketball is king for schools like Uconn and St. Johns.

A few of the schools will do well with this, but not all of them.

An interesting thing will be a school like UConn. Their revenue in 2024 was $63 million. The university also subsidized the athletic department by putting in $32 million from the main university budget. I’m just not sure the university is going to want to find another $15 million to put towards athletics on an annual basis.

This is money that universities have to find that is not currently in the budget. That’s a ton of money if you want to do that on an annual basis with the amount increasing every year. It’s going to take alumni and supporters of the program to keep giving tons of money,

It’s just not as easy as many think it is. I could be totally wrong…it wouldn’t be the first time.

 

[Fox2monk]

I've been reading watch out for big east basketball in years to come....now I can see a bit more clearly.....
Most of these schools are one sport schools....basketball.
No need to split off 50-75% of revenues to anyone. Basketball gets it all.

That is a plus, but come on now, big money FB schools will do what they have to in order to get players. All this ruling does is make shady recruiting with cash in bags more prominent. Football schools will still rake in way more revenue overall and be poised to be a frontrunner in the new landscape for good. If they want a player they won’t let revenue sharing be the reason they won’t get them. They will need all that revenue to hope to keep up with football schools honestly.

 

[Fox2monk]

An important aspect of this is that since they don’t have football, the revenue at most of the schools is much less than power programs. I’d say most of them are probably under $50 million. For example, they get $8 million per school for the TV deal.

The settlement says that NCAA Division I schools will be able to share up to 22% of their athletic department revenue with student-athletes. If department revenue is only $40 million, then the way I read it, they would only have a max of $8.8 million for the entire athletic department. Someone correct me if I’m wrong.

While it might be a little more than UK gives to basketball, it won’t be much more for a majority of the schools.

According to this quick search: 2023, the University of Connecticut (UConn) received approximately $6.37 million from the Big East Conference.

• Self-generated revenues increase in FY24 to $62.7 million; a $7.6 million increase from FY23; and a 43.5% increase from FY22
• Total revenues in FY24 were $105.6 million with 59.4% of overall revenues being self-generated

For comparison The University of Kentucky's athletics department generated nearly $202 million in operating revenue for the 2023-24 fiscal year.

So to be competitive UCONN has to generate 60% of their revenue from donors each year while Kentucky already averages over double the operating revenue. You can see how we are absolutely competitive with them considering we can double the amount of money share and we don’t nearly rely on that level of donor funding which can go into collectives and NIL deals. Football will receive a big chunk, but we will not short our BBall team to be at the top of the list as shown by our NIL commitment for this upcoming season.

As said above we are generating almost 10x the revenue from our SEC deal alone more than UCONN does from the Big East Basketball deal.

Let’s say it was determined we can share 20% of our revenue with Athletes. If we share 50% with Football that is 20 million dollars, 25% with basketball is 10 million dollars, and 10 million will be left to share among other sports. That’s a nice chunk of money.

 

[Fox2monk]

I cant pretend to know how all the finances work.. but Villanova is reported to have a $1.3 Billion endowment. I would think they would be OK to use some of that for their premier athletic program. But.. maybe they cant, maybe they dont want to put a ton into it. Or maybe they are fine with NIL as their way to build a basketball team.

But these big east schools still have a shit ton of money. And basketball is king for schools like Uconn and St. Johns.

I am not sure how endowments exactly work, but I would think a lot of the funding comes with money that is earmarked for certain things, research, grants, etc..

 

[BigBlueFanGA]

I cant pretend to know how all the finances work.. but Villanova is reported to have a $1.3 Billion endowment. I would think they would be OK to use some of that for their premier athletic program. But.. maybe they cant, maybe they dont want to put a ton into it. Or maybe they are fine with NIL as their way to build a basketball team.

But these big east schools still have a shit ton of money. And basketball is king for schools like Uconn and St. Johns.

I doubt any schools dip into their endowments to pay transient players. Personally, I think this settlement harms the Big East schools. Most of them simply can't afford to pay a full and competitive roster. Doing it year after year makes it less likely.

