Most programs, however, prefer to keep those numbers close to the vest. An athletic director at a Power 4 program, when asked this week by The Athletic how much his school expected to allocate to the football program in revenue sharing, declined to specify, citing a “competitive advantage” of keeping it quiet.
Texas athletics has plenty of money.
The Longhorns consistently rank near the top of college athletics in annual revenue. In 2024, Texas pulled in $331.9 million in athletics revenue, No. 1 in the country according to the Knight-Newhouse College Athletics Database. In 2023, Texas was second in athletics revenue ($239.2 million) to only Ohio State ($251.6 million).
In addition, the Longhorns have operated at the forefront of the market since the NCAA started allowing athletes to be compensated for use of their NIL rights in 2021. In December of that year, the football program made waves with the “Pancake Factory,” an initiative that promised $50,000 annually to Texas offensive linemen in exchange for promoting Austin charities. That price seems quaint now; Power 4 teams may need 10 times that much to obtain a starting offensive lineman for a season.
Eventually, the five collectives that had sprung up to compensate Texas athletes across various sports merged into the Texas One Fund, which is now the school’s exclusive collective. The Texas One Fund spent more than $11 million compensating Longhorn athletes in 2023, according to a tax return obtained by Sportico.
At an alumni speaking engagement in 2022, Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte lauded the power of leveraging some of the school’s 500,000-plus living alumni, telling the crowd, “NIL is our game. When that basket passes around, I don’t need stuff that jingles, I need stuff that folds.”
Blake Lawrence, the CEO of Opendorse, a company that facilitates and manages NIL deals, told The Athletic in January that “Texas was one of the first to start to really lean into bringing consistent NIL opportunities to athletes across all sports.” He said of the roughly 50 collectives that Opendorse works with nationwide, Texas One Fund is near the top in just about every category.
Most programs, however, prefer to keep those numbers close to the vest. An athletic director at a Power 4 program, when asked this week by The Athletic how much his school expected to allocate to the football program in revenue sharing, declined to specify, citing a “competitive advantage” of keeping it quiet.
Texas athletics has plenty of money.
The Longhorns consistently rank near the top of college athletics in annual revenue. In 2024, Texas pulled in $331.9 million in athletics revenue, No. 1 in the country according to the Knight-Newhouse College Athletics Database. In 2023, Texas was second in athletics revenue ($239.2 million) to only Ohio State ($251.6 million).
In addition, the Longhorns have operated at the forefront of the market since the NCAA started allowing athletes to be compensated for use of their NIL rights in 2021. In December of that year, the football program made waves with the “Pancake Factory,” an initiative that promised $50,000 annually to Texas offensive linemen in exchange for promoting Austin charities. That price seems quaint now; Power 4 teams may need 10 times that much to obtain a starting offensive lineman for a season.
Eventually, the five collectives that had sprung up to compensate Texas athletes across various sports merged into the Texas One Fund, which is now the school’s exclusive collective. The Texas One Fund spent more than $11 million compensating Longhorn athletes in 2023, according to a tax return obtained by Sportico.
At an alumni speaking engagement in 2022, Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte lauded the power of leveraging some of the school’s 500,000-plus living alumni, telling the crowd, “NIL is our game. When that basket passes around, I don’t need stuff that jingles, I need stuff that folds.”
Blake Lawrence, the CEO of Opendorse, a company that facilitates and manages NIL deals, told The Athletic in January that “Texas was one of the first to start to really lean into bringing consistent NIL opportunities to athletes across all sports.” He said of the roughly 50 collectives that Opendorse works with nationwide, Texas One Fund is near the top in just about every category.
