Jun. 7—PULLMAN — At Washington State and everywhere else in the college athletics landscape, a new era is upon us.
The House vs. NCAA settlement was granted final approval on Friday, paving the way for athletic departments to begin directly paying athletes via an annual revenue-sharing pool, which will be capped at $20.5 million in the first year, which begins on July 1, the same start date as WSU’s fiscal year 2026.
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“WSU has been preparing for this moment and will operationalize a budget structure for each of our programs to put the scholarships, academic stipends, and name, image, and likeness (NIL) payments to use where they will be most impactful,” WSU Director of Athletics Anne McCoy said in a statement published Saturday. “This programmatic autonomy will ensure that each of our head coaches can maximize the resources available to continue leading as we transition into the new Pac-12 Conference.”
The biggest spenders across the country will fund the full $20.5 million and much more, which will be made possible by payments from boosters and NIL collectives, perhaps furthering the gap between top programs and those that can’t spend as much.
WSU will allocate $4.5 million for football revenue-sharing, McCoy said in January, indicating that number also includes scholarships. It’s unclear what kind of money that leaves over for true revenue-sharing — and how many spots the school plans to fund, which included the full 85 last season, McCoy said. The Spokesman-Review is attempting to reach McCoy for an interview for next week.
While the Cougars’ $4.5 million figure might be a fraction of what the bigger spenders across the country are paying out to their rosters, the number figures to be competitive within the new Pac-12 Conference, which launches beginning with the 2026-27 season. New members include Gonzaga (which, without a football program, will enjoy the benefit of allocating more funds for men’s basketball), Colorado State, Boise State, Fresno State and Utah State.
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As of Saturday, the Cougars’ football team is slated to have 114 players for the upcoming season, nine over the roster limits of 105, which are part of the House settlement. That includes 75 players listed on the summer roster, 26 incoming freshmen and 13 transfer players — forcing head coach Jimmy Rogers and his staff to make decisions on how to get to 105 players or fewer.
WSU’s athletics budget for fiscal year 2026 will be $74.4 million, university regents announced on Thursday. That’s about the same as WSU’s fiscal year 2025 budget, but it’s down significantly from the 2024 budget, which was $85 million. The Cougars had to pare down their spending in the wake of the traditional Pac-12’s collapse, which took place in August 2023.
When it comes to revenue-sharing distribution on WSU’s football team, much of the decision-making will fall to general manager Ricky Ciccone, who had a similar role at Louisiana last season.
“All you’re doing is assigning a dollar amount,” Ciccone said in an interview with The Spokesman-Review.
“It used to just be, he’s a one (scholarship), and you had 85 of them. Now you have a dollar amount. So you’re assigning a dollar amount to player X, player Z.”
