The Harsh Reality of Revenue Sharing

The revenue-sharing era in college athletics is here.

While the legal process around it remains chaotic, the expectation is clear: Power Four schools will need to reach the initial $20.5 million annual revenue-sharing cap to stay competitive.

That number doesn’t guarantee success; it’s just the cost of admission. If you’re not spending at that level, you won’t have the talent to compete in football or men’s basketball. If you are, you still need a top-tier coach and general manager to make it work.

Finding that extra $20.5 million is no small task, and it’s already forcing some uncomfortable conversations around the Big 12.

Iowa State athletic director Jamie Pollard is in the middle of a historic run. He hired Matt Campbell and T.J. Otzelberger, who’ve brought the Cyclones into a new golden era in football and men’s basketball. In the last year alone, Iowa State played for a Big 12 football title and earned a 3-seed in the NCAA Tournament.

But even amidst that success, Pollard understands how thin the margin has become in this new world.

In a YouTube interview with Elijah Moore, he was unapologetically blunt about what’s at stake:

“Iowa State does not have that $20 million,” Pollard said. “But if we don’t pay it for this coming year, we’ve got big problems, right? So, we’re going to pay it.”

Pollard explained that ISU used most of its financial reserves during COVID, unlike schools like Iowa that borrowed tens of millions from their universities. Without that cushion, Iowa State now needs support from either the university or the students to fund its future.

“So, Iowa State University will be faced with an athletics program with a huge annual deficit, if it wants to stay in the Big 12, and if it wants to have a P4 athletics department,” Pollard said. “Now, we can decide we just want to have an athletic program like Northern Iowa, but that’s going to have a huge economic impact on the state, on central Iowa, on the city of Ames, and on this institution. So, that’s the problem that we’re staring at.”

That may sound extreme, but it’s the reality—and not just for Iowa State.

Every Big 12 program is staring down the same challenge. If you don’t meet the revenue-sharing cap, which will only grow from $20.5 million, you’ll have to seriously question whether you can stay in the Power Four.

Yes, coaching still matters, and yes, upsets still happen. But you won’t consistently give even a great coach enough talent to compete unless you find the money.

Some schools have already gone down this road.

• Arizona got $36.2 million in subsidies from the university in 2024.
  

• Arizona State received $51.7 million in support last year.
  

• Virginia Tech just increased an existing student fee to fund revenue sharing.

Pollard appears to be laying the groundwork for Iowa State to pursue one of these paths. He won’t be the last.

While I’m sure many in academia won’t like this at all, keeping a university’s athletic programs viable has massive implications for the university and the local economy.

The $20.5 million should be seen as an investment. If major college athletics vanish from Ames, it’s not just Iowa State that suffers. Bars, restaurants, retailers, and even jobs tied to media and tourism vanish with it.

That’s part of why the Big 12 has explored private equity and private capital. It’s not ideal, but the alternative is becoming Northern Iowa. And nobody is signing up for that.

To be clear, this isn’t about picking on Iowa State. Plenty of Big 12 programs (and others across the country) are in the exact same position. Not everyone has a Cody Campbell.

I’ve said it on YouTube, and I’ll say it again: rooting for your team in 2025 isn’t just about chasing a title anymore.

It’s about survival.

If your program craters at the wrong time, it could mean the end of major college athletics at your school. If you hire the wrong people, you could lose a century’s worth of tradition and connection overnight.

Don’t believe me? Ask Oregon State or Washington State.

I give Jamie Pollard a lot of credit for being honest about the situation. There’s no use sugarcoating where things stand.

What You Need to Know

• Fox analyst Joel Klatt lists five Big 12 teams in his post-spring Top 25. The top-ranked Big 12 team didn’t make the conference championship game last year. 

• On3’s Andy Staples’ post-spring Top 25 features a shocking Big 12 team at number eleven. K-State fans may want to look away from this one. 

• Contract details for Scott Frost at UCF are out. He’ll make $3.9 million this year, with his compensation escalating to $5 million in the final year of the deal in 2029. Frost only made $4 million during his last season with Nebraska. 

• What if I told you I already know who will win the 2025 Big 12 football championship and make the College Football Playoff? I followed Josh Pate’s formula for predicting a national champion and applied it to the Big 12 to come up with the league champ. The winner will be a shock to many of you. 

• Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham once again predicted that a Super League is coming to college football. Find out when he thinks that will happen in this interview with George Wrighster. 

• Former Kansas AD Jeff Long has been added to the College Football Playoff selection committee. Long had a disastrous run in Lawrence that included hiring Les Miles as the Jayhawks' football coach. Long was replaced by Travis Goff in 2021.

Enjoying Open For Business? It would mean the world to me if you could share the newsletter with three of your friends who want Big 12 news without SEC or Big Ten bias. Tell them to sign up at OFBNews.com and get started today!