How Will WVU Football Pay Players? A Structure is Already in Place

I'm sure by now you've all heard about high school kids, particularly quarterbacks, getting offered these massive million dollar, or in some cases, multi-million dollar deals by certain NIL collectives. I'm also sure you've heard the same thing regarding kids in the transfer portal.

According to West Virginia head football coach Rich Rodriguez, that's not how this program will operate. They won't find themselves getting into a bidding war over a player or paying some ridiculous number that leaves the rest of the pot darn near dry.

“You better have a little bit of a plan other than just grab bagging. It depends on what you have, but even at Jax State, we created a model like we had an NFL roster and like, if this is the money that we have, this percentage goes to QB1. This percentage goes to left tackle two; this percentage goes to corner one.

"Now, we’re not going to pay our starting quarterback 18% of your salary cap like they do in the NFL because then you don’t have enough money for your team, but we are going to have kind of an earned success model," Rodriguez continued. "If you’re the starting left tackle after August camp, you’re going to get more money than the scout team right tackle. You got to have a fair kind of system that you want to do with your players.”

Rich Rodriguez — WVU Athletics Communication

To be honest with you, this is how it should be. You're putting yourself at risk by promising money upfront to a player who may be a highly-rated recruit, but what if the stage is too bright for him? What if he plays well, but you overpaid for him?

Negotiating an individual deal is a dangerous move to make. Having a structure in place creates more transparency with the recruits and it also allows the coaching staff to have a better understanding of how much "cap space" they have remaining.

This all, of course, is assuming that the court approves the antitrust settlement, which is expected to happen. This would allow the schools to pay players directly rather than having a "middleman" handling the funds, such as Country Roads Trust in West Virginia's case. NIL collectives will still play an important role, but this allows the university to be directly involved and know how much money is available.

Schools will be allowed to pay their athletes roughly $20 million per year. That's every athlete at the school. It's each school's choice as to how they divvy up the money between each sport and each position. A good chunk of that money will be spent on football and then men's and women's basketball. Sports such as baseball, volleyball, wrestling, soccer, etc. will get a much smaller piece of the pie at most schools.

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