Players also began to receive payments for the use of their name, image and likeness (NIL). And on July 1, college athletic departments began to do what once was unthinkable \u2014 directly share a fifth of their revenue with student-athletes.<\/p>\n
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Special Collector’s Issue: “1984: The Year BYU was Second to None”<\/p>\n
Get an inclusive look inside BYU Football’s 1984 National Championship season.<\/p>\n
The transformation requires the constant attention of university leaders.<\/p>\n
BYU President Shane Reese<\/a> estimates that he spends more time on athletics \u2014 up to 15% of his schedule \u2014 than any of his predecessors.<\/p>\n He is BYU\u2019s sheriff on this still-untamed frontier, what some have described as a wild, wild west in college sports.<\/p>\n \u201cThat is an accurate description,\u201d said Reese\u2019s deputy for sports, Advancement Vice President Keith Vorkink.<\/p>\n The original Wild West was dominated by tall tales. The two BYU leaders said in interviews with the Deseret News that the college sports version is no different. They countered what they say are false narratives in media reports and on social media about BYU contracts and NIL deals with athletes like basketball star AJ Dybantsa<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you hear that we\u2019re the highest bidder, I can tell you and show you that we haven\u2019t been the highest bidder in almost every instance, but we are in the game,\u201d Reese said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to be competitive. We\u2019re going to be out there looking for the best kids that want to come play here and who will represent the university in tremendous ways.\u201d<\/p>\n He said BYU\u2019s board of trustees, which is made up of leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which sponsors the university, wants an athletic department that reflects the school\u2019s educational and spiritual mission.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want to be really competitive on the field, on the court and on the pitch, but also grounded in who we are as a university,\u201d Reese said. \u201cCandidly, if we\u2019re not going to be different than other institutions, we\u2019re not going to be successful. Differentiators are what make people successful from a business perspective, and our differentiator is that we\u2019re grounded in our spiritual mission and that we are going to try to do things differently.\u201d<\/p>\n Reese, Vorkink and an athletic department official also described:<\/p>\n There\u2019s more. <\/p>\n They also said BYU sports have thrived in the 2020s because of long-standing fiscal policy. They explained that one reason the program is well positioned for the rest of the decade is because, paradoxically, the school received only a partial share<\/a> of conference revenue for the first two years in the Big 12.<\/p>\n What follows is a primer on both the financial state of BYU sports and the dawn of a new era in college sports business.<\/p>\n Big 12 revenue and BYU\u2019s advantage BYU football punched above its financial weight as an independent football team, competing against many power conference teams with far larger athletic budgets.<\/p>\n \u201cBYU\u2019s always prided itself on operating on a ‘Moneyball<\/a>‘ concept, trying to make the most efficient use of the resources,\u201d said Dallan Moody, senior associate athletic director for finance and strategy, referencing the book and movie of the same name.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were forced to, and it\u2019s the culture of the church, as well, that every year you submit a balanced budget and live within your means, which is a position of strength.\u201d<\/p>\n As the university vigilantly sought to join a power conference, the financial lift required to transition from football independence and from the West Coast Conference in other sports was staggering.<\/p>\n There was work to do. BYU does not reveal the size of its athletic budget.<\/p>\n Last year, one of the Big 12 leaders, Texas Tech, sported an athletic budget of nearly $129 million, according to the Associated Press<\/a>. That\u2019s likely less than half of Ohio State\u2019s budget, which four years ago weighed in at $251 million, according to a USA Today database<\/a>.<\/p>\n BYU needed membership in a power conference with a bigger TV contract to consistently compete. BYU finally joined the Big 12<\/a> on July 1, 2023, after disruption in other conferences. <\/p>\n The partial share BYU received the past two years was a boon on its own, but good reasons exist to suggest that the postponement of a full share was perfectly timed to benefit BYU.