One year ago, college sports got what was supposed to be a salary cap through the House v. NCAA settlement, which allowed schools to pay up to $20.5 million to players across sports. But instead of stabilizing the rising costs of college sports rosters, the settlement only set a new floor.
The average school in the Power 4 conferences offered players $13.5 million in third-party NIL deals above the rev-share cap across sports, according to an annual report released by NIL company Opendorse. That meant schools offered players more than $30 million, rather than the $20.5 million the rev-share cap was supposed to limit them to. (Opendorse doesn’t have access to all NIL deals, but it used the extensive data from the company’s NIL platform to estimate market data.)
“Once the cap was instituted … the insatiable drive to stay competitive only seemed to grow,” the report said.
Here’s how it works: Division I athletic departments were allowed to spend up to $20.5 million paying players directly. But players were still able to earn NIL deals outside of the rev-share cap—so schools worked with collectives, multimedia rightsholders, school sponsors, and other interested brands to secure external NIL offerings that could be included in the overall offering for a player’s “salary.”
