A Proposed Uniform System for Title IX-Compliant Revenue Sharing in a New Era of Intercollegiate Athletics

Authors

• Jackson Schneider, Mitchell Hamline School of Law

Abstract

Revenue sharing between colleges and universities and their student-athletes marks one of the most significant developments in the NCAA’s nearly 120-year history. House v. NCAA and its subsequent settlement enabled many Division I colleges and universities to begin sharing revenue directly with student-athletes in 2025. However, the House Settlement leaves a critical question unanswered: whether revenue sharing must comply with Title IX requirements. In the absence of judicial, legislative, or executive guidance, colleges and universities possess nearly complete discretion as to the amount of revenue to share, how to share it, and with whom to share it. This discretion creates a substantial risk that colleges and universities will disproportionately distribute revenue to the highest revenue-generating intercollegiate athletic programs, which tend to be those for men.

This Article argues that revenue sharing by colleges and universities must comply with Title IX requirements. After tracing the history of student-athlete compensation and Title IX, the Article analyzes House and the resulting settlement, with particular attention to the strong financial incentive for colleges and universities to prioritize men’s intercollegiate athletics. Using the University of Minnesota as a case study, the Article demonstrates how emerging revenue-sharing models threaten to undermine Title IX protections and decades of progress toward gender equity in intercollegiate athletics.

To resolve the tension between leveraging revenue sharing to increase profits and complying with Title IX requirements, the Article proposes a uniform system for Title IX-compliant revenue sharing based on proportional distributions tied to the demographics of a college or university’s student-athlete body. This approach aligns with Title IX’s statutory language and congressional intent while promoting the continued growth and success of women’s intercollegiate athletics. Absent such reform by the NCAA, revenue sharing risks perpetuating the exact type of sex discrimination that Title IX was enacted to prevent.

Recommended Citation

Jackson Schneider, A Proposed Uniform System for Title IX-Compliant Revenue Sharing in a New Era of Intercollegiate Athletics, 19 DePaul J. for Soc. Just. (2026)
Available at: https://via.library.depaul.edu/jsj/vol19/iss1/3