Pointing to a need to avoid a disadvantage in recruiting athletes, Florida university-system leaders Wednesday made up to $22.5 million available for each state university to share revenues with athletes.
The system’s Board of Governors approved the funding, which will be available annually at that level as a loan or transfer for the next three years. It is designed to help carry out a new revenue-sharing model with athletes under a national legal settlement in a case known as House v. NCAA.
Will help put universities into a position to compete for talent
It comes amid massive change in college sports, in part because of athletes now being able to cash in through “name, image and likeness” deals. Traditionally, college athletes could not be paid.
Board of Governors member Alan Levine said the money approved Wednesday “takes some of the pressure off the donors” now funding name, image and likeness deals and ensures “we put our universities in as advantageous a position as possible to compete.”
The settlement, approved June 6 by U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken of the Northern District of California, in part establishes a 10-year model for NCAA Division I schools to expand rosters and directly pay athletes for their names, images and likenesses.
“They’re already out there trying to sign contracts with these athletes,” Levine said. “And if we don’t act, there’s a really good chance that our institutions will be severely disadvantaged. I don’t think anybody wants that.”
Spending is capped
Payments, expected to go primarily to students who play football and men’s basketball, would be in addition to currently allowed individual name, image and likeness deals, where money is often raised and distributed through what are known as “collectives” and other organizations tied to schools.
Under the settlement, schools that opt in to the plan could spend up to a capped amount on direct payments and roster-expanding scholarships. For the 2025-2026 school year, the cap would be set at $20.5 million per school.
Peter Collins, chairman of the Florida State University Board of Trustees, said not every Florida school will reach the cap.
“I don’t know for sure everybody else around the table, but I know we will, because everybody that we play is spending in the cap,” Collins said.
The cap is based on calculations involving media, ticket and sponsorship revenue at schools in what are known as the “Power 5” conferences — the Atlantic Coast Conference, Big Ten, Big 12, Southeastern Conference and Pac-12 — and at Notre Dame.
The additional $2 million being offered to schools would cover back-pay of certain athletes who played before name, image and likeness deals became legal in 2021.
