Revenue sharing could be crucial for Michigan's football recruitment

The landscape of college sports just changed even further. Revenue sharing has been approved as an addition to college sports and will begin in the fall of 2025. This is a huge change in terms of NIL and should be very beneficial for Michigan. Here's why.

Exactly how this will work is still being researched, but contracts that contractually oblige players to stay at a school for a set period of time in exchange for a set amount of money are expected to become popular. This should mean an end to poaching players from other rosters every year.

Michigan and other universities don't have to worry about NIL heavyweights offering their best players millions of dollars in the offseason because those players should be under contract, allowing Michigan's staff and athletic department to spend additional time and money on potential recruits or graduate transfers.

Likewise, Michigan football can now explicitly guarantee money to its recruits, which was a big difference between Michigan and the top NIL schools. Guaranteed money — even if it's less than what some other schools offer — should level the playing field to some extent.

Many recruits know that Michigan's brand will take care of them if they succeed on the field. Most importantly, recruits want security and guaranteed salary, not just money if they become a star. This allows Michigan football and other UM programs to guarantee recruits money, thus improving their chances with many top recruits.

While it's too early to guess how the athletic department will allocate its money across all sports and Title IX rules, Michigan may have an advantage over most schools in the country because of the tremendous revenue it generates.

Official rules state that schools can distribute up to 22% of athletic department revenue to athletes. The average athletic department revenue for the top four schools was about $100 million. Michigan reportedly brought in about $230 million in revenue last year. That means Michigan's budget is theoretically about twice that of most schools and on par with the top teams in the country.

Revenue sharing will take another year to materialize, but it's hard not to be excited. If Michigan takes full advantage of these prospects and makes the most of them, they could completely upend any NIL narrative about them. This gives Michigan a real chance to become one of the best NIL schools in the country.

This is definitely something to keep an eye on as more concrete details come to light. Keep an eye out for updates. Go Blue.