ROANOKE, Va. (WDBJ) – The world of college sports has been upended in recent years – from amateurs playing for the love of the game and scholarship money, to semiprofessionals making millions and switching teams after each season for the best opportunity, the most money, or both.
Most of the change has come through court rulings, with judges at multiple levels telling the NCAA what it is and isn’t allowed to do when it comes to enforcement. That has left schools, including Virginia and Virginia Tech, to figure out their own ways forward.
In this Target 7 report, we set out to answer a simple question: How do student athletes get paid to play? The question is simple. The answer is not.
A SPRING GAME — AND A NEW ERA
Thousands of fans pack Lane Stadium on a Saturday in April to watch what is, essentially, a glorified practice: Virginia Tech’s annual spring football game.
For many, the enthusiasm feels familiar. The business behind it does not.
Virginia Tech fans and donors told us they’re watching a sport that’s rapidly changing—one where the old model of amateurism is fading fast.
One fan told us she missed the “old school way,” when NIL (name, image and likeness) wasn’t a major factor and schools weren’t competing in what can feel like an arms race for talent.
That raises the question fans ask quietly—and schools rarely answer publicly:
How much are these 18-to-25-year-olds making to suit up and play?
We asked. And we hit a wall of silence.
Virginia Tech didn’t want to discuss it on the record. Neither did other Virginia universities we contacted, including the University of Virginia, Radford, and James Madison.
An associate athletic director at a college outside Virginia told us the reason is simple: every school is doing things differently, and no one wants to reveal their approach—especially when rules are still evolving and open to interpretation.
Yahoo Sports Senior College Football Writer Ross Dellenger says there’s also something deeper at play:
Administrators are uncomfortable talking about paying players because, traditionally, schools did not pay athletes directly. Now they can—and it’s a cultural shift college sports still hasn’t fully processed.
Dellenger says transparency would help, but schools don’t want to be the first to open the books—especially if their rivals don’t have to.
REVENUE SHARING: THE “HOUSE” SETTLEMENT
The NCAA’s current framework is built around a legal settlement known as NCAA v. House.
Under that settlement, athletic departments can share revenue with student-athletes—up to a cap of $20.5 million per year, a figure that is set to increase by 4% annually.
The settlement also outlines a recommended split at Power Four schools (like Virginia and Virginia Tech in the ACC), based largely on how much revenue each sport generates through TV deals:
- 75% to football
- 15% to men’s basketball
- 5% to women’s basketball
- 5% to other sports (baseball, softball, lacrosse, and more)
Dellenger describes the broader moment as “purgatory”—college sports caught between amateurism and professionalism.
And while the Power Four conferences bring in enormous TV revenue, another reality is also setting in: even wealthy programs don’t always have an extra $20.5 million sitting around.
Some states are stepping in. Florida, for example, passed legislation enabling schools to access more public funding to stay competitive under this new model. Virginia has not done anything comparable.
And when it comes to athletes sharing in other revenue—tickets, concessions, jersey sales—sources told us that’s not really how the system is working so far.
Instead, Dellenger says money is being shifted. Sponsorship dollars that once flowed to athletic departments can now be steered toward rosters—often to help teams compete beyond what revenue-sharing alone can cover.
That’s where revenue sharing ends—and NIL begins.
NIL: NAME, IMAGE, AND LIKENESS
NIL stands for Name, Image, and Likeness. It allows athletes to earn money by endorsing products or businesses using their personal brand.
But NIL is supposed to be tied to legitimate business activity.
A group created by the House settlement—called the College Sports Commission—is responsible for policing NIL deals. The deals must involve:
- a legitimate business entity
- a legitimate business purpose
- real deliverables (a commercial, a social media post, an appearance, a promotional event)
- compensation that reflects fair market value
Otherwise, Dellenger says, the deals can become “phony”—a redirect of money that looks like endorsement work but functions like player pay.
WHY YOU PROBABLY WON’T SEE THE NUMBERS
Even as the money grows, the public may learn very little about who gets what.
Cardinal News filed a Freedom of Information Act request asking Virginia Tech how much each player makes through revenue-sharing. The university denied the request, saying those figures are part of a student’s academic record.
In other words: Virginia Tech can’t tell you what a quarterback earns through revenue sharing any more than it can tell you what grade he got in microeconomics.
UVA also declined an interview for this story and declined to make student-athletes available.
But UVA does work with a third-party marketing agency called Cav Futures Marketing, Inc. The group used to function as a donor collective helping support athletes before the House settlement. Now, Cav Futures says it operates as a marketing agency focused on facilitating NIL opportunities.
Cav Futures told us donors are no longer directly involved as donors—but if a donor owns a business, there may be opportunities to work with athletes through legitimate business agreements.
Cav Futures also described its work as athlete education: teaching athletes how to build a brand, work with media, improve social media presence, and position themselves for partnerships.
Last fall, Cav Futures helped arrange an NIL deal involving UVA athletes and Lumi Juices, a Charlottesville company founded by UVA alumna Hilary Lewis Murray.
THE BOTTOM LINE
College sports now sits in a strange place: a for-profit professional-level product embedded inside a nonprofit higher education system.
And when your favorite team takes the field, will you have any clear idea who got paid what—and by whom?
Probably not.
WHAT COULD CHANGE NEXT
Many people we spoke with believe it will take federal legislation to bring clarity. Dellenger believes the end point for this period of college sports is collective bargaining, meaning that college athletes will be considered employees; those employees will have a labor union (similar to the NFL Players Association); and they will sign long-term contracts guaranteeing their pay and tying them to their universities.
The legislation is closer to happening than the collective bargaining.
Last month, President Trump issued an executive order strongly encouraging Congress to act, and directing executive agencies to look at solutions as well. The effective date is August 1, 2026—and until then, colleges, universities, the NCAA, and the federal government have been directed to work toward a plan for what the future of college sports will look like.
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