How Alabama Plans to Split Revenue Sharing System Among Sports

Crimson Tide athletic director Greg Byrne shared how Alabama will handle one of the main clauses from the House v. NCAA settlement.

Jan 13, 2024; Tuscaloosa, AL, USA; University of Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne speaks during a press conference to introduce their new head football coach Kalen DeBoer (not pictured) in the North end zone at Bryant-Denny Stadium. Mandatory Credit: John David Mercer-Imagn Images | John David Mercer-Imagn Images

Nearly two weeks ago, after years of litigation, Judge Claudia Wilken approved the landmark House v. NCAA settlement, which will allow schools to participate in revenue sharing directly with the athletes, and there will be a salary cap system ($20.5 million to athletes) plus roster limits to college sports.

This settlement was from a branch of three lawsuits combined into one case, which addressed compensation for collegiate athletes. The results of this case also bring $2.8 billion in damages for former and current athletes who were not able to profit from NIL over the last decade, as the name, image and likeness model was created in the summer of 2021.

After the agreement was reached, Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne made a statement on X (formerly known as Twitter) saying that UA will be "fully funding revenue sharing," meaning that it will utilize this salary cap system as well.

Byrne shared with Crimson Tide Sports Network his plan to split the revenue among Alabama sports on Wednesday.

“We have taken the approach that it’s based off of revenue generation. We think that’s a solid approach. We think that’s one that makes sense for our program. As you’ve heard me say many times, football is the engine that pulls the train. And at the same time too, our two sports that turn a profit are football and men’s basketball.

“So they will have the highest percentage of that rev share and then we’re splitting up the remaining dollars with our sports who are ticketed. So there's four other sports who are ticketed: softball, baseball, gymnastics and women’s basketball. Those are the six sports that will have some type of rev share.

“I’ve heard all over the yard how schools are doing it and how many sports. I know one we compete against all the time is only doing three sports. I know that some schools are doing a little bit for everything. I’m not sure how much of a difference that will make at the end of the day when you just carve off a small sliver for a sport, but we have a plan.

"I’ve told our coaches it’s fluid. We’re doing the best we can to make decisions that we are with the information that we have right now. “We have excellent leadership...and I do think we’ve put ourselves in a good position, not only for the individual sports but for the department as a whole to make sure we’re staying healthy long-term.”

Last Friday, Alabama athletics announced its partnership with Scout, an innovative financial technology company built specifically for athletes. Scout will provide the Crimson Tide with revenue share distribution, cap management skills, financial tools, education such as navigating taxes, savings, LLC formation, investment planning and more.

Scout, along with Yea Alabama, will help UA's athletes during this historic time in college sports.