 

[BigBlueFanGA]

According to this quick search: 2023, the University of Connecticut (UConn) received approximately $6.37 million from the Big East Conference.

• Self-generated revenues increase in FY24 to $62.7 million; a $7.6 million increase from FY23; and a 43.5% increase from FY22
• Total revenues in FY24 were $105.6 million with 59.4% of overall revenues being self-generated

For comparison The University of Kentucky's athletics department generated nearly $202 million in operating revenue for the 2023-24 fiscal year.

So to be competitive UCONN has to generate 60% of their revenue from donors each year while Kentucky already averages over double the operating revenue. You can see how we are absolutely competitive with them considering we can double the amount of money share and we don’t nearly rely on that level of donor funding which can go into collectives and NIL deals. Football will receive a big chunk, but we will not short our BBall team to be at the top of the list as shown by our NIL commitment for this upcoming season.

As said above we are generating almost 10x the revenue from our SEC deal alone more than UCONN does from the Big East Basketball deal.

Let’s say it was determined we can share 20% of our revenue with Athletes. If we share 50% with Football that is 20 million dollars, 25% with basketball is 10 million dollars, and 10 million will be left to share among other sports. That’s a nice chunk of money.

I dont think thats the way it works. Poeer schools will be controlled by the cap which is 20.5 million this year. It wouldn’t matter if we generated a billion in revenue, the cap would still limit us to 20.5 million. In years 2 and 3 the cap goes up by 4% each year.

 

[TucsonCat]

An important aspect of this is that since they don’t have football, the revenue at most of the schools is much less than power programs. I’d say most of them are probably under $50 million. For example, they get $8 million per school for the TV deal.

The settlement says that NCAA Division I schools will be able to share up to 22% of their athletic department revenue with student-athletes. If department revenue is only $40 million, then the way I read it, they would only have a max of $8.8 million for the entire athletic department. Someone correct me if I’m wrong.

While it might be a little more than UK gives to basketball, it won’t be much more for a majority of the schools.

I don't think the cap is 22% of that specific schools revenue.
I think it's 22% of average for all Power Conference school revenue.
That number is 20.5 million dollars, and it's applied flatly across the board.
So the SEC, BIG10, ACC, BIG12 revenues will set the cap.
The P4 conferences, except ACC, have stated their schools must distribute the max.
So Texas and West Virginia have to spend the same 20.5 million.
The AAC says their schools must pay at least 10 million.
The Big East has opted in to the cap number and structure, but aren't obligated to meet it.

I would think that aac number is telling.
They have football but still think giving 10 million is a stretch.
Don't see Big East schools doling out more than that.
Some have guessed p4 schools give like 4 million to basketball.
Could St Johns give 6?

 

[Fox2monk]

I dont think thats the way it works. Poeer schools will be controlled by the cap which is 20.5 million this year. It wouldn’t matter if we generated a billion in revenue, the cap would still limit us to 20.5 million. In years 2 and 3 the cap goes up by 4% each year.

Ah well then we will still have the money to spend easy. I thought it was a cap of % not total millions.

 

[Haggin_Hall_1983]

It all comes down to how that 20 million dollar pie gets sliced up. To be competitive in football, I think will require at least 15 million dollars in the big 4 conferences. That leaves only 5 million for other sports. So I can see Big East schools exceeding that 5 million dollars, at least those with large booster support. I look for UK to spend 10 million on basketball and 10 million on football.

 

[wildcatknh]

Ah well then we will still have the money to spend easy. I thought it was a cap of % not total millions.

Yeah ... the cap is not a percentage ... it's a fixed dollar amount per year. The 22% is the percentage that was used to come up with the $20.5M cap for year one. IIRC, the analysis that was done to come up with the 22% looked and revenues, expenses, and budgets for a number of power conference athletics departments over about a 10-year period. So it wasn't just an arbitrary percentage that someone came up with ... there is a lot of data and financial analysis behind it.

