Greg Sankey assesses future of non-revenue, Olympic sports after House settlement approval

In the week since the House v. NCAA settlement received final approval, the college sports world began making its preparations for a new era. Revenue-sharing is on the way, as are roster limits and the new NIL Go clearinghouse to vet NIL deals.

Much of the conversation has been around revenue sports such as basketball and football. However, there are still concerns about non-revenue and Olympic sports, and SEC commissioner Greg Sankey made it clear the plan is to avoid cutting sports under the new model.

Sankey said while he, too, has heard about athletics departments changing structure and making staff moves, the sense from his conversations is that schools are not looking to eliminate sports programs. But he noted the need for a consistent model and oversight. Otherwise, he warned that things could change.

“The second is at least in the Southeastern Conference — and we have to be aware that, as you have a $20 million outflow from a revenue sharing standpoint, that creates pressures,” Sankey said Friday on FanDuel Sports Network’s Golic and Golic. “And you’ve seen stories about that pressure resulting in some changes to personnel, or maybe the way expenditures are overseen in athletic departments. What has been the topic of focus in our room is not reducing the sport opportunities. That’s speculated about.

“What I will say is there has to be a point where this revenue-sharing model and the third-party oversight sticks and is consistent. And we have that opportunity now. If it continues to grow, I think that’s an enormous threat to those Olympic sports, or the non-revenue sports.”

Per the terms of the House v. NCAA settlement, schools have the ability to share up to $20.5 million with athletes if they opt in to revenue-sharing. Football is expected to receive 75%, followed by men’s basketball (15%), women’s basketball (5%) and the remainder of sports (5%). The amount shared in revenue will increase 4% annually.

The growing sense is that schools will be able to decide how to divide up their revenue-sharing after House settlement approval. Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark said that’s the case in his conference, and some schools in others have confirmed which sports will participate in revenue-sharing.

At Oklahoma, six programs will be part of the rev-share plan: football, men’s and women’s basketball, baseball, softball and women’s gymnastics. Ohio State also said its football and basketball programs would all participate, in addition to women’s volleyball. The hope is to expand to more sports down the road, athletics director Ross Bjork said.