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The new revenue-sharing model in college sports is forcing the Indiana University athletic department to cut costs—even if it means cutting jobs.
School officials have eliminated 25 athletic department positions, a person with knowledge of the decision told The Associated Press on Monday. The person requested anonymity because the school had not made a public announcement.
It’s clear the Hoosiers and many other schools are facing an unprecedented dilemma—pay players market value or risk becoming less competitive on the field. In Bloomington, the solution appears to be running a leaner department.
The Hoosiers gave football coach Curt Cignetti, the Associated Press Coach of the Year, a pay raise after he won a school-record 11 games and led Indiana into the College Football Playoff for the first time in school history. The coach will average more than $9 million of compensation a year under his new eight-year contract, about double has initial contract.
Athletic Director Scott Dolson’s desire to keep Indiana’s football program in the national conversation poses a challenge, given the increasing financial pressure on his department.
As part of a court settlement, the NCAA agreed to provide nearly $2.8 billion to former athletes who were barred from earning money off their name, image and likeness before a 2021 Supreme Court decision that cleared the way for such payments. The NCAA intends to provide $1.2 billion of that total while the schools must come up with the rest.
A new revenue-sharing model also will allow each participating school to directly pay players a projected total of $22 million next season, instead of relying on the NIL collectives currently in place.
Purdue Athletic Director Mike Bobinski repeatedly promised to provide the full amount as the Boilermakers searched for a new football coach, and Dolson appears poised to follow suit.
For the Hoosiers, that means cutting costs in places such as the athletic department’s compliance and communication divisions by roughly 10%. Indiana plans to leave about a dozen vacant jobs unfilled while laying off about 13 employees—some of whom have worked in the athletic department for decades.
Indiana does not intend to cut any sports programs, coaches or team staff members. The moves were were announced in a letter Thursday, The Indianapolis Star reported.
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