 

[jeffky]

Yeah, their problem is, they will struggle to raise even half of that 20 million.

Hockey is huge in alot of those big east schools they will take quite a bit of that nil too

 

[trueblujr2]

Big East Basketball is set to be a big winner from this 20mil ruling. Heck even their other non-football sports will get a leg up with funding.

IMO, if they don't have football at all they shouldn't get an equal portion of the 20 Mil. That should all be proportional to the Sports you offer in the allotment. Football should get X percentage of the allotment, Basketball Y percentage and so forth. down the line. If you don't have football, you don't get the X percentage.

 

[bucsrule8872]

Hockey is huge in alot of those big east schools they will take quite a bit of that nil too

I don’t know much about college Hockey. How much will teams up north put into that?

The Big Ten will have to put some money into that, I would think. Hockey is probably bigger than basketball at Minnesota.

But then the SEC schools probably put more into baseball than other conferences.

I’d say it all balances out pretty wel, in the end.

 

[wildcatknh]

IMO, if they don't have football at all they shouldn't get an equal portion of the 20 Mil. That should all be proportional to the Sports you offer in the allotment. Football should get X percentage of the allotment, Basketball Y percentage and so forth. down the line. If you don't have football, you don't get the X percentage.

It's all relative ... you don't need to mandate it. If they don't have football to support, they also don't have the revenue from football to distribute in the first place. The 'proportions' will have to be determined by each athletic department based on what sports they offer and what's important for them to fund.

 

[BigBlueFanGA]

IMO, if they don't have football at all they shouldn't get an equal portion of the 20 Mil. That should all be proportional to the Sports you offer in the allotment. Football should get X percentage of the allotment, Basketball Y percentage and so forth. down the line. If you don't have football, you don't get the X percentage.

I'm not sure I understand exactly what you mean by "allotment".

 

[Digger-Cat]

Hockey is huge in alot of those big east schools they will take quite a bit of that nil too

That and the real threat to college basketball has been UConn, they have a pretty decent football program, so UConn won’t have the advantages St Johns will have with NIL sharing.

 

[bthaunert]

Hockey is huge in alot of those big east schools they will take quite a bit of that nil too

I think only 2 Big East schools have hockey....UConn and Providence.

 

[BigBlueFanGA]

It all comes down to how that 20 million dollar pie gets sliced up. To be competitive in football, I think will require at least 15 million dollars in the big 4 conferences. That leaves only 5 million for other sports. So I can see Big East schools exceeding that 5 million dollars, at least those with large booster support. I look for UK to spend 10 million on basketball and 10 million on football.

Non-revenue sports will get some.

 

[BlueSince92]

Always someone interested in the size of our endowment, huh? Trying to get their hands on our revenue package.

 

[RobEStacy]

If a school participates in the revenue sharing, they have to spend 22%. If that means there number is 12milion...they have to spend that much.... If a school wishes to exceed 22%, they can, up to that years cap (which is 20.5 this year). If your 22%number exceeds the cap, you are then limited to the cap. So schools without a football program. Will have to self fund the difference between 22% total and the cap. Since that money will be coming out of state, federal and donated funds, some school will find it difficult to funnel extra funds into the basketball programs.. And this whole deal is far from over.... I expect title IV and other lawsuits to be filed by end of week. And for Collective Bargaining to come into play before the next year or so.

 

[catsfanbgky]

I've been reading watch out for big east basketball in years to come....now I can see a bit more clearly.....
Most of these schools are one sport schools....basketball.
No need to split off 50-75% of revenues to anyone. Basketball gets it all.

I posted that very thing in a thread back when portal season first opened. Villanova, Marquette, St. Johns, and a few others are going to be absolute powerhouses. They have been very solid before gaining the NIL advantage.

 

[catsfanbgky]

IMO, if they don't have football at all they shouldn't get an equal portion of the 20 Mil. That should all be proportional to the Sports you offer in the allotment. Football should get X percentage of the allotment, Basketball Y percentage and so forth. down the line. If you don't have football, you don't get the X percentage.

