When it comes to pay-for-play for University of Minnesota athletes in five sports, athletics director Mark Coyle likes where his program is.

Power Four conference schools like Minnesota had a capped revenue sharing amount of up to $20.5 million to pay athletes in the school year ending this month.  The U chose to not only disburse that revenue share money (in undisclosed amounts) to football, men’s and women’s basketball, hockey and volleyball but also funded new scholarships in multiple sports including gymnastics, softball and soccer.

In the new fiscal year starting July 1, the revenue share money allowed for major Division I programs is $21.3 million.  What’s new at the U this year is not only the 4 percent escalation, but also revenue share money will not be tapped for scholarships.  Instead, Coyle said, fundraising is generating money for scholarships.

Athletics directors and coaches at power conference schools don’t divulge how much annually is allocated with revenue sharing and Name, Image and Likeness money to pay athletes.  However, Coyle said the Gophers are in a good spot including with NIL which is separate from rev sharing and typically involves outside parties paying players for things like endorsements and personal appearances.

“I feel like we have put ourselves in a position where we can be very competitive with our peers in the Big Ten and be able to compete at the highest level,” he told Sports Headliners recently.

There are places like Michigan, Ohio State, and Texas Tech, where exorbitant amounts of money via revenue sharing and NIL reportedly pay football and men’s basketball players, but compared with all its peers in the Big Ten, Coyle is convinced the Gophers are not an “outlier” in being able to compete for player talent in those sports and others.

“…We are in a very competitive spot in terms of rev share dollars for our sports. Our coaches are not running here (to his office) sayin, ‘Oh, my gosh, I need more rev share money.’  They’re very competitive to our peers in the Big Ten. And that makes me feel good because we’re giving them a fighting chance.”

Relative to NIL, Coyle said “fans have been awesome” in helping fund that initiative that pays players for endorsements and personal appearances. Again, comparing with peers, Coyle said in NIL the Gophers are “very, very competitive too.”

Dinkytown Athletes, the official Gopher collective as an independent third party, has played a key role in generating NIL money and disbursing it to Gopher athletes.   (DA is a Sports Headliners advertiser.)

The Wisconsin legislature this year approved funding to help UW Madison annually with costs for its athletic facilities.   The Badgers will receive a reported $14.3 million. With this newfound money, the athletic department will have more flexibility in how it budgets dollars including for Olympic sports.

Coyle said the U hasn’t pursued similar legislation and that any initiatives would have to be in alignment with the overall plan of the University in working with the State of Minnesota Legislature.

Worth Noting

Niko Medved’s Golden Gophers basketball team began summer workouts this week with small group activities and on-court team play. The NCAA allows eight weeks of practice which will take the Gophers into July including a Fourth of July break.

Medved told Sports Headliners he anticipates an hour per day, four days a week of practice with his roster.  He said the roster of players is healthy, in contrast to the past season and offseason last summer.

The Gophers were 15-18 overall last year and 8-12 in Big Ten play. Returning players are Jaylen Crocker-Johnson, Isaac Asuma, Bobby Durkin and Grayson Grove., who all started over 20 games. Kai Shinholster averaged 13 minutes a game as a reserve. Transfers are: Kyan Evans, Winters Grady, Nolan Groves, Malick Kordel and Malachi Palmer. Freshmen are: Nolen Anderson, Cedric Tomes, Chadrack Mpoyi and Blake Nixon.

Medved is pleased with his returning core and newcomers. “We’ve got more size, depth and length all the way across the board.”

With the announcement of a game November 6 against St. Thomas, Medved is looking for one more game to complete his yet to be announced nonconference schedule. He has been looking for a Power 4 opponent and has interest in a home-and-home series.

Nothing has been announced, but a guess is Minnesota is paying the Tommies a guarantee of between $80,000 and $95,000 for their game at Williams Arena.

Lynx guard Olivia Miles is the WNBA Western Conference Player of the Week for games June 1–7. The only other Lynx players to win the award are Seimone Augustus – June 5, 2006, and Napheesa Collier – August 26, 2019.

Collier is the only remaining player on the roster from 2019.  She remains sidelined after ankle surgery earlier this year but upon return will form a high scoring duo with Miles who had a game-high 24 points last night in a 100-76 win by the 10-2 Lynx over the Wings from Dallas, 7-4. It was Miles’ sixth-straight game with 15+ points and 5+ assists, tying Caitlin Clark for the second-longest streak by a rookie in WNBA history.

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