Revenue Sharing

Participating institutions across the country can share revenue directly with student-athletes.

Student-athletes can receive this direct payment in addition to their athletic scholarships, third-party NIL earnings, and other previously permitted benefits.

Each year, schools can distribute up to 22% of the average revenue among schools in the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, and SEC from media rights, ticket sales and sponsorships – known as the revenue sharing cap.

The cap for the 2026-27 academic year is estimated to be approximately $21.3 million per school. The cap is expected to increase another 4% for the 2027-28 academic year and will then be re-evaluated every three years over the duration of the 10-year settlement period.

A summary of the rules governing revenue sharing can be found here. Additional resources and factsheets to assist institutions with revenue sharing compliance are available here.

Rules and Policies

Fact Sheets

Participating institutions are required to report their revenue sharing payments to student-athletes through the College Athlete Payment System (CAPS). All payments must be reported by the institution into CAPS within five business days of final signature.

The College Sports Commission is working with participating institutions to support their use of the CAPS platform and their compliance with the revenue sharing rules.

CAPS enables schools to:

Allocate

Allocate cap funds to student-athletes

Monitor

Monitor payments and track progress against the cap

Manage

Manage compliance with revenue sharing rules

Track

Track roster allocations

Institutional Benefits and the Revenue Sharing Cap

Permissible Types of Benefits / Payments / Expenses	Counts Against Cap	Does Not Count Against Cap
Total value of institutional payments to student-athletes for use of NIL (including from institutional designee or contractor)	X
Other direct institutional payments of additional benefits to student-athletes and/or student-athletes’ families not currently permitted or exempted by NCAA rules	X
Academic or graduation awards or incentives (i.e., Alston)	X*
Athletically related financial aid in excess of the 2024-25 AY team limit	X*
Third-party NIL payments, including those arranged or facilitated by institution		X
Funds distributed to student-athletes from Student Assistant Fund (SAF)		X
Benefits from third parties (i.e., individuals or entities other than Division I institution)		X

*In 2026-27, a fine of $0.20 for every $1 by which an institution exceeds the cap due to spending on new scholarships created as a result of the removal of scholarship limits (up to $2.5M) will be levied.

NCAA Bylaw 16.13.1.8 will then be modified, subject to appropriate NCAA approvals, and cap overages due to an increase in scholarships will **not **count against the institution’s cap during the 2027-28 school year and beyond.