The University of Oklahoma is one of the many colleges and universities that are having to deal with all of the changes affecting the compensation and interschool movement of student-athletes that have dramatically altered the course and management of college athletics.
And now they have a brand new revenue-share model to come to grips with.
The latest evolutionary action in the rapidly changing world of college sports was the judicial approval last Friday of the long-anticipated settlement in the House vs. NCAA legal case, which now permits schools to pay student-athletes.
While there is no standard set forth in the federal settlement on how the schools should go about distributing this additional revenue, Oklahoma is already out in front with a plan on how it plans to allocate the money within its athletic programs.
OU athletic director Joe Castiglione disclosed on Thursday that six sports will take part in the new revenue-share settlement. At a meeting of the Oklahoma Board of Regents, Castiglione shared that football, men's and women's basketball, baseball, softball and women's gymnastics will be the programs impacted by the revenue-share money.
"We've prepared for this day, and now that it's here, we're prepared to share revenue at the maximum allowable amount and add scholarships to create financial certainty for our student-athletes," Castiglione said.
Beginning July 1, athletic departments will be allowed to distribute up to roughly $20.5 million annually in name, image and likeness (NIL) revenue to athletes within the school's athletic programs in the 2025-26 academic year. Previous to the federal settlement, student-athletes could earn NIL compensation only with outside parties, including school-affiliated donor collectives that have become an integral piece of a school's recruiting.
There shouldn't be much of a surprise regarding the OU programs that will be part of the revenue-share allocation. Each of the six areas has had prominent national success in the past and represent the school's primary recognition and exposure at the national level.
This landmark announcement obviously raises a plethora of questions, many without answers at this early stage in its forthcoming implementation. Questions such as where exactly is up to $20.5 million in school-distributed revenue-share going to come from and in what percentages will the money be allocated to the various sports programs.
There's a lot to still be worked out, but the long-term hope is that the House vs. NCAA settlement will help level the playing field somewhat in college athletics and help mitigate the huge inequities that have been allowed to persist among schools with the richest donor bases.