<\/p>\n It still comes with challenges.<\/p>\n The changes from the NCAA v House settlement<\/p>\n Two monumental changes took place simultaneously this month. July 1 marked the start of BYU receiving that full share of Big 12 revenue<\/a>. On the same day, new rules went into effect that allow schools to share up to $20.5 million a year in sports revenue with student-athletes. <\/p>\n Revenue sharing is the result of a lawsuit filed<\/a> by former Arizona State swimmer Grant House, who sued the NCAA and the five largest athletic conferences because of rules that prohibited him and other student-athletes from receiving NIL money that the free market would have generated for them.<\/p>\n The House settlement, signed by a federal judge, represented a new hurdle for BYU and the nation\u2019s other universities.<\/p>\n \u201cThose are resources and revenues that don\u2019t exist,\u201d Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne said to Congress about the $20.5 million.<\/p>\n BYU athletic department officials wondered, as the House negotiations proceeded, \u201chow any athletic department will stay afloat, because it was such a huge number,\u201d Moody said.<\/p>\n Suddenly, everyone needed to generate more revenue. Even schools with giant athletics budgets like Alabama and Texas have had to scramble to come up with new money.<\/p>\n Smaller schools that can\u2019t generate an additional $20 million have cut sports and athletic department jobs to fund payments to student-athletes.<\/p>\n It\u2019s even more complicated than that sounds, Vorkink said.<\/p>\n That\u2019s because the House settlement also cuts into every athletic department\u2019s budget. The settlement awarded $2.8 billion to student-athletes who competed between 2016 and 2024 without benefiting from their names, images and likenesses.<\/p>\n The NCAA is withholding revenue from schools to pay its share.<\/p>\n BYU is directly affected.<\/p>\n For example, the NCAA owes $40 million to the Big 12 for earning 20 \u201cunits<\/a>\u201d during the 2025 men\u2019s basketball tournament. (A conference earns a unit every time one of its teams plays a game in the tournament.) To pay the damages it owes, the NCAA will begin to hold back some of the earned March Madness money, which schools had earmarked as part of their budgets, Vorkink said.<\/p>\n The surprising benefit for BYU Here\u2019s how the timing of the House settlement helps BYU.<\/p>\n BYU\u2019s partial share of Big 12 revenues last year totaled $19 million<\/a>. Its full share for the 2025-26 school year is expected to be at least $31.7 million, according to the Big 12.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had a good TV contract for an independent university for football with ESPN,\u201d Vorkink said, \u201cbut it still pales in comparison to what we get by being a part of the Big 12.\u201d<\/p>\n That additional $13 million the university will receive from the conference this year will go a long way toward funding BYU\u2019s commitment to participate in sharing nearly the full $20.5 million in revenue with its student-athletes under the House settlement.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re going to use new Big 12 revenues,\u201d Vorkink said. \u201cOne of the benefits of not being a full-share Big 12 school is that we\u2019ve been operating on a budget that anticipates less than a full share. So going into a full share now really helps us because that is money we had not already earmarked to something else.\u201d<\/p>\n For many other schools, even the football titans, fans will bear much of the cost for revenue sharing with players. Many schools are raising the cost of tickets and concessions. Tennessee added a \u201ctalent fee\u201d to the price of tickets. Clemson is the first school to add an athletic surcharge \u2014 $150 \u2014 to every student\u2019s tuition bill, the Associated Press reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ll generate some additional revenue from ticket price increases<\/a> \u2014 not massive, but some,\u201c Vorkink said. \u201dAnd then we anticipate increases in corporate sponsorships. The combination of those will get us to wherever our rev share number ends up.\u201d<\/p>\n The University of Utah is focusing on fundraising and increasing donations as the major factors for raising money to fund revenue sharing. The school announced in April it would drop its beach volleyball program<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are all-in on investing up to the maximum allowable in revenue share, which is approximately $20.5 million for 2025-26,\u201d Utah athletic director Mark Harlan said<\/a> in June.