Schools in Power 4 conferences are allowed to directly share up to $21.6 million in revenue with their athletes this year, as part of a landmark settlement that attempted to address destabilizing antitrust challenges to college sports’ model. Most schools say they are allocating around 75 percent of that revenue sharing pool to football players, which comes out to about $16 million.
As such, you might be confused why our reporting project laying out every P4 team’s estimated roster budget this season shows several programs spending well north of that — including at least 20 schools believed to be above $30 million and a few as high as $50 million.
We’re happy to explain. But first, a quick history lesson.
