Every summer since arriving in Salt Lake City, University of Utah athletic director Mark Harlan has had to navigate a new obstacle.
There have been constant changes in conference realignment and, as Harlan described it, the “Wild West” of name, image and likeness payments.
This summer’s obstacle? Navigating what Harlan called “the most transformative change in our industry since, really, World War II and the GIs came back.”
Utah is now allowed to share up to $20.5 million of revenue with its athletes after the landmark House vs. NCAA settlement went into effect on July 1.
“We knew that something like this was coming a few years ago, and we decided then ... that we were going to be all in on this settlement at the full amount,” Harlan said, while addressing a group of fans and community members at Rice-Eccles Stadium on Saturday.
But how will Utah’s $20.5 million salary cap be divided up this fall?
Harlan and executive senior associate AD for governance and brand strategy Jason Greco said the revenue-sharing totals will align similarly with how back pay to former athletes will be distributed as part of the House settlement.
“It was 75% football, 15% men’s basketball, 5% women’s basketball, and 5% went to all the rest of the sports,” Greco said of the back pay.
Harlan added: “We’re still making adjustments to it — slight adjustments to it — so it’s somewhat of a moving target. ... Quite candidly, there’s only two sports that drive revenue in our industry, and that is men’s basketball and football. Even gymnastics at the University of Utah is somewhat break-even.”
For Utah football and head coach Kyle Whittingham, Harlan noted last season’s NIL operating budget was $8 million. He didn’t go into specifics on this season’s budget but said the Utes have even more money to work with now.
(Chris Samuels | The Salt Lake Tribune) University of Utah president Taylor Randall, left, and athletic director Mark Harlan hold a news conference at Rice-Eccles Stadium after announcing the school’s entrance to the Big 12 Conference, Monday, Aug. 7, 2023.
“I will just say that we have significantly increased that for this year’s team,” Harlan said. “There’s not a team that doesn’t have more this year that is receiving [revenue-sharing payments].”
Harlan said that Utah’s revenue-sharing payments are being funded by university reserves and donor contributions. The Ute AD did not specify how much is being used to fund the salary cap, but did mention that the university will likely be operating in a deficit for the next few years.
In 2024, the Utes’ athletic department had a $17 million deficit for the 2024 fiscal year, which was largely related to the school’s Pac-12 exit. Utah athletics recorded a $1.8 million profit in the 2023 fiscal year and a $3.8 million profit in 2022.
“We have been very blessed to build reserves here over the last years,” Harlan said.
“We are now in a new era where that money is coming from multiple sources. ... But also, when you have a president like Taylor Randall, who’s a former business dean, he loves this stuff. He looks at this as like opportunity, because he’s thinking, ‘All right, well, we can package some debt here. We have debts in other parts of the university. We can figure some of this stuff out.’ We’re also looking at our costs.”
The main goal for Utah, according to Harlan, is to find a balance financially over the next few years.
“I’d say to break even is the goal,” the Ute AD said. “We’ve been building reserves and are proud of that. Now we’ve got some time to work through that. But I would say any athletic director is looking at his or her program right now, it’s going to take [us] a little bit to be back at the profitable side.”