BOULDER — As the landscape of college athletics continues to change at an unprecedented pace, Colorado Athletic Director Rick George believes the Buffaloes are well-situated to be a successful part of that evolution.
George met with the media Tuesday morning, one day after U.S. District Court Judge Claudia Wilken gave preliminary approval to the landmark House v. NCAA settlement. If finalized, the House agreement would provide $2.78 billion in retroactive payments to former college athletes dating back to 2016 as well as allow athletic departments to participate in revenue sharing with current athletes. That revenue sharing is expected to be more than $20 million annually per school, starting as soon as 2025.
In simple terms, the agreement lays the groundwork for a significant rise in costs to every athletic department that chooses to participate in the revenue sharing plan.
"We know the challenges of the house settlement are big and broad," George said. "We're prepared for them. We've been focused on the House Settlement for the last four to five months that we've been working on it, but it's a significant change in college athletics."
One area in which support for CU has made great strides over the last year is the establishment and development of the 5430 Collective, spearheaded by Colorado alum Eric Belcher. The group has played a major role in helping the Buffs catch up in Name, Image and Likeness opportunities for CU athletes.
But if the House Settlement receives final approval, it will also likely be accompanied by renewed enforcement by the NCAA when it comes to "pay-for-play" arrangements for student-athletes. That would bring the administration of the revenue sharing with student-athletes under the direct umbrella of athletic departments with the opportunity for NIL agreements still available to those who could merit such outside deals.
"The 5430 Foundation has really put us at a point where we can compete with the other schools," George said. "That obviously will change with the House Settlement. We will bring everything in house at some point, and then student-athletes that can earn NIL will still have that ability to go above the cap based on the settlement to create business partnerships like Travis Hunter has with Nerdwallet and Shedeur Sanders with Nike. So I feel like we're in a good spot today."
The revenue-sharing portion of the House Settlement means CU Athletics will have to provide $20 million — or more — for annual payments to athletes. George said that will require the department to continue to find more revenue streams while not taking a step back in what the department provides for all student-athletes.
"We've had four goals in all this as we've looked at what we're going to do at CU," George said. "The first is we want to provide similar opportunities that we have today for all of our student-athletes. We also wanted to be as competitive as we are today. We don't want to cut any sports and we want to provide the similar benefits for our student-athletes, and what that will look like in a revenue share."
Already, some athletic departments across the nation have indicated they will at least consider cutting sports in order to meet the budgetary requirements of the House Settlement.
But George stressed that is not part of the current equation for Colorado.
"That's not something that we want to do," he said. "We want to support our student-athletes and our programs at the highest level, because we want to compete at the highest level and where that goes in five years, we want to be a part of that. So this is a next step into being ready for that next thing and whatever that next thing is, but college athletics is changing, and we're on top of it."
But, George added, that also means CU will have to explore some expenditure reduction as well as create new streams of revenue, such as additional concerts on campus and new, creative fundraising efforts.
"We've got to find revenue streams that we may not have today," he said. "I do think we will look different as we move forward. You can't do it all in revenue generation. You've got to make some cuts in your expenditures, and we will certainly be looking at all of that … But we want to win championships in all of our sports."
There are, of course, other questions yet to be answered with the House Settlement. One very big query yet to be answered is how Title IX will apply to the revenue sharing part of the settlement.
"We still don't have any clarity on that, and we may not get any clarity until the end of this calendar year or early in 2025," George said. " But we'll be ready to go based on the information that we get. This is going to change college athletics as we know it … But we want to support our student athletes and our programs at the highest level because we want to compete at the highest level and where that goes in five years, we want to be a part of that. So this is a next step into being ready for that next thing and whatever that next thing is. College athletics is changing and we're on top of it."
FACILITY UPGRADES: The approval of the House Settlement will no doubt have an impact on planned facility upgrades for departments across the nation. CU is no different in that regard. In recent years George has voiced a desire to make a number of facility improvements, but those may now have a different priority as the situation evolves.
"We have to look at this holistically, because we do know that we have some infrastructure needs, particularly on the west side of our football stadium and the basketball arena hasn't been renovated for a number of years," George said. "There are certain things that we have to do, and that's why it's important for us to become a little broader in our approach on how we're going to generate revenue because those are things that we have to do in the very near future to be able to be successful. Based on building (the UCHealth Champions Center), the Nerdwallet club, the Crawford Club, the premium seating areas have been really impactful for us. They're all sold out for the next three years. We don't have any premium inventory in basketball and we need to create some. We need to create more premium inventory in our football stadium to be able to grow that revenue. So we'll be looking at all those things holistically as we look at what our future looks like."
PLAYOFF BERTHS: With this just the first year of the expanded 12-team college football playoff, there is already talk of changing the format in the very near future.
Under the current system, the five conference champions ranked highest by the CFP selection committee receive automatic berths to the CFP. The final seven spots go to the highest-ranked at-large teams. There is no cap on the number of spots one conference can receive.
But there have been reports recently that the SEC and Big Ten are angling to provide more automatic berths for their conferences. If the playoff field remains at 12, that would reduce the number of at-large berths. Even an expansion to a 14-team field would still likely leave the SEC and Big Ten with an inordinate share of automatic qualifiers.
"I think the public would like to see a playoff similar to what we have in basketball, where you earn your way in," George said. "I think the process that we have right now, where there's five automatic bids for the five highest conference rated schools with seven at-large bids, is where it should be. I think that's what people want to see. They want to see people earn their right to be in."