That is kind of a form of Communism. If they compete in said conference, the SCHOOL, not sport gets the money. They have a right to divide it up how they feel, it is THEIR money. How many or what sports has no bearing on the payout, it is the conference they are in that does. They tried to do that very thing by allotting %'s by sports. UK held it up in the SEC, saying the % was NOT enough for basketball ($6 million or something like that). Football is already heading down the tube, with UK basketball getting more $$$ than other SEC teams, the football team will not be able to compete with the big dogs in paying players. They couldn't compete anyway, why waste the money over paying the players they are able to sign ? I think it was smarty to slide to money to basketball.

UK will be one of the SEC schools where basketball will get more than other schools. Bet your ass Bama, Auburn, LSU, Ole Miss, Georgia, UT, Texas, A&M, Oklahoma, Florida, are not going to cut football %'s. Not happening. Teams like Miss State, Vandy, Missouri could.

 

[bucsrule8872]

All this stuff is so hard to figure out. You need a law degree to understand any of it.

And some posters saying the Big East will have an advantage, while others argue they won’t.

Somebody give me the bottom line: Will Big East basketball have a decided advantage over everyone else or not? And tell me why?

In laymen’s terms, please.

 

[trueblujr2]

That is kind of a form of Communism. If they compete in said conference, the SCHOOL, not sport gets the money. They have a right to divide it up how they feel, it is THEIR money. How many or what sports has no bearing on the payout, it is the conference they are in that does. They tried to do that very thing by allotting %'s by sports. UK held it up in the SEC, saying the % was NOT enough for basketball ($6 million or something like that). Football is already heading down the tube, with UK basketball getting more $$$ than other SEC teams, the football team will not be able to compete with the big dogs in paying players. They couldn't compete anyway, why waste the money over paying the players they are able to sign ? I think it was smarty to slide to money to basketball.

UK will be one of the SEC schools where basketball will get more than other schools. Bet your ass Bama, Auburn, LSU, Ole Miss, Georgia, UT, Texas, A&M, Oklahoma, Florida, are not going to cut football %'s. Not happening. Teams like Miss State, Vandy, Missouri could.

I'm not talking about how the schools allot their money, I'm talking about how the money is doled out by the NCAA. Obviously schools with football teams generating billions in TV revenue and such for the NCAA should get a bigger piece of the pie from those that don't.

 

[bthaunert]

It all comes down to how that 20 million dollar pie gets sliced up. To be competitive in football, I think will require at least 15 million dollars in the big 4 conferences. That leaves only 5 million for other sports. So I can see Big East schools exceeding that 5 million dollars, at least those with large booster support. I look for UK to spend 10 million on basketball and 10 million on football.

I don't think there is any way they split the $18 million (some will go to other sports) even between the 2. Football will get more imo....it just depends on how much more.

 

[wildcatknh]

If a school participates in the revenue sharing, they have to spend 22%. If that means there number is 12milion...they have to spend that much.... If a school wishes to exceed 22%, they can, up to that years cap (which is 20.5 this year). If your 22%number exceeds the cap, you are then limited to the cap. So schools without a football program. Will have to self fund the difference between 22% total and the cap. Since that money will be coming out of state, federal and donated funds, some school will find it difficult to funnel extra funds into the basketball programs.. And this whole deal is far from over.... I expect title IV and other lawsuits to be filed by end of week. And for Collective Bargaining to come into play before the next year or so.

Not trying to offend ... but this statement is not accurate. This whole situation is hard enough to understand without having to continually sift through inaccurate information.

Schools are not required to spend a certain percentage of revenue .... they can choose to spend however much, or however little, they want. The cap is simply that .... a cap on how much they can spend each year.

From page 44 of the final approved settlement:

Schools will be permitted to provide compensation and benefits pursuant to the Injunctive Relief Settlement at their discretion, which means that schools will have the ability to choose to provide compensation and benefits that are significantly below the Pool cap or to provide no compensation and benefits at all.

