"Complicated," Mark Byington, Vanderbilt Still Searching for Revenue Sharing Strategy

BIRMINGHAM, AL—Mark Byington has developed an innate ability to step up to the podium at this place and slowly slide into his agenda when a question is asked. This one had him stumped, though.

“Could you just talk about where you feel NIL fits into the new revenue sharing strategy?” a reporter asked him.

“Umm, complicated,” Byington said after a sigh as to prove a point. “I’m not trying to dodge the question, this is extremely complicated.”

Vanderbilt’s head coach–an insurance salesman for an hour and a half–has always been a numbers guy, he admitted as much on the podium on Tuesday morning as he referenced a stat about returning point guard Tyler Tanner. These numbers aren’t the type that he’s used to.

Byington loves Synergy–an advanced analytics service–and any analytics service that can lead him towards improving as a teacher. He got used to the systems that allowed him and his staff to use their Name, Image and Likeness money efficiently.

Now, he’s still searching for answers in regard to the question he was asked on Tuesday morning.

“The reason I think it’s complicated is that it’s ever changing,” Byington said. “I thought we might get to a certain spot where rev sharing is in place and now we know what we’re going to deal with and what’s going to be the case and we don’t. Things are still changing. When you’re going through such big changes in college athletics, there’s going to be some things you’ve got to work through.”

Oct 14, 2025; Birmingham, AL, USA; Vanderbilt Commodores head coach Mark Byington talks with the media during SEC Media Days at Grand Bohemian Hotel. Mandatory Credit: Vasha Hunt-Imagn Images | Vasha Hunt-Imagn Images

Among those things is a revenue sharing allotment towards men’s basketball that Byington as well as Nashville Basketball Initiative head Will Perdue have indicated is unfavorable. Byington’s program is looking to change things by facilitating NIL opportunities through the NBI, but is still in flux.

Byington told Vandy on SI this summer that the settlement didn’t make things more simple for his program despite the appearance that it would at the time of its passing. Instead, it’s constantly adapting.

“We’ve been planning for it for a long time,” Byington told Vandy on SI in the days following the settlement. “To say we know exactly what we’re doing going forward, I would say that’s dishonest, we don’t.”

Byington says that the real effects of the settlement will be seen in 2026-27 rosters rather than 2025-26 rosters as a result of the timing of the rule, but that hasn’t been the case for it.

In the early parts of his Vanderbilt tenure, Byington and his staff talked about money with a small group of people that likely included Anchor Impact Executive Director Paul Grindstaff and some people essential to the operation. In some cases, it was as simple as making sure the guy he and his staff wanted could get into Vanderbilt and that paying him would be feasible with the amount of money that the collective had allotted.

Now, Byington estimates that his meetings will be more complex and will require more voices for him to adequately understand what his program’s plans should be moving forward. Things will likely have to be more intentional nowadays as Byington’s program no longer appears to have the flexibility to dig up some money at the end of a portal cycle in order to land a player. The plan has to be as strategic as it’s ever been.

At times it’s going to be wrong, though.

“You’ve got to work through some awkward times, some rough times,” Byington said Tuesday. “We are going through that and we don’t have a system yet. The things that you’re talking about, revenue sharing is kind of the base that’s going to make up a team right now in college sports and the extra part of it is going to be NIL off the court.”

The estimate Vandy on SI has been given in regard to what Vanderbilt has to work with in revenue sharing is 2.7 million dollars per season. Vanderbilt athletic director Candice Storey Lee told Vandy on SI over the summer that her athletic department viewed revenue sharing as a “good thing” and that she was looking forward to “optimizing” the athletic department’s place “in the world.”

It appears as if that still hasn’t happened yet, though.

“It’s something I think we’re working through as well as the other programs too,” Byington said in regard to the SEC. “I don’t think anybody has it figured out right now and if they do, please call me and call Vanderbilt.”