Dear App Family,
As we head into the holidays and prepare for the calendar to turn, it is a good time to look back and celebrate what App State Athletics achieved in 2024.
It has been a great year for the Mountaineers. A few of the highlights include:
- Men's Basketball Sun Belt Regular Season Championship
- Wrestling SoCon Tournament Championship
- Men's Cross Country Sun Belt Championship
- Women's Cross Country Sun Belt Championship
- Field Hockey MAC Regular Season Championship
- Volleyball Sun Belt East Division Title
- First NCAA Women's Tennis Doubles Appearance and National Ranking
For the 25th straight semester, our student-athletes achieved a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or better, and App State currently ranks top 15 nationally in student-athlete community service hours among NCAA Division I schools.
The last year was not without its challenges, also. We lost one of our student-athletes. A once-in-a-century weather event impacted our region in a monumental way. The waves of change in college athletics are challenging to navigate. Through it all, Mountaineers are tough, resilient, and always ready for the next challenge.
App State Athletics and the Mountaineers Athletic Fund are working daily with the University to plan for the sustained comprehensive excellence of our athletics department both now and into the future.
We wanted to provide App Nation with the latest updates on the evolving landscape and how it affects App State Athletics.
House Settlement Summary
Following years of lawsuits that have affected the amateurism model of intercollegiate athletics and given rise to the new world of Name, Image and Likeness in the NCAA, the House case against the NCAA has reached a settlement that was preliminarily approved on October 7, 2024 and is expected to be fully approved on April 7, 2025. See a
summary of the House settlement here.
Once fully approved, impacts to all NCAA institutions that opt in to the House settlement include the following:
Revenue Sharing
Beginning in fall 2025, institutions will have the opportunity to share athletics department revenue directly with student-athletes through individual licensing agreements (i.e., NIL) for the 2025-26 fiscal year. It is important to note that institutions will be allowed to share these revenues with student-athletes, but not required.
As part of the revenue sharing, the House settlement also provides for a new clearinghouse, administered by the "Power" conferences, that will regulate third-party endorsement agreements with student-athletes to ensure fair market value. This mechanism should provide better transparency and could change how NIL collectives function in support of universities.
Roster Sizes and Scholarships
As part of the settlement, the NCAA will cap roster sizes for sports. However, all roster members will now be allowed (but not required) to be on scholarship. For example, the new football roster limit will be 105, with all 105 allowed to be on scholarship. Previously, there was no limit to the size of a football roster, but only 85 scholarships were available. Baseball, for example, will now be capped at 34 scholarship spots, where previously a baseball team could have up to 40 roster spots but only distribute an equivalent of 11.7 scholarships.
For App State, based on current year roster sizes, the net result across all sports will be a loss of 10 total roster opportunities (loss of 25 men's opportunities, gain of 15 women's opportunities).
A breakdown of the new roster limits for App State sports:
| Sport |
Existing scholarship limits |
Proposed new roster limits |
| Baseball |
11.7 |
34 |
| M Basketball |
13 |
15 |
| M XC/T&F |
12.6 |
45 |
| Football |
85 |
105 |
| M Golf |
4.5 |
9 |
| Wrestling |
9.9 |
30 |
| TOTALS |
136.7 |
238 |
|
| W Basketball |
15 |
15 |
| W XC/T&F |
18 |
45 |
| Field Hockey |
12 |
27 |
| W Golf |
6 |
9 |
| Soccer |
14 |
28 |
| Softball |
12 |
25 |
| Tennis |
8 |
10 |
| Volleyball |
18 |
18 |
| TOTALS |
103 |
177 |
Past Damages
The NCAA will pay approximately $2.8 billion to "Power" conference student-athletes who participated from 2016-24 and were not allowed to participate in NIL activities due to NCAA rules. The NCAA will fund this payout by withholding revenue distribution to schools over 10 years. The impact to App State's budget will be roughly $330,000 annually over that span.
What This Means for App State
The implications of the House settlement will bring changes to the operations of App State Athletics. We will continue to support the educational mission of our great University. We will continue to be guided by our core values of academic integrity, competitive excellence, social responsibility and world-class experience.
We are committed to funding scholarships at least at our current levels with the hope of growing our scholarship funding. Yosef Club membership and contributions have reached record levels for several consecutive years, and we will need to continue to raise those levels to support scholarship funding.
We view revenue sharing and NIL opportunities as scholarship enhancements. We continue to work with the University and legal counsel on the best ways to offer scholarship enhancements to our student-athletes within our budget.
As we evaluate the future of NIL collectives, please consider giving to the new
App State Football Support Fund to impact the success of our football program via NIL/scholarship enhancements, player nutrition, facilities and more. To benefit sports in addition to football, you can
join or increase your giving to the Yosef Club.
App State Athletics currently has an operating budget of $48 million. Throughout the last 10 years, we have pursued innovated revenue streams from opportunities such as licensed products and apparel, corporate partnerships, philanthropic giving and special events like summer concerts in Kidd Brewer Stadium. We will continue to aggressively pursue new revenue streams. You will see additional corporate partnerships and naming rights in our facilities, including on-field logos. We will evaluate new ticket and parking models and pursue other creative opportunities to maximize our ability to support our student-athletes.
Many peer institutions are facing difficult decisions to cut operating expenses and eliminate staffing. Though expenses continue to rise, we have no plans to eliminate positions. We will continue to prioritize prudent spending in our operations as we have each of the past 10 years that we have balanced our athletics budget.
We are not planning to eliminate any existing student-athlete scholarships and hope to fund additional scholarships with additional revenue.
Because of the passionate support of App Nation and the support of University leadership, we will be able to navigate this new landscape. Fan support has allowed us for years to boast the best attendance and ticket revenues in our conference, and we plan to maximize and enhance the game day experience at our events.
We invite everyone to continue showing your support for the Mountaineers as they compete for championships and receive a world-class education. It's Great to be a Mountaineer!
Go App,
Doug Gillin
Director of Athletics
