COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KBTX) – When Texas A&M President Mark Welsh hired athletic director Trev Alberts in March of 2024, it was Albert’s business sense that checked the ultimate box. Welsh, along with anyone else in college athletics, knew that kind of experience would be paramount at exactly this point in college sports history.
“He looks at things a little bit different than a lot of the athletic directors looked at the business of college athletes and how it needs to adjust in the future,” Welsh said at Albert’s introductory press conference. “I don’t think anybody knows what the right answer is yet, but he is certainly willing to explore the possibilities.”
Monday, Alberts sat at the head of a long conference table within the administrative offices of Kyle Field and laid out portions of this plan, over a year in the making, with members of the local media. The Aggies, along with all other power-conference programs and some outside those four, will need to find approximately $22 million in additional revenue starting with the upcoming academic year, per the settlement in the House v. NCAA antitrust case.
Most notably, the athletic department will see a reduction in athletes by 20% over the next three to four years, will marginally cut budgets from sports programs from 2-to-8% and will eliminate offering Alston awards, which is financial support for education-related expenses.
Yet, Alberts believes this is a situation in which A&M can thrive.
“I believe this is Texas A&M’s time,” shared Alberts. “This whole situation in college athletics, this is our time to separate and go. I know I’ve had people say, ‘we’ve heard that a lot,’ but I believe that. I believe that because this is one of the few places in the country that can actually adjust and adapt to this reality in a way that’s better than most.”
Per the terms of the settlement, any university that opts in can provide up to a $20.5 million cap in compensation to athletes in the first year. The cap will increase by 4% annually and will be re-assessed by the court every three years of the settlement’s 10-year term.
As a part of that settlement, A&M will need produce $18 million in revenue sharing funds to provide that financial opportunity to players in six sports: Football, men’s and women’s basketball, baseball, softball and volleyball. The Southeastern Conference has mandated its 16 members also increase money to scholarships by $2.5 million, which counts as a part of the $20.5 million compensation cap a university can provide to its athletes. An additional $2 million typically distributed to universities from the NCAA will go towards name, image, and likeness (NIL) compensation for athletes that were given scholarships from 2016 to 2024.
From previously identified cost savings, Alberts said the athletic department can claw back approximately $8.8 million, though that figure might be low as some data has still yet to be calculated.
Those measures began months after Alberts’ hiring, when he instituted a broad reduction of force within the athletic department staff. Approximately 18 people were laid off, most of whom came at the executive level of the department.
“Again, those folks hadn’t done anything wrong,” Alberts pointed out on Monday. “When you have a lot of transition of ADs, what ends up happening– it’s not just unique to here– but when you have a lot of turnover in the AD office, a lot of times what happens is most want to bring a person or two that they know, to feel comfortable with. Next thing you know, you’ve got pretty bloated.”
Over the next four years, “designated athletes” will matriculate through eligibility and provide hard limits on rosters, per the terms of the settlement. Designated athletes, who are determined by programs and universities, are those who would have lost their roster position due to the implementation of roster limits. For the remainder of their eligibility, they do not count towards roster limits determined by the settlement. Once all these “designated athletes” have left their programs, A&M’s athlete population will decrease by 20%, which will save approximately $1 million annually.
Keeping these athletes is optional for coaches and athletic departments. While Alberts said they will designate athletes, it is mostly up to individual coaches how they want shape their roster. Last week, A&M pitcher Rylan Hill, a Bryan High alumnus, confirmed with KBTX that he had been cut due to new roster limits.
Alberts assured that A&M wants to remain compliant with Title IX when it comes to roster sizes, which will dictate some of the cuts.
“We’re not micromanaging which sport gets to have designated student-athletes,” explained Alberts. “I just firmly believe that it’s not fair to hold [head football coach] Mike Elko or [softball head coach] Trish Ford or [volleyball head coach] Jamie Morrison accountable for their program if they don’t have the autonomy to run it the way they want and so I’m not going to make those decisions for them.”
Every program that opts into the settlement must submit their list of designated athletes to the College Sports Commission, the new settlement enforcement organization, by July 6. A&M currently has approximately 79 athletes on its designated list, but that number could change either way before the final roster is submitted.
Alston payments, which were created after the Supreme Court upheld the district court’s decision that the NCAA limited education-related compensation. After the ruling, schools were able to provide up to $5,980 annually for these expenses. For schools opting in to the settlement, Alston payments can count towards the cap, up to $2.5 million per year.
The Aggie athletic department will fund 410 scholarships beginning with the upcoming academic year, a rise from 255.2 under the previous scholarship limit rules set by the NCAA.
In total, A&M will host 448 athletes out of the possible 478 the settlement would provide. The difference accounts for Title IX restrictions.
The A&M athletic department believes its identified approximately $17.5 million in new revenue sources per year, which includes $5 million in additional annual disbursements from the 12th Man Foundation and $12.5 million from its new multimedia rights agreement with Playfly. Last season, the 12th Man Foundation provided $93.9 million to the athletic department, per federal tax documentation acquired by KBTX. The year prior, that number was $114.6 million, which included funds for the Centennial Campaign building new facilities as a part of the Graham Athletic Complex.
Further revenue can come from the addition of a conference football game, which has yet to be decided upon by conference leadership and raised distribution numbers form the SEC and the College Football Playoff.
With this plan already taking shape within a unified administration, paired with the largest living alumni base in the SEC, Alberts believes that A&M can become a leader in the new era of college athletics.
“This is our chance to leverage the collective strength of Texas A&M, the Association of Former Students, everything that makes this place different,” Alberts added. “The scale of Texas A&M is our chief advantage. So, this is our time, if we have the courage to make tough decisions and act and modernize… I think Texas A&M can separate and do things we’ve never done before.”
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