<\/p>\n How BYU ranks nationally and in the Big 12 The House settlement cleared the way for one of the biggest disruptions in college sports history. The NCAA was built more than a century ago on the principle that student-athletes had to be amateurs.<\/p>\n That once seemed engraved in marble, but changes have chipped away at amateurism for decades. For example, BYU fans will remember how a new rule allowed Danny Ainge<\/a> to play professional baseball at the same time he starred as an amateur for the Cougar basketball team more than four decades ago.<\/p>\n Now schools are beginning to make direct payments to student-athletes under the revenue-sharing portion of the House settlement. That $20.5 million annual cap on those payments is derived by a formula: The cap equals 22% of the average amount of certain athletic revenues at the top 70 schools<\/a>.<\/p>\n Do the math, and that means the average of those specific athletics revenues at P4 schools is $93.2 million.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re in that neighborhood,\u201d Vorkink said of BYU.<\/p>\n But an average is just that. He said some schools take in two to three times that much revenue. Some take in much less.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t mistake that number for the actual size of the full athletics budget at BYU or any other P4 school, because the House revenue-sharing formula doesn\u2019t call for sharing donations made by boosters, for example.<\/p>\n The BYU athletic department also is well-positioned in today\u2019s financial climate because it does not go into debt to build facilities or fund sports, Vorkink said.<\/p>\n The growth of BYU\u2019s budget Moody, the senior associate AD, said BYU\u2019s athletics budget has grown by 40% to 50% over the past three years.<\/p>\n Vorkink and Moody said the budget has doubled from what it was somewhere between five and 10 years ago.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re getting Big 12-type television revenue, and our donors and sponsors have responded,\u201d Moody said.<\/p>\n Moody says BYU is now on equal footing with its Big 12 peers.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ll be in a very good position going forward against our competition in the Big 12, from a budget perspective. Our donations are comparable, our ticket sales, our sponsorships, and the TV money of course is similar because we all are receiving the same amount now.\u201d<\/p>\n BYU\u2019s chief revenue streams for sports are the Big 12 media contract, ticket sales, donations, corporate sponsorships and the Big 12\u2019s NCAA men\u2019s basketball tournament revenue, Vorkink said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe athletics budget has increased considerably over the last 20 years, but it\u2019s even more pronounced since the announcement of joining the Big 12,\u201d he said. \u201cIn addition to the revenues that come directly from the conference, we get more now from ticket sales and from corporate sponsors. Everything\u2019s come up because the game sort of changed.\u201d<\/p>\n Fans are willing to pay more for tickets to much better home football and basketball games because the quality of BYU\u2019s schedule improved dramatically.<\/p>\n \u201cNow LaVell Edwards Stadium is generating more revenue for a football game, the Marriott Center is generating more revenue for a basketball game, and we\u2019re getting donors and corporate sponsors that want to be a part of this at levels they didn\u2019t before,\u201d Vorkink said.<\/p>\n What will BYU share with student-athletes? BYU\u2019s revenue-sharing plans call for spending close to the $20.5 million cap.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is a race for most schools to be at the cap,\u201d Vorkink said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to be a little under the cap, if nothing else for philosophical reasons. We don\u2019t want our strategy to be about money and transactional. We want to be in the game but not at the top.\u201d<\/p>\n The House settlement will divide backpay to student-athletes under a formula<\/a> that will provide about 75% of the damages to football players because that sport generates most of the athletics revenue at most schools. Another 15-20% is earmarked for men\u2019s basketball players with 5-10% reserved for women\u2019s basketball players. Whatever is left would go to Olympic and non-revenue sports.