Link: House v. NCAA Settlement

 

[RobEStacy]

Not trying to offend ... but this statement is not accurate. This whole situation is hard enough to understand without having to continually sift through inaccurate information.

Schools are not required to spend a certain percentage of revenue .... they can choose to spend however much, or however little, they want. The cap is simply that .... a cap on how much they can spend each year.

From page 44 of the final approved settlement:


Link: House v. NCAA Settlement

I stand corrected.... It was this way when it was first introduced.. I guess it has changed since then.

 

[bigblueinsanity]

All this stuff is so hard to figure out. You need a law degree to understand any of it.

And some posters saying the Big East will have an advantage, while others argue they won’t.

Somebody give me the bottom line: Will Big East basketball have a decided advantage over everyone else or not? And tell me why?

In laymen’s terms, please.

It just depends on overall revenue and big east will be well short of other conferences. Internet says big east total conference earned 87 million and the sec 808 million in 23-24.

So even if big east basketball gets 100 of the profit share, it will only be 19.1 million.

Whereas the sec basketball, even just getting 15% of that massive total, will still get 26.64 million.

So yes, big east basketball gets to keep all their money, but people don't realize how insanely profitable football really is; especially sec and big ten football. Major college football brings in so much, it more than offsets the share it will take.

 

[wildcatknh]

So .... I want to share my own personal thoughts for why I am not worried about the Big East suddenly becoming a monster in the new Revshare/NIL era.

I wish I had more actual data to back this up, but almost everything that I can find on athletics department finances on the web only includes public universities ... and other than UConn, the Big East is all private universities and their financial data is very difficult to find. I am going to compare SEC schools to UConn and will have to use UConn as a representative example of a top-tier Big East athletics department. I say 'top-tier' because I am making the assumption that UConn is probably the strongest Big East program in terms of revenues and financial strength. We can debate that assumption, but I think there are some solid reasons to make that assumption.

The NCAA's NIL website lists revenue sharing estimates for '25-'26 for public universities. The average annual revenue for an SEC school (Vandy not included - private) was over $122M. [Per the NCAA site, these averages were calculated based on the USA Today NCAA Finances database, which actually reports lower revenues than the Knight Commission database ... so these numbers may in-fact be low.] UConn's annual revenue is reported as $29.5M. Per the NCAA, every single SEC school is expected to max out distributions under revenue sharing at the $20.5M cap .... while UConn is estimated to only distribute $6.5M.

Here's the main point that I think many people are overlooking. Revenue sharing does not include contributions and donations from alumni and boosters. The revenue sharing pool only includes a defined set of sources. Per the NCAA:

"Computed Athletic Department revenue includes event tickets and admission fees, game guarantees, TV, media, licensing, advertising, sponsorships and royalty rights, bowl game, NCAA and conference distributions and all related revenues. Revenue does not include direct or indirect school support, student fees or contributions to the athletic department from alumni and boosters."

Distributions to athletes under Revshare will be a budgeted item within the athletics department. It is not something where everyone just magically has $20M more to spend and can use all of that if they want to. And it's also not something where big boosters can come in and spend $20M on athletes. Non P4 schools that do not have the benefit of the additional tens of millions from football revenue or SEC, B10, etc. distributions simply will not financially be able to distribute an extra $20M to athletes and continue to operate an athletics department that supports every sport and all athletes.

So, while the new landscape does give Big East schools the opportunity to spend $20M on basketball if they want ... they simply don't (and won't) have the revenues to do so within their smaller budgets (compared to SEC schools).

EDIT: I believe the Knight Commission database lists UK's revenue at right around $200M and UConn's somewhere around $65M. So, while those are a lot higher than the NCAA/USA Today revenue numbers ... the disparity still remains. UConn and Big East programs simply don't have the revenue to match P4 schools.

 

[bthaunert]

So .... I want to share my own personal thoughts for why I am not worried about the Big East suddenly becoming a monster in the new Revshare/NIL era.

