You’re probably going to get very familiar with the term ‘revenue sharing’ this summer, as the term is shorthand for a set of new rules and regulations that are set to transform high-level college athletics as we know it. 

What is Revenue Sharing?

Revenue sharing, or rev share, is exactly what it implies: colleges and universities paying their student athletes directly from revenue generated from their sports programs. Revenue comes to the university by way of its athletic department and is then shared with that school's student-athletes. Hence, rev share. 

Revenue sharing is part of the settlement of the NCAA vs House lawsuit, which we first discussed here, back in July of 2024. 

Will All NCAA Programs Participate in Rev Share?

No. Division II and Division III NCAA schools will not participate. The only schools that must participate are D1 Power 5 Conference programs. Other D1 schools can opt in. NAIA, Junior Colleges and other collegiate wrestling programs not in the NCAA will also not be subject to the new Rev Share rules.

The Ivy League has also already announced that they will not participate in rev share. Those schools with wrestling programs are Cornell, Harvard, Penn, Princeton, Columbia and Brown.

Which Programs Must Participate In Rev Share?

The full-time members of the Big Ten, ACC, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC. Which are:

14 Big Ten Schools

• Illinois
• Indiana
• Iowa
• Maryland
• Michigan
• Michigan State
• Minnesota
• Nebraska
• Northwestern
• Ohio State
• Penn State
• Purdue
• Rutgers
• Wisconsin

7 ACC Schools

• Duke
• North Carolina
• NC State
• Pitt
• Stanford
• Virginia
• Virginia Tech

4 Big 12 Schools

• Arizona State
• Iowa State
• Oklahoma State
• West Virginia

2 SEC Schools

• Missouri
• Oklahoma

1 Pac-12 School

• Oregon State

What Other Schools Will Opt-In?

It's been difficult to track down the intentions of all the non-power 5 schools. Athletic departments were supposed to tell NCAA by March 1, 2025 if they planned on participating in revenue sharing but that information was not made public. 

The Colonial Athletic Association has stated that it intends to participate in Revenue Sharing. The three schools in the CAA with wrestling are the following: 

• Campbell
• Drexel
• Hofstra

There are rumors of other schools opting in but no confirmations yet. At least that I can find. We'll definitely be monitoring the situation for updates! 

What About Roster Caps and Scholarship Limits? 

Schools that opt-in to revenue sharing will also have roster caps in all their sports. Wrestling teams will be limited to 30 actively rostered athletes. However, schools will be able to offer full scholarships to all their rostered athletes (so up to 30 for wrestling, duh). 

It's important to remember that schools won't be required to provide all 30 scholarships to their student-atheltes. In fact, they aren't required to provide any!  However, no matter how many scholarships they offer they will still have to abide by the roster caps and keep their teams to 30 or fewer athletes, which will apply to both men's and women's wrestling (don't forget women's wrestling's first season as an NCAA sanctioned sport is next year). 

Okay But How Will Revenue Sharing Affect College Wrestling?

That will depend on the choices the different athletic departments make within the framework of revenue sharing. Predicting what choices those schools will make is further complicated by the fact that the revenue sharing framework is still being finalized (a federal judge still needs to approve the settlement, which is expected to happen around April 7). 

The short answer is that schools that are already devoting the maximum amount of resources to football (and to a lesser extent basketball) will continue to do so.

Donors will likely shift some of the money they are spending on NIL to revenue sharing, as rev share money will be tax-deductible, however programs with the most deep pocketed donors will probably still spend a significant amount of money on NIL, as there will still be no 'salary cap' for NIL like there will be for revenue sharing. 

Who Is Policing These New Policies?

The NCAA has hired Deloitte, a very large consulting and accounting firm, to keep track of all the schools that participate in revenue sharing. Deloitte will also help vet NIL deals to make sure they represent 'fair market value' and aren't just thinly veiled 'pay-for-play' donations. 

But how is Deloitte going to enforce penalties on the NCAA schools that also hired them to administer their new revenue sharing business? Great question, my guess is they won't!

Everyone will essentially be on the honor system and the only thing keeping athletic departments in check will be more lawsuits and court cases. 

Or maybe the schools empower the NCAA with a new commissioner role or something. We'll see! 

How Much Will Wrestlers Get From Rev Share?

I don't expect much. It will be whatever the schools allocate to wrestling from the $20.5 million maximum they can spend in 2025 (though that total will increase every year).

Most of that will go to football, some to basketball, and the rest will go to women's sports to stay in compliance with Title IX. 

For example, if wrestling is only 1% of a school's total athletic budget, then it's probably safe to assume their wrestlers aren't going to see more than 1% of the school's rev share spend. 

Isn't That Bad For Smaller Schools Or Programs With Less Resources?

It depends (sorry that's the answer to so many of these questions). 

The more well endowed programs with more donors will continue to be able to pay for better recruits and transfers with NIL deals and scholarships. That's been the case since NIL deals were legalized for NCAA athletes in 2021 following the NCAA v. Alston case heard by the Supreme Court. It's also been the case before that, just with no legal NIL deals. 

However, those schools will be limited by roster caps, which could help spread some of the talent pool to other programs, or even other divisions. 

There is a fear that schools will cut wrestling programs in order to free up cash to spend on revenue sharing and scholarships for football. However, schools might be reluctant to make such a move for several reasons. 

Wrestling programs might not bring in a lot of revenue in the way of ticket sales, etc, but they do bring in tuition money and donations, which a school would lose if a program gets dropped. 

Furthermore, the money an athletic department would save by cutting wrestling (or any sport) would only provide a one-time cash infusion, and a relatively small one at that. Athletic departments simply won't be able to fund their rev share plans by cutting wrestling (or other sports). 

Which is not to say that it definitely won't happen. Innumerate athletic directors and school admins have cut wrestling programs for dumb and bad reasons in the past! 

What About The Billions Of Dollars In Settlement Money For Former Athletes? 

That will mostly be taken out of the revenue the NCAA gets for the media rights to the men’s basketball tournament, and most of that money would otherwise go to the Power 5 conference schools, so essentially, the richest schools will take a portion of the annual payout from the NCAA and send it to lawyers who will divvy it up amongst the former NCAA D1 athletes who applied for it. The smaller schools will pay an even smaller portion, and the DII and DIII schools will pay nothing. These payments will likely have little to no impact on the bottom line of the D1 schools’ athletic department budgets. 

Where Is All This heading?

Good question! I doubt even the conference commissioners could tell you with any confidence what college athletics will look like in ten years. 

What may be a clue as to the future of college athletics is the fact that the revenue sharing system about to be implemented was based on the models used by professional leagues, specifically the NFL, MLB, NBA and NHL. 

Those pro leagues have players' unions who negotiate master contracts with the leagues, which generally result in the league sharing about 50% of their revenue with the players. 

The Power 5 conferences are already making deals with the same media companies as those pro leagues. They’re also hiring the same lawyers and consultants. Now, the conferences are trying to get to a similar 50/50 revenue split but in a student-athlete framework. 

But instead of 50% of the revenue going to player salaries, it’s going to student-athlete in a mix of academic scholarships and a stipend. And instead of a salary cap there will be a roster cap. 

We’ll see how it goes. My guess is we’ll muddle along until about 2030 when a bunch of media rights deals are up for renewal, and then there will be chaos and then more muddling.  

Some voices from the universities have been calling for congress to grant the NCAA an anti-trust exemption and then help set universal rules for NIL etc. I wouldn't bet on that happening but maybe!

Sorry for all the lack of certainty but that's basically the only thing I will predict.