How much is the University of Minnesota paying athletes? They refuse to say.

[BleedGopher]

Per DeYoe:

The decision by the U and other big schools nationwide to keep private information about payments to athletes is sparking concerns about the public’s right to know, and equal treatment of male and female sports.

https://www.startribune.com/the-university-of-minnesota-citing-trade-secrets-wont-disclose-athlete-payments/601594622

Go Gophers!!

 

[mngolf]

Sometimes I can't stand Minnesota and other people like them. There is nothing about equal treatment involved with payments to players and does no one understand competitive advantage?

 

[gopherdudepart2]

It's similar to a services contract, and involves marketing images of players. I'm not so sure they can even release information due to privacy laws just like in an employee or employer would not want them to. As the U of M has asserted, releasing trade secrets could damage the University's ability to compete.

 

[MaroonMagic]

It's similar to a services contract, and involves marketing images of players. I'm not so sure they can even release information due to privacy laws just like in an employee or employer would not want them to. As the U of M has asserted, releasing trade secrets could damage the University's ability to compete.

This actually is an interesting angle but not in the way you might think. I'm currently a full time university employee so my salary is public information, and even when I was a student employee, my hourly wage was public information. So technically with revenue sharing and the athletes being paid directly by the schools now, in my opinion they should also be covered by public transparency standards. It seems like the Athletics department does not agree.

 

[rwlarson]

This actually is an interesting angle but not in the way you might think. I'm currently a full time university employee so my salary is public information, and even when I was a student employee, my hourly wage was public information. So technically with revenue sharing and the athletes being paid directly by the schools now, in my opinion they should also be covered by public transparency standards. It seems like the Athletics department does not agree.

I don’t know. Even before revenue sharing, it wasn’t public information how much each student athlete was receiving in scholarship money.

And with NIL not technically coming from the schools directly, that wouldn’t be public information anyway.

Now if some future lawsuit results in the players being deemed actual employees, that opens up the transparency aspect.

 

[gopherdudepart2]

This actually is an interesting angle but not in the way you might think. I'm currently a full time university employee so my salary is public information, and even when I was a student employee, my hourly wage was public information. So technically with revenue sharing and the athletes being paid directly by the schools now, in my opinion they should also be covered by public transparency standards. It seems like the Athletics department does not agree.

They are not full employees, it also might hurt internally if information is shared especially in the major programs of the AD. I don't think it needs to be public information, just my opinion.

 

[BigTenGuy]

Next January, when the Gophers file their 2026 fiscal year report to the NCAA, that report will tell us how much each Gopher program spent on "Institutional NIL Revenue Share." Don't know if it was an error, but Penn State was the only BIG public school to report expenses for "Institutional NIL Revenue Share" on their 2025 fiscal year report to the NCAA. Penn State reported $13,338,959 for football, $3,004,666 for MBB, $110,000 for WBB, and a combined $1,914,766 for other sports.