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Schools Pay Student-Athletes $1.77 Billion in First Revenue-Sharing Season
College Sports Commission filings show that 307 schools paid out $1.77 billion in revenue sharing to 34,915 student-athletes in the '25-26 season.
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First-Year Payout Totals
College Sports Commission filings show that 307 schools paid out $1.77 billion in revenue sharing to 34,915 student-athletes in the '25-26 season. Altogether 319 schools opted into the framework created by the House lawsuit settlement, which set the initial cap at 22 percent of average revenues from Power Four athletic departments. Those distributions reached athletes across 45 sports and 33 conferences. Division I currently counts 365 schools in total.
Cap Approach and Power Four Alignment
Exactly 68 schools reached or came within 5 percent of the $20.5 million revenue-sharing cap. That total matches the number of athletic programs in the four biggest Division I conferences. The commission redacted the names of those 68 schools in the filings, though full participation by Power Four members had been widely anticipated so programs would not lag in talent competition. The spending limit later rose to $21.58 million for the ongoing season.
Proposed Cap Increase and Settlement Terms
A bill that cleared the Senate earlier this week would raise the figure to $48.8 million, more than doubling the current level, with the added portion labeled a retention pool meant to keep players on existing rosters and pull more third-party NIL activity under the revenue-share structure. Schools that joined the revenue-sharing arrangement also accepted other House settlement requirements, including revised roster limits and the removal of previous scholarship caps.
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