By Shaun White
(Source: HBCU News)
The bipartisan Protect College Sports Act, also known as the SAFE Act, last week left committee and now heads to the U.S. Senate floor for a vote, hopefully this summer. It is the first college sports bill to advance this far in Congress.
The nonprofit think tank Drake Group last week released a report in support of the SAFE Act. President Kassandra Ramsey outlined “four significant recommendations.” Resolve the athlete compensation, employee status and collective bargaining issue; replace the NCAA Board of Governors and the Power Four’s control of Division I sports with a new enforcement system; the House settlement should not be codified into federal law; and Congress should set program standards applicable to all college athletic programs.
The NCAA, which strongly wants federal intervention, has found such unexpected bedfellows as the NFL, the NBA, the NFL and NBA players unions and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee.
Yet opponents of the SAFE Act continue to line up, including the Big Ten and SEC conferences, the WNBA, the NWSL and the AFL-CIO Sports Council.
Meanwhile, the dollars keep rolling in. Reportedly the 18-member Big Ten divided up its media money and other funding sources, distributing between $76 million and $80 million to each school.
The O’Jays’ classic opening to “For the Love of Money” seems appropriate here: Money, money, money, money.
The 2026-27 academic and sports year will also be the second year of NCAA revenue sharing for players and 310 participating Division I schools, including Minnesota and St. Thomas, an estimated $21.3 million per school. A share of up to 27% of average revenues from media rights and ticket sales. This does not replace student-athlete NIL deals or athletic scholarships.
Football and men’s basketball, as expected, get the lion’s share, while other sports will see benefits but not as much.
The MSR obtained a copy of the University of Minnesota’s MFRS report filed with the NCAA last December, an itemized athletic department budget report showing income generated and expenses paid for the period July 1, 2024 through June 30, 2025.
The 98-page report highlights: Minnesota’s total operating revenues were $163.6 million, and expenses were $161.2 million, a $2.4 million difference.
The Data Driven HBCU athletic spending dashboard reported several Black college MFRS FY25 athletic department figures: Norfolk State ($25 million), North Carolina A&T ($22.5 million) and North Carolina Central ($17.9 million) were among the top revenues.
Among the Black schools that reported negative net positions, revenue minus expenses, were Southern (-$1.3 million), Prairie View A&M (-$8.1 million), Morgan State (-$9.7 million), Grambling (-$4.9 million), Alcorn State (-$2.8 million), Coppin State (-$1.7 million), Jackson State (-$816,000) and FAMU (-$399,000).
“Yeah, there are challenges, but we always focus on the solutions, particularly at Alabama State University,” ASU Athletic Director and Vice President Dr. Jason Cable told the MSR in March at the SWAC Tournament in Atlanta.
Cable is not naive. HBCUs can’t compete financially with the University of Minnesota’s of the college sports world.
“We can talk about resources,” Cable continued. “Sometimes it’s intentional in terms of the way that we are funded. But we find ways to supplement our budget and have a great impact on our student-athletes and students alike.”
What about the student-athletes, the traditional cash cows of college sports, where do they stand in all of this? The bill’s name seems misleading: protect college sports from whom?
Athletics, Inc., a nonprofit college players advocacy group, recently published a letter opposing the SCORE Act, a second bill in Congress that the group strongly sees as a boom for athletic departments and a bust for the players.
But HBCU commissioners from the CIAA, MEAC, SWAC and SIAC jointly wrote the Congressional Black Caucus in May, urging Black lawmakers to push for the bill.
“Going in Circles” by the Friends of Distinction seems like the appropriate theme song for today’s college sports landscape.
