Friends of Wyoming Athletics:
The world of intercollegiate athletics has never experienced so much change. I have heard from a few of our loyal fans who feel it has shifted away from what they value. I understand your concerns and greatly appreciate your perspective, and I wanted to write this letter to offer my thoughts on the direction of UW Athletics.
Most importantly, I believe strongly that our best days are ahead if we commit to doing what we always have - rally behind the young men and women who choose to call Wyoming home.
I want to be clear – no matter the changes, we will not lose sight of a student-athlete-centered model where young men and women come to UW to compete at the highest level and graduate with a world-class degree. We will continue to focus on developing young people who are students FIRST and who represent our great state with pride and honor.
In addition to our unwavering, student-athlete-first mindset, we have multiple exciting projects unfolding at UW, which will assist us as we navigate the changes around us. The War Memorial Stadium project is moving along beautifully, and we just began construction on a new aquatics center. This new facility will replace the 50-year-old Corbett Pool and will be a great asset not only for all of UW (students, staff, and faculty) but also for the youth of Wyoming!
Many have heard about the House Settlement and may be wondering how it will affect us. The House Settlement is a negotiated settlement between the NCAA, its conferences, and lawyers representing multiple class action lawsuits filed by student-athletes centered around Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) and compensation-related issues. The settlement has been preliminarily approved and will move toward final approval in April 2025. This agreement will alter how college athletics operates in the foreseeable future. More specifically, starting in the Fall of 2025, the proposed settlement will allow universities to share revenue with those who help generate it – student-athletes. This is a dramatic change and opportunity for those institutions that can find the new revenue or reduced expenses to allow for revenue to be shared.
What we know today:
Pending final approval, universities will be allowed to share revenue directly with student-athletes up to a cap of approximately $20M annually. Revenue sharing will not have an impact on third-party NIL offerings. The settlement will create rules and structure that should alleviate some of the illegitimate transactions that we currently see occurring in the NIL space – primarily at the higher levels.
The settlement also provides for $2.8B in NIL back damage payments for DI student-athletes who competed from 2016 to 2021. In order to fund these payments, the NCAA will dramatically reduce monies disseminated to institutions on an annual basis (The expected annual reduction to UW is $550K). This will be a financial challenge for UW starting July 1, 2025.
The settlement also changes the limits and structure of team rosters (previously there were no NCAA limits on the size of team rosters) and institutions can now scholarship as many student-athletes as these new roster limits allow. This will bring new challenges as there is an additional scholarship cost to UW at the levels proposed. Also, with hard caps on rosters – we will not be allowed to add student-athletes above the limit and will have to reduce some rosters prior to Fall of 2025.
We will undoubtedly be faced with challenges because of this settlement. Many institutions, similar to ours, will not be able to share revenue at a level close to the maximum allotment. We will begin revenue sharing in 2025.
Some will refuse to be at the forefront of this new reality and fall behind their competition. We will not be one of those institutions. I believe that these circumstances provide us with an incredible opportunity to recruit and retain high-level student-athletes and do it better than our competition. I think that because we have something that many of our peers do not – you.
We are an institution of trailblazers, innovators, and champions. I intend for us to remain all of those things. To do so, our response to these changes must be bold and must be strong.
Our staff and university officials have and will continue to work tirelessly to ensure we embrace new paths forward, while never forgetting our obligation to ensure the education and growth of our student-athletes must be paramount.
Wyoming is special. Our success in this next chapter is up to all of us, including each fan and supporter. I can promise our effort and focus will be great, but I will also honestly say that our level of revenue generation (e.g., ticketing, donations, corporate partnerships, special events, etc.) will play a vital role in helping us forge the next great generation of Wyoming Athletics.
Many of our counterparts will reduce expenses and shift that money to revenue sharing through drastic changes in department structure. Some will eliminate/reduce scholarships in Olympic sports or eliminate sports altogether. I view that as a last resort.
We only have one university, and every one of our student-athletes and staff members matter. I am confident in our ability to be the premier institution of the new Mountain West Conference. To do so, we will need to provide a revenue-sharing opportunity coupled with a legitimate NIL program, like the 1WYO Collective. When paired with our incredible facilities, academics, and focus on student-athlete impact, we will rise above others.
I hear the question all the time: What can we do to be more competitive? We have so many incredible fans and supporters around the country who donate to the Cowboy Joe Club or who are season ticket holders. We need all passionate fans who bleed Brown and Gold to help us compete in this new era of intercollegiate athletics. We need people to continue to support our student athletes through the Cowboy Joe Club and the 1WYO Collective. We need people to keep coming to games, to buy season tickets, to sell out the War and pack the AA. We have the best fans in the Mountain West, and at a time like this we need each and every one of them, more than ever to contribute in any way they can.
We can and will be successful. We can and will be champions. We must – We are Wyoming!
#OneWyoming
Sincerely,
