Short version: A 2020 study found that college football and basketball players got under 7 percent of the revenue they brought in. Pro players got about half. Since July 2025, schools can pay players directly, up to about $20.5 million a school in the first year.
Under 7 percent. That's what a 2020 study by four economists found college football and men's basketball players got of the revenue they brought in. The study was published by the National Bureau of Economic Research.
The same study found that pro players in those sports get about 50 percent of their league's revenue. That's the share their unions bargained for.
What the study looked at
The economists studied 65 schools in the Power Five conferences. They used athletic department money data from 2006 to 2019 and team rosters from 2018.
Average athletic department revenue was about $125 million in 2018, up 60 percent in a decade. Most of it came from football and men's basketball.
One of the authors, Matthew Notowidigdo, put it this way to the Chicago Booth Review. About 7 percent of the revenue those players generate "shows up as compensation."
Pros get about half of their league's revenue. College players got under 7 percent.
Where the rest went
The study followed the money. It paid for other sports that lose money, like women's basketball, soccer and tennis. It also paid coaches and administrators and built facilities.
That isn't a secret or a crime. It's how athletic departments were built. The study's point was who paid for it and who got it.
Who the players were
This is the part of the study that gets quoted most. Football and basketball players came from high schools with a median family income of $58,400. Players in other sports came from high schools at $80,000.
Black players were nearly half of the football and basketball players. They were 11 percent of the players in the sports that lose money.
So the study found the money moved from players more likely to be Black or from poorer neighborhoods. It moved to players more likely to be white or from richer ones.
What changed after 2020
The study is from 2020, so it describes a world that has since changed twice.
On June 30, 2021, the NCAA let college athletes earn from their name, image and likeness for the first time. Those deals pay you for your name, not a share of what the school takes in.
Then the House settlement. A federal judge, Claudia Wilken, approved it on June 6, 2025. Starting July 1, 2025, a school that opts in can pay its athletes directly. That's called revenue sharing.
The cap for 2025-26 was about $20.5 million per school. It's set at 22 percent of the average of certain revenues at Power Four athletic departments. It rises by at least 4 percent a year over the 10-year deal.
The settlement also pays nearly $2.8 billion in back damages over 10 years to athletes who played from 2016 on.
The first year of revenue sharing
The first numbers came out this month. 319 Division I schools opted in. 307 of them paid $1.77 billion to 34,915 athletes in 45 sports.
68 schools reached the $20.5 million cap or came within 5 percent of it, according to court filings by the College Sports Commission. Separately, 46,478 outside deals were cleared, worth more than $582 million.
We didn't find a study that redoes the 2020 math for the revenue sharing years. So nobody can yet say what the new share is. What's public is the cap, the total, and how many schools paid it.
Why the share matters at signing
A revenue sharing agreement is a contract. So is a deal with a collective or a brand. Each one sets an amount, a schedule and what you give in return.
When someone tells you what a deal is worth, the number usually comes without the rest of the picture. The 22 percent cap and the 50 percent pro share are two numbers to set beside it. They aren't measured the same way, but they're public.
What Leave does with this
Upload the agreement and Leave reads it back in plain words: the amount, the payment dates, and what the school or the brand gets from you in return.
Leave takes 0 percent of anything you sign. The share you keep is in your contract, in writing. You decide what to sign.
Questions people ask
Is the under 7 percent figure still true today?
It describes the years before 2021. The study used athletic department data from 2006 to 2019 and rosters from 2018. Since then, athletes can earn from their name and likeness, and since July 2025 schools can pay them directly.
How much can a school pay its athletes now?
Under the House settlement, a school that opts in could share up to about $20.5 million with its athletes in 2025-26. The cap rises by at least 4 percent a year over the 10-year deal.
Where did the rest of the money go, according to the study?
To other sports that lose money, to coaches' and administrators' pay, and to facilities. The study found that money moved from players more likely to be Black or from poorer neighborhoods to players more likely to be white or from richer ones.
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