Mizzou Athletic Director Laird Veatch gives update on NCAA House Settlement
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
Mizzou Athletics is gearing up for the changes coming to the college athletics landscape in the 2025-26 school year. On Friday, MU Athletic Director Laird Veatch came out with a video update, via Mizzou's social media pages, addressing his department's approach to the House vs. NCAA settlement.
Veatch began by noting that the House vs. NCAA settlement is expected to be formally approved in the coming weeks, which has kept his team hard at work, making plans for the upcoming athletic calendar.
Once approved, the settlement will permit athletic departments to share revenues directly with student-athletes, in place of name, image and likeness (NIL) through outside collectives. There will be a $20.5 million cap on that revenue sharing for the upcoming school year, as each university will determine how much will be allocated to each sport. Veatch said that, in Mizzou's case, like many other schools, the football and men's basketball teams will get the primary distribution of that revenue.
However, MU is also adding the equivalent of 60 full scholarships to the tune of $3 million total, starting in the 2025-26 athletic year. Veatch said that a significant amount of that money, a 2-for-1 ratio, will go towards women's sports.
In order to get all of this paid for, Mizzou is doing a deep dive into its budget process. The goal is to reduce as many expenses as possible, so the department can reallocate to revenue sharing dollars
In addition to the deep dive into their own department, Veatch is also asking the fan base for help.
“They want to be a part of helping us continue this ascension that we are on," he said in Friday's video update. “There’s been a clear recognition of our need to raise prices and that’s been evidenced by really strong renewal rates and an early waitlist of well over 1,000 new season ticket holders...There’s been a real appreciation of our need to simplify and modernize our fundraising structure. That’s been evidenced, in particular, by a real interest in being a part of the Mizzou leadership circle. The Mizzou leadership circle is really what’s going to drive our ability to share those revenues at the highest level and drive our ability to compete.”
Veatch added that the university will need to do all it can to utilize what is already an advanced NIL structure in Missouri, to shift to this revenue sharing model. He said the new model will, essentially, be a lot like what professional sports leagues operate under, which is a salary cap.
Mizzou is also doing all it can to develop third-party NIL opportunities for student-athletes. In order for that effort to be successful, Veatch called on the business community and business leaders to continue to buy in and look for opportunities.
Essentially, with the changes coming to collegiate athletics, there will be three ways for student-athletes to be compensated and for Mizzou to secure the best talent.
- Scholarships (increasing by $3 million)
- Revenue sharing
- Third Party NIL
It will be the first time that revenue sharing has ever been permitted in college athletics. In simple terms, Mizzou will be forming a contract directly with student-athletes to provide them with those revenue share dollars in exchange for their name, image and likeness, as well as their competitive services
Veatch said the best way that Tiger fans can help with the revenue sharing effort is to be a part of the 'Mizzou Leadership Circle,' which is the core group that helps drive the department financially. Membership to be a part of the group starts at $5,000, which is owed each year.
The opportunity for third party NIL will be what name, image and likeness was intended to be, before collectives came about. Veatch said it will be endorsement-style arrangements between a business and a student-athlete, which will have to go through an approval process.
Veatch is very excited about the opportunity that Mizzou Athletics has lying ahead of it.
“There seems to be such a positive buzz in this place that’s different than our counterparts that we talk to across the country. We really feel like we have an opportunity to continue to be leaders in this space. We are ready to shoot that gap and, candidly, some of our peers are just now kind of figuring out some of this. So, for us, if you step back and kind of think about all that’s happened, particularly in the last year or so, the momentum really is undeniable," he said.
He concluded by saying that the athletic department is going to keep charging on and will not shy away from doing what it takes to compete for SEC and National Championships.
