The Big Ten announced in a statement yesterday it will be preemptively implementing a major aspect of the financial portion of the Protect College Sports Act, adopting the NIL/Revenue Share salary cap of $49 million for athletic departments, effective immediately.
That combines the approximately $21.5 million figure from the house settlement already in place, and the anticipated $27 million dollar increase in revenue sharing seen if the PCSA were to pass. After passing through the senate in late September, the bill still needs to get through the House of Representatives, which would not happen for some time.
The Big Ten looks to get ahead of the adjustment period where many schools will have to drastically change their budgets. The conference is adopting a conference-level rule limiting member institution involvement in third-party NIL agreements to match the figure anticipated if the PCSA passes through the house.
The Big Ten’s new policy does not place any limits on student-athlete based NIL deals, and similar to the PCSA, only limits “institutional action.” Unlike the Protect College Sports Act, the Big Ten does not include any language reserving $5 million of the additional $27 million for Olympic Sports.
