How Initial Revenue-Sharing Number Could Impact Tulane Green Wave
The Tulane Green Wave are on the outside looking in when it comes to power conference revenue-sharing. But, like other schools, the Green Wave are certainly keeping up with what’s happening in the House v. NCAA settlement.
The latest came earlier this week when Yahoo Sports reported that the power conferences (ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC) had distributed a memo outlining what the initial revenue-sharing cap would be.
That figure, per Yahoo, is $20.5 million.
That’s a bit below some projections of $22 million and is by no means final as the settlement won’t be finalized until April. The cap is 22% of Power Four revenues in the previous year and the revenue-share is expected to increase by 4% each season.
The impact is two-fold. First, can Tulane participate in this? Yes, it can. The Green Wave can opt-in or opt-out. Second, how much money does the Green Wave have to share? That’s a bigger question. The $20.5 million figure is a cap, not a minimum. It’s not clear yet if there will be a minimum that must be shared to participate.
Not being part of a power conference, Tulane did not receive that memo. But the Green Wave did receive a Q&A memo from the NCAA earlier this week about the House vs. NCAA settlement that clarified a few areas of potential concern for them and other programs.
First, athletic programs can opt-in or opt-out of revenue sharing, but they cannot do so by each program. For instance, Tulane cannot decide to share revenue with football players but not baseball players. The Green Wave must share revenue with all student-athletes if they choose to opt-in.
Second, the memo also clarified some aspects of NIL in the settlement. Student-athletes will be able to continue to participate in NIL. But, any transactions over $600 will be to be reported to the university and a designated reporting entity.
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 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.
