Revenue sharing settlement leaves plenty of questions for Clemson Football and all college sports

Will the revenues be shared equally? What happens to NIL?

Thus far there does not appear to be requirements surrounding how the schools will share the $20 million in revenue. They could share it equally with every student-athlete who plays for the university in a given school year, meaning the star quarterback on the football team will make equal money to a member of the rowing team.

This would seem the most equitable way to distribute the money, and some schools might do it, but it isn’t likely. Most schools will probably skew the revenue toward the sports that make the most money and toward the athletes that draw the most eyeballs. The revenue will probably become a key recruiting tool for the biggest sports like football, basketball, and baseball.

There have been posts that a part of this settlement will involve bringing NIL management in-house to the schools. The exact meaning of this is to be determined, but it likely means that schools will be able to broker deals for student-athletes.

This doesn’t necessarily mean collectives will go away. Nor does it mean that student-athletes would have to include the school in negotiations. If they wanted to strike an NIL deal with Dr. Pepper on their own, they would still be allowed to do that.

NIL will probably be more coordinated with the university than ever before, but it won’t be going away. Just because a power program must limit its revenue sharing to $20 million doesn’t mean it can’t still add $10 million more in collective NIL money to its war chest.

Next: Will walk-ons go away?