A federal judge approved a $2.8 billion lawsuit Friday evening immediately ushering in a new era of college athletics: revenue sharing.

The House v. NCAA settlement effectively ended the 100-year amateurism model and opened the door for millions of dollars to be shared between universities and players for the first time. 

Schools can share as much as $20.5 million of their revenue with players for the upcoming year with 75 percent expected to head towards football at most schools, which equates to roughly $15 million. That number will increase by 4 percent every year for the next 10 years.

But not all schools are created equal and there will be a clear disconnect between what the programs in the Power Four pay versus what is shelled out in the G6. 

“This ruling falls in line with every other decision lately in college football because it is good for the big boys and bad for the little guy,” one source told Dave Campbell’s Texas Football. “The gap between the haves and the have nots will only grow because there isn’t $20 million in revenue to share at every program.” 

Sources confirmed that the seven Power Four schools in Texas – Texas A&M, Texas, Baylor, SMU, TCU, Texas Tech, and Houston – plan to share the max allowed. Houston, which moved up from the AAC to the Big 12 two years ago and has not received a full television share yet as new members, is said to be “close” to figuring out how to keep up with its peers in this new era.  

But what about the other conferences? UTSA, North Texas, and Rice play in the American Athletic Conference and there is a mandate to spend at least $10 million total in all sports over the next three years. Coaches inside the AAC believe the average revenue share for the football teams will be around $2.5 million per squad. Some programs might be closer to $2 million while others, think Memphis, could hit the $5 million mark. 

The numbers are even lower in the Sun Belt and Conference USA. Sources indicate that revenue sharing in the Sun Belt is probably in the $1 to $2 million range per team, while CUSA should be between $800,000 and $1.5 million with Liberty as an outlier. Some coaches believe a few schools in CUSA, specifically programs that just moved into the FBS ranks, will struggle to even reach $500,000 in total revenue share across all sports. 

“There has to be revenue to share,” one coach told us. “Our athletic departments in the G6 don’t make $20 million a year. It’s unrealistic for us to keep up. We’ll do the best we can and it’ll be great for the players, but the gap between the Power Four and us will only grow because of this.” 

The growing gap between a Texas A&M roster that can share $15 million with its players and a UTSA roster that sits around $2-3 million isn’t even the full story. NIL will still exist, and while the plan is for a clearing house called “NIL Go” to pass judgment on any deals over $600, most coaches don’t believe that the big programs will be handicapped by an artificial salary cap. 

“Look, the Ohio States and LSUs of the world aren’t going to start playing by the same rules as the Iowa States and Wake Forests. That’s never been true and it won’t be true now,” one coach told us. “How can they determine what is true market value? That’s just how much someone is willing to pay you and the donors at those schools that had $20 million budgets before this ruling aren’t going to stop spending that money. I bet there are 10-15 programs in the country with football budgets over $30 million.” 

Others are less cynical. 

“Maybe this slows down the outrageous contracts that are obviously pay-for-play and lets us all in the P4 play in the same sandbox,” another coach said. “I have to believe that the clearing house will do its job and help the sport regain some sanity.” 

These new rules go into effect on July 1.