The National Collegiate Athletic Association began allowing students to make money from private donors and brand deals four years ago. That was a huge change from the old rules tightly restricting all compensation. Now, the NCAA is set to allow colleges to directly share up to 22% of their athletics revenue with student athletes.
Montana State University athletics director Leon Costello says MSU will be first among the state’s flagship schools to pay athletes later this year, once the expected settlement is reached.
“We’re never going to be able to offer millions of dollars. That’s just not in our cards. But, I think we can make a compelling argument why people still want to come to MSU,” Costello told MTPR.
Under the outlined settlement, the NCAA will pay nearly $3 billion in damages to former student athletes who played before they were allowed to be paid. Most played for the largest schools. But the financial impact will trickle down to smaller schools like MSU and University of Montana, too.
University of Montana athletics director Kent Haslam says the school won’t opt in to revenue-sharing until 2026. He says that will give the university time to adjust to the new rules. Once it does, he says they’ll lose about one percent of their budget annually for the next decade as part of the terms of the NCAA court settlement.
“I feel frustrated by that,” Haslam said. “It’s not fair, obviously, that the University of Montana is going to pay $2.4 million over 10 years to pay back damages to student athletes who never participated here.”
Both directors hope their campus cultures and strong rivalry will help them compete for talent against schools with much bigger coffers.
