In recent weeks, the Protect College Sports Act, headed for a full Senate vote next month, has stolen the spotlight and understandably so.
It’s an important bill, and one that fundamentally reshapes the nature of college athletics, and football in particular, which is the golden goose of revenue sharing.
The Big 12 finds itself in a quagmire as the Power Four squabbles about what a revenue sharing cap, the maximum revenue a university may bankroll to their student-athletes, will look like moving forward as roster costs rise. For the 2026-27 athletics season, the cap rises to $21.3 million to account for inflation.
Some conferences believe that number should be much higher, football insider Ross Dellenger reports, with some folks in the Big Ten and SEC asking for as high as $60 million. Is that number feasible, and, more importantly, can is Big 12 sustainable long-term with such a number in place.
WE’RE ALREADY THERE (SORT OF)
In its current state, revenue sharing is capped but schools naturally find workarounds through third-party NIL partnerships and sponsorships with student-athletes. It’s how many schools, including Alabama and Ohio State, are already pushing the envelope with estimates surfacing $40 million after accounting for revenue sharing plus NIL payments.
By contrast, the average Big 12 schools spent between $10-15 million apiece on football rosters last season. Texas Tech, being the most noteworthy example, spent north of $28 million on a roster that landed them a Big 12 title run and subsequently a ticket to the College Football Playoff for the first time in school history. The offseason, though, saw the Red Raiders lose out on its $5 million deal with Brendan Sorsby, ousted by the Big 12 following a whirlwind gambling scandal.
The Big 12 isn’t short on big spenders – Texas Tech, Utah and TCU – are on the high-end of the league’s spenders when it comes to football. Even a school like Colorado, which is just 16-21 during three seasons under Deion Sanders, spent the maximum $20.5 million on last year’s 3-9 campaign.
STABILITY IN NUMBERS
In its current 16-member state, the Big 12 would be locked to that number should the Protect College Sports Act become law in the near future. These anti-consolidation provisions are part of the bill’s attempt to stop conference realignment for those leagues earning $700-plus million in total revenue.
With the bill, conferences like the Big 12 are under the watchful eye of the College Sports Commission, which is said to crack down on bidding wars and the spending habits contributing to perceived instability in college sports. Football is among the top concerns, as schools are routinely seeing rosters decimated by the transfer portal or priced out altogether by a market they simply can’t compete with.
The shift away from relying solely on booster collectives is already happening, and schools, like Utah with its private equity deal bringing at least $500 million to the school’s athletic department, are following the money as the situation evolves. The Big 12 will evolve, too, but the bill on the table could bring predictability back to the picture for a conference that’s buoying through a rough storm of college athletics like everyone else.
