During Friday's edition of TexAgs Live, Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports provided the latest on the NCAA's proposed revenue-sharing plan after the ACC becomes the first league to set a minimum standard. Dellenger also spoke on the future of the College Football Playoff.
Key notes from Ross Dellenger interview
- I do live in Washington, D.C., so it was an easy trip for me to Capital Hill earlier this week. Congressional hearings are not my favorite thing, and a lot of them don't really produce real news or movement. This one had nothing groundbreaking or really new. All this one did for me was show how divided Republicans and Democrats are, including on a college athlete bill.
- The American Athletic Conference presidents voted today to establish a minimum standard of benefits schools are required to share with athletes. It is pretty important and significant since they are the first league to basically establish a minimum standard that their schools are going to have to spend in this new revenue share era. They have to spend at least $10 million over three years. That includes new scholarships that are added, but for the most part, it's revenue share.
- We could see more leagues set this floor of, “You have to at least reach this mark.” I think we will see a couple more leagues do it. Obviously, in the power conferences, there's no reason to do it because they're going to share well above $10 million annually. Let alone in three years. Thirty to 50 of the 70 power conference schools will reach the cap of $20 million in the first year and potentially exceed it. The most interesting part is what happens if the school doesn't meet the requirement of sharing $10 million over three years. The answer is that the school will be under review. This shows a blueprint of how to cure a conference.
- It's a lot of hurry up and wait. There's just a lot of talking going on. A lot of these issues are probably more complicated than how they feel on their face. There's a lot of legal entanglements and rule changes going on. All of the direct revenue share with athletes, that whole system will change virtually everything about college athletics. It touches everything. There are a lot of legal issues being talked about, and those things just take time.
- By the time football season rolls around, we'll have a lot more answers on the details of the settlement and whether it will be approved or not, how schools are going to handle it and what the SEC and Big Ten are going to do from the College Football Playoff format.
- By the SEC Spring Meetings in May, I think we'll know whether the SEC is moving to nine games. The vote might be there or just before or after. By July 1, by SEC Media Days, we'll know if the SEC is moving to a ninth game in 2026. It does seem to be trending in that direction. All of these things are related. They're all tethered together with the revenue share deal with athletes.
- Everybody needs money to share with athletes and the way they're doing that is generating other revenues. An extra SEC game would probably mean more money from ESPN. That allows you to potentially create a scheduling agreement with the Big Ten. Right now, they're at nine games. To get that done, both have to be at nine conference games regarding fairness. You create these big matchups with the Big Ten, and that creates more revenue and more TV coverage for the networks. Linked to all of this is the College Football Playoff. It allows you to lose more games in the regular season but still get access to the College Football Playoff.
- The main format that's been discussed between the leagues is a 14-team CFP bracket that has four automatic qualifiers for the Big Ten and the SEC. Two for the ACC and Big 12 each. One for the best Group of Five champion. Then there's one at-large bid, probably intended for Notre Dame, if they finish high enough in the rankings. The College Football Playoff leaders did discuss a 16-team bracket and what that might look like. They discussed staying at 12 as well. Everything is on the table. The main one that is being discussed internally, with the Big Ten, especially, but also the SEC in involvement and discussions, is that 14-team bracket with multiple automatic qualifiers for a single conference.
- The NIL conversation is probably going to continue for a while because, in addition to the cap, that school can share revenue. They can share up to $20.5 million in year one. You can go above the cap with real NIL deals, but those deals have to make it through a new enforcement entity, a new clearing house. The clearing house is going to approve or reject deals based on a fair market value analysis. That's going to be the subject of a lot of discussion and consternation going forward.
