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SEC coaches discuss expected revenue sharing limits, roster size for new era of college football
By Paul Harvey
Published:
SEC coaches do not yet know what their revenue-sharing number for football players will be yet. They are also preparing for a potential roster limit that is yet to be determined.
However, head coaches certainly have thoughts and expectations for those two areas, and they discussed the topics at SEC Media Days.
According to Ross Dellenger with Yahoo! Sports, SEC coaches are anticipating SEC schools to spend around $250 million on the league’s football players in regard to revenue sharing. That figure comes out to about $15 million annually.
SEC coaches tell @YahooSports they anticipate distributing as much as $15 million annually in rev-share to football players – or $250M as a league.
They expect a roster size of around 105 & believe NIL collectives will remain as a recruiting “sweetener.”https://t.co/icmImuQZna
— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) July 18, 2024
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“Do the math,” Florida coach Billy Napier told Yahoo Sports. “We’re talking $20 million (in allotted revenue sharing). In most athletic departments, football is 70-75% of the revenue. That’s $12.5-15 million. That’s the number we anticipate.”
Meanwhile, Brian Kelly predicted a football roster budget between $14-$17 million.
So, in that model, what happens to the NIL collectives that have become commonplace across college athletics? Dellenger reported one coach believes collectives will continue to operate as a “sweetener” for players.
According to Kirby Smart, collectives remain outside the umbrella that universities operate under, so it is hard to foresee them ceasing to exist.
“I don’t know that collectives go away,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said. “They are not under any umbrella that we are under. Nobody is going to be able to say, ‘You can’t have those.’ The point of rev-share was to take that part out of it, but I don’t see it going away.”
Dellenger also cited the coaches as expecting a new roster limit to be set around 105 players in the future. Schools are currently allowed a maximum of 85 scholarships by the NCAA.
There are currently no hard numbers as the world of college athletics continue to evolve, but it sounds like most head coaches have a firm idea of where things are headed.
Paul Harvey lives in Atlanta and covers SEC football.
