Will UCF Knights Share at Full House-NCAA Revenue Level Next Season?

Power conference school are opting in to share revenue in the House vs. NCAA settlement, but some have more challenges than others.

UCF is one of those schools.

Just a few decades ago, the Knights were a Division II school. Now, UCF is part of the Big 12 — but has only been a member for two years.

Plus, they’re not technically full members yet, at least from a revenue standpoint. For their first two athletic years in the conference, they’re only getting a partial share of revenue.

But, they’ve opted into the House settlement, which has made reaching the top of the revenue allowed to be shared a challenge for athletic director Terry Mohajir.

Will UCF Athletics Share $20.5 Million This Season?

Recently, Yahoo Sports reported that UCF received $21 million from the Big 12 as its payout for its first year in the league, which was 2023-24. That amounts of a half-share of the revenue that full members got, which was approximately $37-40 million.

The Knights will get another half-share for the 2024-25 athletic year and then start receiving a full share this upcoming season. That includes a new television contract with ESPN and Fox that will reportedly pay each school $31.7 million in TV money.

The league also gets revenue from bowl games, the College Football Playoff, the NCAA, ticket sales for conference championships and additional sources.  

So, there’s some ground to make up and Mohajir knows it, as he told reporters during the Big 12 annual meetings in Orlando earlier this week.

He believes the Knights will get there, even with half-shares of revenue the past two years.

"We're real close. We'll be there, for sure,” he said to outlets, including the Daytona Beach News-Journal. “I've just got a couple more things we're working on, some revenue pieces that we're putting together. But we'll be there come July 1. We're very happy about that, by the way. We'll become full-share members."

The House v. NCAA settlement is a combination of three different cases brought by current and former student-athletes. It will allow for $2.75 billion in damages will be paid to thousands of college athletes over 10 years as part of restitution for their inability to access things like Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) opportunities.

The settlement also caps rosters and, in some cases, expands rosters, especially in the case of Olympic sports. Plus, it allows for schools to fully fund every scholarship offered, which wasn’t the case pre-House.

The House settlement doesn’t limit student-athletes from engaging in NIL and many schools are bringing outside collectives in-house. But every NIL deal of more than $600 must be vetted and approved by the new NIL Go system being developed by Deloitte.