With the House v. NCAA settlement’s finalization just around the corner, schools are now busy preparing to brace for the sweeping changes it is bringing. The 2025 season will usher in a new era for college football, where athletes will get their revenue share and colleges will have to plan for everything down to the last detail. That would include salaries of the head coach and assistants, travel, facilities, and operations, including 22% of the revenue to the players. With so much to navigate, LSU already seems to be feeling the dread of the incoming changes.

The House v. NCAA settlement has capped a $20.5 million per year payment by the ‘Power’ conference schools for their athletes. However, suggesting that the revenue will go to college athletes would be misleading, as almost 75%-80% of the $20.5 million will be absorbed by the football teams’ players alone, followed by around 15% to basketball, and the rest to other sports. The cap will surely increase by 4% annually over the next 10 years. But there will be a catch to this. College athletes could still be able to land NIL opportunities and sponsorship without the money counting towards the $15.5 million that football teams in power conferences will get to share.

This essentially means that teams could leverage their NIL collectives and billionaire backers to rope in high-profile players, like we saw this year as Bryce Underwood flipped after reportedly getting $12 million in NIL money. This is something that LSU might not be able to do very actively, according to Gordon McKernan, the Tigers’ booster. Gordon McKernan, speaking on the 27th May episode of ‘After Further Review: LSU’, was asked how LSU will manage the revenue sharing aspect and land high-profile players. McKernan cited Bryce Underwood’s example and gave a straight reply. “I think it’s enough year in, year out.” While Gordon acknowledged that $15-16 million in revenue for players might be enough, he still provided a scenario where things go “out of whack.”

“You’re going to get those one-offs like Bryce Underwood. I mean, you know, some billionaire wants to do that and throw the thing out of whack. What do you do, right? You just got to take your wounds, lick, and move on. I do think it’s going to be a lot, but I do think there’s going to still be some supplement by donors and businessmen to come in and help out.” Bryce Underwood’s flip wasn’t just a regular feat but a coup that was orchestrated by two wealthy business moguls.

Bryce Underwood initially committed to LSU and was getting around $1.5 million per year to play for LSU. While the money wasn’t less, Underwood, being the 5-star QB and that too, a perfect 100-rated one on 247 Sports, had his suitors. Michigan was one of them and wanted to build their identity and produce top-class QBs, something Michigan didn’t usually do. So, Michigan came in with a reported $12 million NIL offer ($3 million annually) and orchestrated a coup with the help of Dave Portnoy and one of the top-5 richest people on earth, Larry Ellison.

Dave Portnoy opens up on what happened in the background of the Bryce Underwood flip

Dave Portnoy is the founder of Barstool Sports and has a net worth of around $150 million. Moreover, since he is also a 1999 graduate of Michigan, he regularly pointed towards the QB situation at Michigan, especially in 2024. Last year, the Wolverines started with 3 QBs, and none was effective. Warren did perform well in some games, but he wasn’t remarkable. So, Portnoy, seeing the dire situation, promised to donate at least $2-3 million to Michigan’s NIL collective.

“It all started from the pick ’em when I said, ‘You know I’m going to go get us a quarterback. And I’ll put my own money, you know, two-to-three million into this thing, and this will never happen again….I got a call from the Michigan football team. They said, ‘Hey, there’s this donor who wants to talk to you.’ I said that I’m doing this by myself and I don’t need to talk to anybody. And they said, ‘Please, this woman is a big fan of Barstool and you; she’d love to talk to you. Her name is Jolin. … They said her husband is a guy by the name of Larry Ellison, you ever heard of him?” said Portnoy.

From here began the pursuit of Bryce Underwood, and when both Dave and Oracle founder Larry Ellison combined their financial clout, there was probably no one who could match the offer Bryce was getting. Of course, Tom Brady, another high-profile Michigan alumnus, FaceTimed Underwood to persuade him to commit to Michigan. But the $12 million was probably enough for the QB as he quickly flipped from LSU to Michigan.