Student-athletes received $1.77B in revenue-sharing pay in '25-26
ESPN • • sports
Key Points:
- Sixty-eight schools, matching the number of athletic programs in the four largest Division I conferences, reached or nearly reached the $20.5 million revenue-sharing cap in the first season of a new direct payment system for players.
- Court filings revealed that 319 schools opted into the revenue-sharing arrangement from the House lawsuit settlement, with 307 schools distributing a total of $1.77 billion to student-athletes.
- The College Sports Commission reported payments to 34,915 student-athletes across 307 schools, 33 conferences, and 45 sports, with 365 schools in Division I overall.
- The revenue-sharing cap was raised to $21.58 million this season, and a Senate bill aims to increase it further to $48.8 million, introducing a "retention pool" to help keep players on their current teams and potentially bring third-party NIL money under the cap.
- Schools participating in the arrangement must comply with roster limits reset under the House settlement, which also removed caps on the number of scholarships schools can offer.
