Sixty-eight universities hit or nearly reached initial college sports revenue-sharing limit

The short version

• Court filings show 68 universities reached or came within 5% of the $20.5 million revenue-sharing cap during the first year of direct athlete payouts under the House lawsuit settlement.[Associated Press]
• A total of 319 Division I schools opted into the arrangement, with 307 distributing $1.77 billion across nearly 35,000 student-athletes.[Associated Press]
• The College Sports Commission redacted the specific names of the 68 programs, though the total matches the number of athletic departments in the Power Four conferences.[Associated Press]
• Legislation passed by the Senate proposes expanding the annual cap to $48.8 million by adding a dedicated player retention pool.[Associated Press]

Key facts

• Exactly 68 schools reached or came within 5% of the $20.5 million revenue-sharing limit in the first year of the settlement framework.[Associated Press]
• Out of 319 schools opting into the revenue-sharing framework, 307 distributed $1.77 billion to 34,915 student-athletes.[Associated Press]
• The revenue-sharing cap was originally set at 22% of the average of specific revenues across Power Four athletic departments.[Associated Press]
• The cap was increased to $21.58 million for the current season, and a Senate bill seeks to raise it to $48.8 million through a player retention pool.[Associated Press]

Sources

Outlet counts describe coverage, not independent confirmation. Reports may share a wire service or original source.

• In first year of NIL payouts, 68 schools hit or came very close to $20.5M revenue-sharing limitAssociated Press · Wire: associated-press