The University of Wyoming is cautiously eyeing the future of its athletics department under a quickly changing college sports landscape.
“The world of college athletics is changing dramatically,” UW Athletics Director Tom Burman told the Joint Appropriations Committee on Tuesday. “We just feel like this is an opportunity for us to grow our program and keep up, and we’re hoping that between the university, the state and the private sector, we can cover all these costs.”
UW is requesting a one-time payment of $1.5 million from the Wyoming Legislature in its supplemental budget request to help support the school’s athletics department moving forward.
The crux of the request comes as a result of a $2.7 billion settlement the NCAA made in October with thousands of current and former Division I students seeking compensation tied to their athletics services and commercial use of their names, images and likenesses (NIL).
The settlement, which is expected to go into effect in July 2025, gives money to former athletes who missed out on financial opportunities during their athletics careers. College athletes can now get paid for NIL deals by outside parties as a result of an NCAA rule change a few years ago.
The settlement also paves the way for a new college sports landscape with new roster and athletic scholarship limits, expanded health care benefits for athletes, and revenue sharing.
UW President Ed Seidel told the committee that the Mountain West Conference, of which UW is a member, has been holding emergency meetings at an increasing frequency to deal with the dramatically changing athletics landscape, with the most recent held on Monday.
The Settlement
State Sen. Tim Salazar, R-Riverton, questioned Burman if the $1.5 million would go towards making up funding cuts caused by the settlement.
As a result of this settlement, Burman said UW will suffer a $500,000-$550,000 annual cut from the NCAA in its funding starting in June 2025 as a way for paying UW’s share of the settlement fees over the next 10 years, money that will go towards paying student athletes.
UW’s athletics department budget was $53.6 million in 2024, of which $1.8 million came from the NCAA.
Burman said schools actually have the flexibility to opt-in or out of the settlement, but as a member of the Mountain West, UW is choosing to opt-in. He also said he’s not aware of any school in the country that’s choosing to opt-out of the settlement.
Rep. Bob Nicholas, R-Cheyenne asked Burman what’s the likelihood this settlement could be appealed.
Burman said that’s highly unlikely. Seidel said “everyone is preparing for it.”
“It’s been in the works for two and a half years, and the NCAA has embraced it and all the conferences have embraced it,” Burman said.
Rep. Ken Pendergraft, R-Sheridan, expressed skepticism that the funding request would classify as an emergency need for the school.
“I’m wondering why it’s being brought during the supplemental (budget session), why was it not brought in the last budget or held until the next?” he questioned.
Burman said although the school was aware of the ongoing lawsuit, the terms of the settlement weren’t known until around six months ago.
Rep. John Bear, R-Gillette, questioned Burman what it would mean for the school if it didn't receive the $1.5 million request.
Burman said it would result in substantial cuts in the athletics program.
“We would probably be looking at sport elimination and making some very draconian cuts,” Burman said.
What The Settlement Does
The change in scholarship rules will allow schools to provide more scholarships in nearly all sports. This will likely put schools that offer fewer scholarships at a disadvantage competitively, as the larger schools that can afford to offer more scholarships will now likely do so.
Part of the reason Burman is looking for help from the Legislature is to help maintain UW’s financial competitiveness with other schools.
Under the new rules, football teams will now be limited to 105 players, but all 105 will now be eligible for full scholarships, up from the current 85-scholarship limit. Similar changes will expand the cap on scholarships in volleyball and women’s soccer from 12 to 18.
Adding 20 more scholarships in football, Burman said, would cost UW nearly $900,000 alone.
“The cost of this could be immense,” Burman said.
Any increase in men’s athletic scholarships must be met with a two-times match for women’s scholarships under Title IX requirements.
Burman said the school plans to add three scholarships for football and one for men’s basketball next year. They’ll also add three for volleyball, two for women’s soccer and three more among the other women’s sports. Over the next two years, they’ll add a few more for football and men’s basketball, and four to women’s sports.
The NCAA has also started requiring schools to provide health care coverage to athletes who suffered competition-related injuries for up to two years after they graduate. Burman expects this to cost the school about $250,000 a year.
They’ll also be required to provide post-graduate scholarships for two years after a student’s athletic eligibility expires if they don’t graduate, a cost Burman expects to run $150,000 annually.
To handle all these additional costs, Burman said the school will have to find a way to grow its ticket, merchandise and TV revenues.
“That’s been a very strong focus of ours, how can we be more creative, more entrepreneurial, and generate more revenues?” he said. “We’ve been pretty successful in that.”
One-Time vs. Ongoing
The school originally requested $3 million in ongoing state aid when submitting its budget request to the governor, but Gordon recommended that request be lowered to a one-time sum of $1.5 million.
Wyoming Budget Department Director Kevin Hibbard said the reason behind this reduction is the fact Wyoming will only have $24.5 million in ongoing guaranteed revenue moving forward.
“We were very sensitive to any request where the subject is ongoing revenue,” he said.
Salazar asked Burman if he will return to the Legislature each year requesting money for this need. Burman wouldn’t rule out that possibility if the school is only approved for a one-time payment.
He said the school will attempt to raise $3 million on its own but the university isn’t interested in hiking tuition fees to help get this money.
Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.
