Wisconsin Plans To Not Cut Sports Post-House

More universities are reacting to the expected expense increases of the House v. NCAA settlement.

In a message to Wisconsin Athletics stakeholders, athletic director Chris McIntosh reassured that his department was committed to continued support of all sports.

“Our plan is to maintain our broad-based approach to supporting 23 sports, though the level of support we’re able to offer each program will need to change,” McIntosh said. 

Though not a concrete promise, this rhetoric might come as reassurance to fans of swimming and other non-revenue sports. Fans and coaches of these sports have expressed concerns that athletic departments would balance the expenses of athlete payback and revenue sharing by cutting non-revenue sports. 

One Power 4 head coach told SwimSwam that the appetite to cut sports isn’t there because a lot of ADs who cut sports during COVID wound up losing their jobs. 

Even if they’re not cut, some sports might have to change the way they operate. In August, Ohio State’s athletic director said that some sports may begin to “act like a club sport”.

Other schools have been considering private equity as a way to raise capital and improve cost efficiency in athletics. NCAA president Charlie Baker addressed this earlier this week at the Axios BFD summit.

“One of the things I think the settlement will do – because of the 22% of the ticket revenue, media rights revenue and sponsorship revenue will be considered part of what the schools are spending on their student-athletes’ NIL – I think schools are going to need to bring people into their athletic departments who are good at figuring this sort of thing out,” Baker said.

Some schools have been passing the anticipated expenses down to athletics students and fans. Last Friday, Clemson University’s Board of Trustees approved a semesterly $150 athletic fee for every student enrolled at the university, effective fall 2025. 

I’d like to keep to delivering the number one student experience,” Clemson Athletic Director Graham Neff told the board. He also reminded that football games are free to students, and that every other Division 1 school in South Carolina already charges a sport fee.

Though Neff didn’t explicitly mention House, passing anticipated expenses to fans seems to be an emerging trend. Last month, the University of Tennessee approved a “talent fee” on football tickets to support revenue sharing and back payment of athletes.

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