<\/p>\n Most schools are expected to follow that formula for revenue sharing. <\/p>\n \u201cMost institutions will distribute the revenue sharing according to the proportion of revenue the sports generate, which means that football will get the lion\u2019s share,\u201d Reese said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to take an approach that has some of that flavor, but also distributes it so that all scholarship athletes will get some support from the university.\u201d<\/p>\n Reese and Vorkink described five buckets of student-athlete compensation:<\/p>\n Let\u2019s look into how each of these work through the prism of BYU\u2019s top basketball recruit, AJ Dybantsa. It\u2019s important to first understand that NIL in 2025 is much different than it has been the past few years.<\/p>\n BYU will fold much of what players had been receiving via NIL payments into revenue sharing payments, Vorkink said. It also will provide scholarships and Alston payments to student-athletes and be involved in associated-entity NIL, Reese and Vorkink said.<\/p>\n \u201cAll student-athletes will get some support from the university,\u201d Reese said.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s a look at what those payments will be, how they are changing and how BYU will juggle them, as well as how the process fits the school\u2019s mission and philosophy, all through the lens of a player making the most of this new era.<\/p>\n BYU and AJ Dybantsa Many college sports fans are still trying to understand NIL, which has rattled college sports since those payments began in 2021.<\/p>\n Dybantsa, who is expected to be a top pick in next year\u2019s NBA draft, is a good example. Some outlets incorrectly reported that BYU\u2019s incoming freshman basketball star received $7 million in NIL to play for the school. The Athletic reported in January that it was closer to $5 million<\/a>.<\/p>\n BYU will never bring in student-athletes who only care about the highest bid, Reese and Vorkink said.<\/p>\n They rebutted narratives that BYU is outbidding everyone else for big-time players like Dybantsa.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s not true, and it\u2019s particularly not true in high-profile cases,\u201d Vorkink said.<\/p>\n Alabama and North Carolina at least matched BYU\u2019s offer, the Athletic reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve got to be competitive. We\u2019ve got to be in the game,\u201d Reese said, \u201cbut we can\u2019t be the highest bidder.\u201d Reese and Vorkink said they want BYU to find players who find a mutual fit at the school.<\/p>\n Egor Demin<\/a>, who played for BYU last season and was selected No. 8 in the NBA draft<\/a>, said he chose to play for the Cougars in part because he had turned to faith as a lonely teenager playing professionally for Real Madrid in Spain. BYU proved perfect for him.<\/p>\n Dybantsa said he chose BYU because he loved the idea of a school with fewer \u201cdistractions.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe want people to come here because they see value added,\u201d Reese said. \u201cThere are some players that come because they see us as a distraction-free environment, and I think that\u2019s a good reason to come. There are players that come here because they think that they\u2019ll be made a better person, they\u2019ll be strengthened.\u201d<\/p>\n The two university leaders also addressed unfounded narratives that the church is funding payments to players or the athletic department.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are zero dollars that come from church appropriation to the athletic department,\u201d Vorkink said.<\/p>\n \u201cSince the athletic department was formed until today, for the entirety of our athletic department\u2019s existence, no church funds have ever been spent on athletics,\u201d Reese said.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s true for the operational budget of the athletics department. It\u2019s true for the facilities of the athletics department. It\u2019s true for the NIL now. No church funds are spent on that,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s been our stance from the dawn of time. I never know where that narrative gets its legs, but there\u2019s no question that nothing is further from the truth. We spend zero dollars on athletics that are church\/tithing dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n A dramatic change to NIL<\/p>\n The House settlement was a new earthquake for NIL.