I wish I had more actual data to back this up, but almost everything that I can find on athletics department finances on the web only includes public universities ... and other than UConn, the Big East is all private universities and their financial data is very difficult to find. I am going to compare SEC schools to UConn and will have to use UConn as a representative example of a top-tier Big East athletics department. I say 'top-tier' because I am making the assumption that UConn is probably the strongest Big East program in terms of revenues and financial strength. We can debate that assumption, but I think there are some solid reasons to make that assumption.

The NCAA's NIL website lists revenue sharing estimates for '25-'26 for public universities. The average annual revenue for an SEC school (Vandy not included - private) was over $122M. [Per the NCAA site, these averages were calculated based on the USA Today NCAA Finances database, which actually reports lower revenues than the Knight Commission database ... so these numbers may in-fact be low.] UConn's annual revenue is reported as $29.5M. Per the NCAA, every single SEC school is expected to max out distributions under revenue sharing at the $20.5M cap .... while UConn is estimated to only distribute $6.5M.

Here's the main point that I think many people are overlooking. Revenue sharing does not include contributions and donations from alumni and boosters. The revenue sharing pool only includes a defined set of sources. Per the NCAA:

"Computed Athletic Department revenue includes event tickets and admission fees, game guarantees, TV, media, licensing, advertising, sponsorships and royalty rights, bowl game, NCAA and conference distributions and all related revenues. Revenue does not include direct or indirect school support, student fees or contributions to the athletic department from alumni and boosters."

Distributions to athletes under Revshare will be a budgeted item within the athletics department. It is not something where everyone just magically has $20M more to spend and can use all of that if they want to. And it's also not something where big boosters can come in and spend $20M on athletes. Non P4 schools that do not have the benefit of the additional tens of millions from football revenue or SEC, B10, etc. distributions simply will not financially be able to distribute an extra $20M to athletes and continue to operate an athletics department that supports every sport and all athletes.

So, while the new landscape does give Big East schools the opportunity to spend $20M on basketball if they want ... they simply don't (and won't) have the revenues to do so within their smaller budgets (compared to SEC schools).

EDIT: I believe the Knight Commission database lists UK's revenue at right around $200M and UConn's somewhere around $65M. So, while those are a lot higher than the NCAA/USA Today revenue numbers ... the disparity still remains. UConn and Big East programs simply don't have the revenue to match P4 schools.

The EDIT is important in your information. UK's budgeted revenue for FY25 is $188,372,890 (UK Financials - Page 5). It also looks like UConn's FY24 revenue was $105,600,000 (UConn Information). One huge aspect of UConn's report is that $31.7 million of their revenue comes from the university. UK does not get any funding form the university.

Another important aspect of your post is the fact that schools need to find the money. If UConn want's to give $15 million to their athletes in revenue sharing, then they need to figure out a way to cut $15 million in expenses, find $15 million in new revenue, or a combo of the two.

Here is what Mitch said about UK's financial future:

Barnhart and Kentucky spokesman Jay Blanton said the estimated $50 million increase in expenses comes from its expected NIL payments to athletes (likely $20 million to $23 million), an increase in the number of athletic scholarships it awards ($4 million to $5 million), inflation, spending by the school in connection with efforts it can make to assist athletes with outside NIL deal and an expected loss of sponsorship revenue from companies that instead choose to make NIL deals with athletes.

So at a school like UConn, or any Big east school, think about the financial impact of this entire thing when you only bring in $100 million, and that's probably the highest among all Big east schools. I would imagine a school like Xavier is under $50 million. Where the hell are these schools going to find all of this money?

We will look at the landscape of college athletics 5 years down the line and see who the have and have nots are trying to find all of this money on an annual basis.

 

[bucsrule8872]

People are looking at UConn as the Big East example, but they are the exception because they actually have football. They would not gain an advantage, even if there was one.

What about schools like St. John’s and Georgetown, where basketball is the main sport because they don’t have a football squad?

What’s the bottom line for those schools?