GET DAILY REPORT FREE
This month’s landmark House v. NCAA settlement is poised to reshape the competitive and financial landscape of college sports—and LSU is meeting the moment head-on.
That’s according to Keli Zinn, executive deputy director of athletics and COO for LSU athletics, who spoke to the Rotary Club of Baton Rouge on Wednesday about how her program is approaching the new model.
“This is going to be the biggest impact in the history of college athletics,” Zinn said.
Starting July 1, Division I schools will begin sharing revenue directly with student-athletes. In the first year, colleges will be able to distribute $20.5 million—a figure that represents 22% of a school’s average annual revenue from media rights, sponsorships and ticket sales. That total will increase by 4% each year for three years. After three years, the cap will be adjusted based on market conditions and revenue trends.
LSU’s plan for year one is to allocate 75% of its $20.5 million to football, 15% to men’s basketball and 5% to women’s basketball. The remaining 5% will be split across all other sports.
Notably, Zinn said LSU is among a minority of schools committing to support every sport on campus under the new model.
“From what we know right now, we believe we’re one of the very few schools that are giving something to everyone,” she said. “A lot of schools are choosing not to support a lot of their Olympic programs. We’re going to do so because we have a history of winning at the highest level of those programs.”
The settlement also brings with it a new oversight mechanism for name, image and likeness agreements. A third-party clearinghouse will now evaluate third-party NIL deals worth $600 or more to ensure athletes are being paid a “fair market value” for their agreements. The move is designed to crack down on inflated endorsement deals, and Zinn expects the new system to bring more stability to what is currently a chaotic recruiting market.
“These bidding wars that schools have found themselves in will no longer be the case,” she said.
Schools and athletes that don’t comply with the new revenue-sharing and NIL rules will face stiff penalties.
In addition to future revenue sharing, the settlement will see some $2.8 billion in back damages paid to athletes who either fully or partially missed out on NIL payments between 2016 and 2024 because of the NCAA’s previous rules. An appeal filed by a group of eight female athletes citing Title IX concerns has paused the back pay portion of the settlement for the time being.
While some schools are bracing for deficits under the new model, Zinn said LSU is likely to remain on stable footing. LSU athletics operates on a roughly $200 million budget, so $20.5 million is no small line item, but she said her team has known the changes were coming for some time and has planned accordingly.
“We believe we’re going to find ourselves in a really healthy place in the future to be able to manage that $20.5 million expense,” Zinn said.
Read more about Keli Zinn, whom Business Report honored as one of its Influential Women in Business this year.
