In an attempt to stay tapped into all things NIL, I’ve sorted through and gathered some interesting NIL-centered news items today. The title of each section will redirect you to the initial article, as I did not translate all of the columns into this page. Just the best cliff notes.
Today’s Topics
1. Private Equity Eyes FCS Playoffs: Could football’s postseason leave the NCAA? (ON3)
2. Candid Coaches: What percentage of your school’s revenue sharing should go to men’s basketball? (CBS)
3. FCS No. 3 Tarleton State proves to be too much for UT-Chattanooga (Chattanooga Times)
4. Big 12 Adds Boise State, Florida State, and South Carolina… in Beach Volleyball (Big12)
5. Indiana football wins on the field, and player in court case vs NCAA (IndyStar)
6. Sponsor patches on college uniforms would raise millions but some ADs are in wait-and-see mode (AP)
7. Big Media Companies Spent $210 Billion on Content in 2024, Led by Comcast, YouTube, and Disney (Variety)
1. Private Equity Eyes FCS Playoffs: Could football’s postseason leave the NCAA? (ON3)
The privatization of the FCS playoffs is a real talking point.
FCS conference commissioners met in Chicago on Tuesday to explore new models for their postseason, including a CFP-like concept that privatizes the playoff and involves, yes, private equity. Those involved in the discussion spoke to us on Tuesday evening under the condition of anonymity as no decision has been made and, in many ways, these are just preliminary explorations.
Nevertheless, it is notable that the conference commissioners received a presentation from Sequence Equity, an investment firm focused on human optimization and sports that recently launched a sports fund targeting athletic-adjacent businesses.
Details remain scarce, but the idea is pretty simple: The FCS playoffs, currently existing under the NCAA umbrella, would move into the private space in a partnership with, potentially, an equity group in an effort to increase its value and provide FCS programs with new revenue streams (most schools lose money on playoff games).
2. Candid Coaches: What percentage of your school’s revenue sharing should go to men’s basketball? (CBS)
Gary Parrish and Matt Norlander polled roughly 100 coaches in recent weeks on a variety of subjects. Coaches spoke on background and were provided anonymity to offer unfiltered opinions. This is the second installment in their 2025 survey.
Talk to any sitting athletic director these days, and most of them will tell you that among the toughest decisions they’ve had to make in the past year is how to divide the up to $20.5 million their departments are now allowed to share annually with athletes.
Answers from coaches at schools with FBS football programs:
- “This is a tough one because I think it depends on the university you’re at. For example, Duke and Kentucky are going to resource their basketball/football programs differently than Clemson and Alabama.”
- “Figure football has to have 70%. Men’s basketball, 25%. And I’m giving the other 5% to women’s basketball. And I’m not giving any money to anyone else. Soccer, volleyball, hockey, none of it.”
- “Twenty-five percent at the Power Four level. Exceptions for football blue-blood schools, which would likely lower basketball to 15%-to-20% there.”
Answers from coaches at schools without FBS football programs:
- “I am at a school without football, without any other revenue-generating sports. We will not spend close to the $20.5 million as a department, but [we] do have a very healthy revenue share for our level. So with that said, 95%.”
- “I’m at 90% and I think my AD would agree. It’s been hilarious to see some of these other coaches complain about the schools without big-time football. You should have been in on some of our meetings at the Final Four. ‘It’s not right that the St. John’s of the world, that they can now have this advantage!’
- Well, for 75 years you guys have had, if not one leg up, two legs up on all of us, and now there’s this perception that we finally have a slight advantage? And I say this to them: Guys, there aren’t donors walking around with $10 million to give every year and if they do, no matter how much money they have, they won’t just give $10 million with no tax breaks like how it was with the collectives. Maybe they do it once or twice. They’re not just going to keep doing it. It was straight paranoia at the coaches meetings. I think the irony is hilarious.”
- “Because we don’t play at the top level of D-I in football, men’s basketball should get 90% of it. Only revenue driver in the department.”
- “[We have] more potential [for a] return-on-investment per dollar invested in men’s basketball [in our mid-major league] than any other sport.”
3. FCS No. 3 Tarleton State proves to be too much for UT-Chattanooga (Chattanooga Times)
Sometimes, reality hurts.
Reality struck the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football team Saturday night in its battle against Tarleton State, which defeated the Mocs 52-24 at Memorial Stadium in Stephenville, Texas.
“That’s $700,000 we’re playing tonight against my $35,000,” UTC seventh-year head coach Rusty Wright bluntly said on the postgame radio broadcast, referring to what he said is the amount of money Tarleton State has in name, image and likeness compensation compared to UTC. “Chattanooga, if you’re listening, if you want something like this, you’d better open up the pocketbook. That’s the only way you’re going to keep good players.
“We’ve got some good players, we’ve got some kids fighting their tails off, but we’re not on that level right now.”
Wright also said Tarleton State was the best FCS team UTC has played against since James Madison in 2019
To see the rest of the NIL Weekly Thread (Notes 4, 5, 6, and 7) and to join the conversation, CLICK HERE.
