The NCAA today is almost unrecognizable compared to ten years ago. Between Name, Image and Likeness (NIL), the expansion of the transfer portal and conference realignment, college sports seem to change every year.
The next big change for the NCAA came last Thursday, when the NCAA announced a deal with the Power 5 conferences to allow schools to directly pay its athletes, likely starting in fall 2025. Some athletes from the past ten years will also receive pay from the NCAA.
As an ACC team, Syracuse athletics will now become involved in the financial battle to get the best talent. Schools will be allowed to use up to $20 million per year at the start. So the question now becomes, can SU keep up?
In short, the answer should be yes. For the 2022-2023 school year, the ‘Cuse Athletics Fund raised $45 million dollars, a record high. If that number continues to grow, $20 million can easily be set aside for player payments. And if the NCAA eventually allows schools to go above that limit, the Orange should be prepared to offer more to athletes.
SU’s athletic finances are complicated because of its status of a private school. But looking at public ACC school booster numbers for comparison, some schools like Florida State and Virginia brought in over $500 million from 2005-2022. That’s roughly $30 million a year, which should be doable for the Orange based on the ‘Cuse Athletics Fund numbers.
The split of $20 million dollars a year might become more complicated. Most schools primarily are focused on basketball and football as revenue sports, but with prestigious lacrosse programs at SU, the revenue may have to be split more ways.
Syracuse also usually doesn’t rank in the highest echelon of paying coaches. 2022 financials for the university just were released, and the highest paid employee was former SU Football coach Dino Babers, who made $4.4 million in 2022. According to syracuse.com, that would have put him as the 41st highest paid football coach based on recent numbers.
SU needs to commit to jumping up the rankings when it comes to paying players if that’s what the NCAA becomes. The numbers show the university has the funds to do it. Now it becomes a matter of actually putting it into action.