<\/p>\n \u201cThe settlement really wanted to go after the wild west of collectives,\u201d Vorkink said of the organizations that sprang after the court ruling that created NIL payments. The collectives brokered payments to student-athletes supposedly related to marketing deals.<\/p>\n The House settlement\u2019s solution to that unregulated market was to create a College Sports Commission to monitor revenue-sharing payments and NIL Go to police NIL payments. NIL Go may sound like a green light, but it really is a red light for unregulated payments \u2014 think NIL governance<\/a>. Decisions will be made by the accounting firm Deloitte.<\/p>\n Dybantsa is an NIL leviathan and the perfect example of third-party NIL. He had a deal with Red Bull by the time he was a junior in high school. The company bought in early on the talent that makes him a possible No. 1 pick in next year\u2019s NBA draft.<\/p>\n Third-party NIL like that is the natural outgrowth of a student-athlete\u2019s popularity that leads to a company making a deal for the athlete to sponsor its products. It had nothing to do with his recruiting.<\/p>\n His latest contract is with Fanatics<\/a>, signed last week just days after he was the MVP of the FIBA under-19 World Cup tournament, where he won a gold medal with Team USA<\/a>. <\/p>\n As part of the deal, Dybantsa\u2019s name and image will appear on special Topps basketball cards and he will earn money from jersey sales and other memorabilia. Fanatics, which has deals with the NBA\u2019s last two No. 1 picks \u2014 Victor Wembanyama and Cooper Flagg \u2014 called it one of the company\u2019s \u201cmost significant NIL deals ever.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/KSLC3UIBBFHWVDINBV6BTGJO6I.JPG\")
BYU President C. Shane Reese speaks during a press conference announcing newly named BYU Director of Athletics Brian Santiago on Wednesday, May 14, 2025. | Isaac Hale, Deseret News <\/p>\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/ISGNI7ZF4FA2BMOUAKDGOBLW64.JPG\")
A Big 12 pendant is sold at the T-Mobile Center during the Big 12 Championship in Kansas City, Mo., on Tuesday, March 11, 2025. | Brice Tucker, Deseret News <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/QXK3PV33VBBY3JMNEV4Z5COVGA.JPG\")
BYU fans attend Fox Sports\u2019 \u201cBig Noon Kickoff\u201d broadcast prior to BYU\u2019s game against Arizona at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024. | Laura Seitz, Deseret News <\/p>\n\n
![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/YXZJWKV6DJEANAWV6MSVXLUHHU.jpg\")
An ESPN logo appears on a camera before an NCAA college football game. | AP <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/5QQRCZZG6NCM5IIUWUF4A32UCM.JPG\")
Newly-named Brigham Young University Director of Athletics Brian Santiago is greeted by BYU Advancement Vice President Keith Vorkink after a press conference announcing Santiago\u2019s hiring for the position held at the BYU Broadcast Building on the university\u2019s campus in Provo on Wednesday, May 14, 2025. | Isaac Hale, Deseret News <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/U4EZPBHXXRHRPP3KFNCHCQZ5TM.JPG\")
Cosmo the Cougar runs through the marching band during Fox Sports\u2019 \u201cBig Noon Kickoff\u201d before BYU\u2019s game against Arizona at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024. | Laura Seitz, Deseret News <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/TTAQZGUQZFCWHILAYKU5BHQ2KY.JPG\")
Fox Sports\u2019 \u201cBig Noon Kickoff\u201d cast Rob Stone, Brady Quinn, Mark Ingram II, Matt Leinart and Urban Meyer tape the program before BYU\u2019s game against Arizona at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024. | Laura Seitz, Deseret News <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/BU4XNR2OYBAN7IQKUHZAV3AWOM.JPG\")
BYU fans attend Fox Sports\u2019 \u201cBig Noon Kickoff\u201d broadcast prior to BYU\u2019s game against Arizona at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024. | Laura Seitz, Deseret News <\/p>\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/6DQI3NZKTNHFDAYHZRYA4G4NOE.JPG\")
AJ Dybantsa, the nation’s No. 1 basketball recruit who has committed to BYU, cheers with students at halftime during an NCAA men\u2019s basketball game against the West Virginia Mountaineers held at the Marriott Center in Provo on Saturday, March 1, 2025. | Isaac Hale, Deseret News <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/CLFH2U2HYNBNNHYSNX5S3VKOAA.JPG\")
A BYU flag is pictured at Fox Sports\u2019 \u201cBig Noon Kickoff\u201d broadcast prior to BYU\u2019s game against Arizona at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024. | Laura Seitz, Deseret News <\/p>\n