AUBURN — As college athletics enters a new world following final approval granted for the House vs. NCAA settlement Friday, Auburn's athletic department will fully fund its revenue sharing, athletic director John Cohen announced Saturday.
It's a $20.5 million investment, Cohen said in a release. That will cover the entirety of Auburn's annual revenue sharing, and the department will allocate 113.8 additional scholarships "year-over-year" for its programs, at a projected cost of $5.49 million, he said.
Under the new revenue sharing model, direct payments to student-athletes won't be allowed by NCAA rules. Players will instead receive a share of their athletic department's budget, with 22.5% of a school's budget funding its athletes. It'll effectively set a revenue sharing salary cap at $20.5 million, starting July 1.
"To pay for these investments, every member of our department has rolled up their sleeves and gone to work, identifying budget efficiencies and implementing strategic reductions, while creatively growing revenues — both current and new," Cohen said in a release.
The settlement will also impose restrictions on NIL collectives. Collectives will now need official approval on any NIL deals valued beyond $600 from an NCAA third party entity.
In his message, Cohen urged donors to continue supporting On To Victory, which is Auburn's flagship collective.
"Donations to OTV provide Auburn with a competitive edge both in recruiting and retaining elite student-athletes," Cohen said. "Resources committed to On To Victory will continue to put Auburn in a position of strength with new NCAA revenue cap regulations to be implemented on July 1. For those OTV members with pledges extending beyond June 30, your fulfillment of those pledges remains critical to sustaining Auburn's success."
Adam Cole is the Auburn athletics beat writer for the Montgomery Advertiser. He can be reached via email atacole@gannett.com or on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter,@colereporter.
