It is the dawn of a new era in collegiate athletics. The landmark NCAA House Settlement has finally been approved. The settlement ends three separate antitrust lawsuits alleging that the NCAA unlawfully limited the earning potential of college athletes. Affected athletes now are set to receive billions in “back-damages” while schools are permitted to share revenue directly with their student athletes for the first time in history.

Here is how the financial components of the settlement will impact collegiate beach volleyball opportunities, budgets, rosters, and scholarships:

Revenue sharing

Beginning July 1, NCAA Division I schools will be allowed to share up to $20.5 million in athletic department revenues directly with athletes across all sports. That amount will escalate annually over the next ten years. Football (75%) and men’s basketball (15%) are expected to receive 90% of the distributed revenue while women’s basketball (5%) and all other sports (5%) are expected to receive the remainder. Distributions to beach volleyball are estimated to be between 0 and .1%.

Where will the money come from?

In anticipation of revenue sharing, schools have been busy identifying new sources of revenue and implementing cost cutting measures – often geared toward their Olympic sports. Options range from trimming operational costs to discontinuing programs entirely. Both already have happened. Plans to cut costs at some beach volleyball schools include gradually reducing roster sizes, limiting travel for competition and recruiting, and restricting the hiring of new assistant coaches. The student athlete experience is changing.

Two universities recently cut their beach volleyball programs. The University of Utah and Stephen F. Austin State University announced last month that beach volleyball would be discontinued immediately. Utah was silent on a financial reason, but Stephen F. Austin specifically cited “sustained departmental budget deficits and the anticipated financial impact of upcoming revenue-sharing requirements with Division I athletes.”

Backpay and lost revenue

A major piece of the settlement includes the NCAA’s agreement to pay back damages in the amount of $2.8 billion over the next decade to athletes denied the right to profit from their name, image and likeness (NIL) by NCAA restrictions. About 60% of that money will come from reductions in annual NCAA distributions to member schools. Every Division I school is thus taking an annual loss in anticipated revenue over the next ten years. That loss has to be made up somewhere. Scaling back on non-revenue sports like beach volleyball is an obvious solution. According to FY 2023 figures, nearly 80% of beach volleyball schools’ annual expenditures on the sport approximate the lost revenue they can expect from reduced NCAA distributions.

Here’s how reduced distributions are expected to impact beach volleyball schools. Figures are based on fiscal year 2023 spending:

Low major schools

About 28% of beach volleyball schools are in so-called “low major” conferences. These schools can expect to experience about a $300,000 annual decrease in NCAA distributions over the next ten years. For perspective, that figure exceeds the group’s average annual beach volleyball spending ($234,000) by nearly thirty percent.

Mid major schools

“Mid-major” conference schools could be hit even harder. More than half (51%) of Division I beach programs are in the mid-major conferences. These schools are preparing for an estimated $400,000-$500,000 annual loss of NCAA revenue over the next decade. That figure matches their average annual beach volleyball spending ($432,267) and exceeds the spending of nearly 70% of mid-major programs.

Power schools

The power conferences hardly will be spared. Beach volleyball schools in this group, accounting for 21% of Division I programs, will absorb the largest revenue losses, expected to far exceed their average annual beach volleyball spending ($903,523). At the same time, “power” programs also are best positioned to generate revenue and absorb the loss. Thus, despite taking the biggest hit in terms of dollars, schools in this category are the ones most likely to expand rosters to the new limit and extend more scholarship dollars to a greater number of beach volleyball athletes.

Scholarships and roster limits

The settlement eliminates beach volleyball’s current limit of six full scholarships by imposing a new roster cap of 19 and permitting schools to fund scholarships up to the cap. As before, schools may choose to fund all or none of the 19 scholarships allowed and may choose to award either partial or full scholarships.

Which beach volleyball schools are affected?

New roster limits apply only to schools that “opt in” by sharing revenue with their student athletes. Opting in or out is an annual decision made institutionally rather than sport-by-sport. Schools are required to opt in or out annually by June 15 while beach volleyball rosters must be under the cap by December 1 each year.

But not every athlete must be counted.

Exempt athletes and transfers

A late addition to the settlement exempts certain athletes from being counted toward roster limits. Athletes who would have lost their roster spot (or a promised spot) for the 2025-26 academic year “due to the immediate implementation of roster limits” are exempt from the roster cap. Exempt athletes remain so until their eligibility is exhausted, and their exempt status will travel with them if they transfer to a new school. Notably, the settlement does not require schools to “take back” a player who was cut (or transferred) before the settlement was approved. Schools must, however, designate “exempt” athletes in good faith and file roster reports with the College Sports Commission – a new enforcement entity for college sports.

The new revenue sharing model of collegiate athletics has significant implications for collegiate beach volleyball. From the number of programs to the student athlete experience, a new era of fiscal restraint in college beach is changing the way programs recruit, travel and operate day-to-day. Now more than ever the key to finding the right fit in a beach volleyball college and successfully navigating the recruiting process is to become an informed prospect.

Additional recruiting education.

About the Author

Wayne Holly is the founder of Beach Prospects – providing private advising and industry leading insights to families in the college search and recruiting process. He is the former head beach volleyball coach at Tulane University (2013-2019), where he recruited and coached the only two beach volleyball All Americans in program history, and a former assistant beach volleyball coach at Georgia State University (2019-20). Wayne began his collegiate coaching career in the Ivy League as an assistant indoor volleyball coach at Brown University. Wayne held a position on the AVCA Beach All American Committee from 2017-2019 and was a voting member of the CBVB National Ranking Committee for collegiate beach volleyball from 2020 through 2024.

Last year, Wayne created a digital platform, College Beach Navigator, for delivering profiles and insights on every NCAA and NAIA collegiate beach volleyball program in the country to college beach prospects. Visit Beach Prospects to learn more or contact Wayne at wayneholly@beachprospects.com