How this new era of revenue sharing will affect the Nebraska Cornhuskers athletic department is still an open question. What is clear is that the Huskers are -at least for the moment - in far better shape than the Minnesota Golden Gophers.
Long a thorn in the side of Nebraska football, especially, Minnesota is in dire straits, and revenue sharing just went into effect. The school is in such a precarious position that it's placing a new $200 annual fee on every single student. All that money will be diverted to the athletic department, but it's not nearly enough.
Nebraska must heed Minnesota’s revenue-sharing warning
The Big Ten program, among the highest earners of revenue in the sport thanks to television deals that benefit Minnesota as well as Nebraska football and everyone else in the B1G, is still looking at a massive shortfall. According to the Minnesota Star Tribune, it's short by almost $9 million.
The most significant new line-item expense the Gophers — and the biggest programs across the country — need to include is $20.5 million in direct payments to student-athletes as part of the House vs. NCAA settlement that started in July. The House settlement makes up 12% of the department's planned expenses for next year.
For now, Nebraska is seeing a squeeze in its finances, though the Cornhuskers' athletic department has long prided itself on not needing to dip into any funds from the larger university budget. That could give them an even bigger leg up on teams like the Minnesotas, Purdues, Northwesterns, even Indianas, Michigan States of the Big Ten.
The question is just where the middle of the major conference teams go if they continue to run into this problem? Students who don't care how many games PJ Fleck won last year are already unhappy their money is being used to pay for his starting quarterback. The fees are likely only going up the longer this new era continues.
The Nebraska football program seems well set up for revenue sharing. However, Minnesota is already a cautionary tale and we're not even a month into this new era in college sports.