Mountain West Conference Explores NIL Revenue-Sharing Salary Floor

As the Mountain West navigates major transitions and legal uncertainties, it plans to implement NIL revenue-sharing salary floors, addressing financial disparities across its schools

Mar 5, 2020; Las Vegas, Nevada, USA; A detailed view of the midcourt logo during the first half of a Mountain West Conference tournament game between the UNLV Rebels and Boise State Broncos at Thomas Mack Center. Mandatory Credit: Orlando Ramirez-Imagn Images / Orlando Ramirez-Imagn Images

Yesterday, Mountain West Commissioner Gloria Nevarez indicated that the conference will explore institutional NIL revenue-sharing floors for the 2025-26 season and beyond.

The decision comes in light of the preliminarily approved House v. NCAA settlement, which, if formally approved this April, will implement several professional concepts into the collegiate sports model —most notably, direct NIL revenue sharing to student-athletes.

For schools that opt in, the settlement will allow athletic departments to directly compensate athletes outside of traditional benefits like scholarships, housing, and other athletically related assistance. This will mark the first time in NCAA history that institutions can distribute revenue to athletes beyond their existing compensation structures.

The compensation will be capped at $20,500,000 per athletic department for the 2025-26 season and will increase incrementally over the next 10 years. With greater financial resources, power conference schools are expected to pay up to the full cap; however, many schools, particularly in Group of Five and Mid-Major conferences, may lack the revenue necessary to meet that ceiling.

For these smaller conferences, the unique challenge lies in the discrepancies between their member schools’ financial positions. While revenue from media rights is typically equally distributed among conference members, variations in ticket sales, donations, licensing agreements, and sponsorship rights leave some schools in a much stronger financial position than others.

While big conferences are concerned with reaching the rev-share ceiling, smaller conferences worry about maintaining competitive parity without a guaranteed rev-share floor.

Even in the NIL era, these financial disparities have created a divide within conferences, with better-resourced schools securing and retaining more elite talent. With the impending implementation of NIL revenue sharing, this gap could widen further.

The financial divide will likely become even more pronounced for the Mountain West as it undergoes a significant transition in the wake of the resurrection of the Pac-12. Starting in the 2026-27 season, the conference will welcome new members — Northern Illinois (football only), University of Texas El Paso, and Hawaii — while maintaining longstanding members UNLV, New Mexico, Air Force, San Jose State, Nevada, and Wyoming.

Several unresolved factors currently prevent any firm decisions on a specific revenue-sharing floor for the Mountain West. Legal actions related to the Pac-12’s poaching of Mountain West teams and potential buyout fees for those departing members have yet to be determined. In addition, the absence of a solidified media deal and the possibility of further additions to the conference only add to the uncertainty surrounding the Mountain West’s financial outlook.

The Mountain West is keen to ensure the league’s competitive parity remains intact during this transition. With recruiting increasingly driven by athletic compensation, revenue-sharing budgets must be aligned to ensure member institutions’ ability to compete internally and with the broader collegiate landscape.

In the Mountain West and beyond, schools that cannot meet revenue-sharing demands or quickly find new revenue streams may need to transition to less competitive conferences.

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