College athletic departments are preparing for the likelihood of paying all their scholarship athletes roughly 22 million dollars starting as soon as 2025 as a result of a historic antitrust case between the NCAA and two former college athletes.
LSU Executive Deputy Athletics Director Verge Ausberry says they are just waiting for terms to be finalized.
‘And once we find that out, then we have to determine who gets what, how it is distributed throughout your athletic program, how much that number is going to be and how much that money is going to increase from year-to-year,” Ausberry said.
There are so many questions. Will a starting quarterback make more than a linebacker, like we see in the NFL? How much more money will a running back receive from a university as compared to a women’s golfer or gymnast?
Ausberry is not ready to give specifics on what LSU is considering to do, because the antitrust case is not finalized and the lawyers who are still hammering out the details are listening to what universities are saying about their plans for revenue sharing with athletes.
But Ausberry will say that LSU plans to be very competitive in the new world of collegiate athletics.
“You heard (Athletic Director) Scott Woodward say, we are playing to win, we are playing to win in every sport, so we are going to have to figure out how this going to look,” Ausberry said.
The money that will go to the athletes will come from the massive TV deals that major conferences have agreed to with ESPN and Fox, plus other sources of revenue.
One potential new source is sponsor logos on football fields this year. The NCAA has passed a rule that allows for college football programs to sell sponsor advertisements including on the 50-yard line.
Schools will also look to cut costs. Texas A&M has already laid off more than a dozen staff members.
Ausberry says LSU is looking to schedule more in-state schools for non-conference football games because it’s not as costly.
“There are offers of 1.7 to two million dollars to schools to play non-conference games at your stadium, now the focus is to get it down to 1.4 to 1.5 million dollars where it used to be,” Ausberry said.