Clemson Tigers Get First Glimpse of Upcoming Salary Cap in New Memo

The Clemson Tigers and the rest of college sports are getting more bread crumbs when it comes to student-athlete revenue sharing.

Graham Neff, Clemson University Tigers Athletic Director, gives a State of Clemson Athletics speech in the Smart Family Media Center in Clemson, S.C. Wednesday, August 21, 2024. / Ken Ruinard / staff / USA TODAY NETWORK

While the House vs. NCAA settlement won’t be fully approved until next year and still has many hoops to jump through, athletic departments like Clemson’s are starting to get more information about things like revenue sharing and the max the Tigers will be allowed to share next fall.

Yahoo Sports reported that an internal memo was distributed this week in the power conferences detailing that the projected cap for the 2025-26 athletic year would be $20.5 million.

That’s a bit below some projections of $22 million and is by no means final. The cap is 22% of Power Four (ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, SEC) revenues in the previous year. That revenue is expected to increase by 4% each season.

But it gives schools and athletic departments a sense of the money they need to gather up in order to be able to share at the maximum level next fall.

This memo came a few days after the NCAA provided an internal Q&A memo to all members about the settlement which made clear that schools do not have to share revenue (the opt-in or opt-out scenario) but clarified that schools cannot opt into revenue sharing on a per-program basis.

For example, a school like Clemson cannot decide to share revenue with football players but not baseball players. The Tigers must share revenue with all student-athletes if they choose to opt-in.

Schools may also distribute the revenue however they see fit. But, Yahoo reported that many schools are planning to use the formula used to determine the back damages in the House settlement, which would allow 90% of revenue to football & men’s basketball.

The House v. NCAA settlement is actually a combination of three different cases brought by current and former student-athletes that will change the face of college athletics if it is ultimately approved.

It will allow for $2.75 billion in damages will be paid to thousands of college athletes over 10 years as part of restitution for their inability to access things like Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) opportunities. The new settlement won’t prohibit student-athletes from leveraging NIL, but they will need to report any deals valued at $600 or more, per the NCAA internal memo.

The settlement also caps scholarships and, in some cases, expands them for certain sports through roster limits.

Those limits will exist for all sponsored sports, with the most notable being 105 for football, 15 each for men’s and women’s basketball, 34 for baseball, 25 for softball and 18 for volleyball.

The athletic department recently announced the establishment of Clemson Ventures, which is designed to maximize revenue-generation strategies for the department.