Mississippi State Bulldogs ready for revenue sharing era of college sports

A seismic shift is on the way for college athletics, as long-awaited news is now official. The House v. NCAA settlement has been approved, and now for the first time ever, revenue sharing will be introduced to college sports. Starting July 1, universities are permitted to directly share up to $20.5 million with student athletes across all sports.

Though revenue sharing isn't technically a requirement and schools that do participate could chose to share less than $20.5 million, you can expect every serious college athletics department to be sharing that full amount. And while there are no requirements to how that revenue is distributed, you can expect football to see the overwhelming majority of that funding followed by men's basketball.

Also new with the settlement is greater restrictions on NIL deals, as moving forward, any third-party NIL deals valuing at least $600 must be approved by a newly formed clearinghouse called "NIL Go." Simply put, measures are being enacted to assure schools don't simply use their NIL collectives as a means to get past the $20.5 million revenue sharing cap. Furthermore, new roster limits will be put in place for sports, and now schools are permitted to fully fund scholarships for each player on the roster.

So what does this mean for Mississippi State?

Mississippi State Bulldogs ready to move forward into revenue sharing era

While the news of revenue sharing is just now official, Mississippi State has been preparing for it for quite some time. Last fall, MSU unveiled the "State Excellence Fund," which is committed to providing resources and benefits to student athletes on campus. The "State Excellence Fund's" founding was MSU laying the groundwork for revenue sharing with student athletes once that ruling passed.

The time has now come for that, and according to athletic director Zac Selmon, the "news allows us to move ahead in our pursuit of new heights."

Though nothing is specified, Selmon's statement implies is that Mississippi State is fully-embracing revenue sharing going forward. Given the recent fundraising we've seen under Zac Selmon, it's fair to expect State to share the full $20.5 million allotment with student athletes. Like every major athletics program, football and men's basketball are going to see the bulk of that.

But MSU will likely dole out more for baseball than the majority of athletic departments. The school's investment into baseball was key towards attracting a coach the caliber of Brian O'Connor. State is going to spend at a high level when it comes to the Diamond Dawg program, and making sure they're allocating enough to build and maintain an elite roster is a high priority moving forward. Add in that State will likely be fully funding scholarships in baseball, and you see how these changes could be a major benefit to Bulldog baseball.