Steve Sarkisian addresses report of Texas spending $40 million on football roster

At the SEC spring meetings in Destin, Fla., on Tuesday, Steve Sarkisian denied the report that Texas was set to spend between $35 and $40 million on its 2025 football roster, while also kind of confirming it in a roundabout way. 

First, the context. Here were Sark's comments:

"What's frustrating on that is it was a little bit of irresponsible reporting. One anonymous source said that that's what our roster was. I wish I had $40 million on our roster, we'd probably be a little bit better team than we are. We're fortunate, don't get me wrong. We've got great support -- Chris Del Conte, our athletic director, does a fantastic job. Our donors, people are excited. We've gone to the CFP two years in a row. It's been a great run.

After Sarkisian spoke to donors in Houston late last month, Houston Chronicle writer Kirk Bohls published a report saying Texas was set to spend the above amount on its roster, and the report took off. It quickly jumped from the College Football Internet to the Regular Internet; I got multiple text from normies about it. The report took off, I think, for two reasons:

1) A lack of general understanding of how college football players are going to be paid moving forward. Once the House settlement is approved, players will be paid through three buckets: 1) "true" NIL, from endorsements ranging from national Dr Pepper ad campaigns to autograph signings at a local pizza joint, 2) Now It's Legal, which are basically payments for being on a college football roster which come via collectives, a market no one anticipated back in 2021 but which has proven to be robust, and 3) rev share, which will come directly from the schools. It remains to be seen how Texas will distribute that ~$20 million pie, but Georgia announced back in February it will spend $13.5 million of its $20.5 million on football. It's widely expected that will be the general roadmap for how all major programs will operate, though of course milage may vary. "The idea that a lot of other schools aren't spending money to get players?" Sarkisian said. "It's the state of college football right now." 

Bohls addressed that in his April report. He writes (bold added):

With the addition of 10 football players out of the transfer portal and probably one or two more on the way, the budget for next season’s Texas roster has grown as well. It currently sits somewhere “between $35 million and $40 million,” which counts the likely revenue-sharing allotment expected to be $20.5 million as well as payouts through the Texas One Fund, a connected source tells the Houston Chronicle.

With rev share coming, the Texas One Fund has not closed up shop. The Fund held Horns Up Weekend earlier this month, a golf tournament and concert that raised millions for Longhorn athletes. 

You don't sign the No. 1 recruiting class, as Texas did, for free. You don't retain your roster -- Texas didn't lose an expected starter to the transfer portal -- for free. And you certainly don't sign 11 transfers (five of them defensive tackles, among the priciest positions to acquire) for free. 

I don't have the numbers in front of me, but reading between the lines I think Texas is spending in the $20 million range through Now It's Legal, plus another $13-15 million in rev share, as is everyone else competing for a national title. I believe Sark when he says Texas isn't spending $40 million on NIL, and I also believe Bohls never reported that. "I wish I had about another $15 million or so," Sarkisian said. "We might have a better roster." 

2) The report took off because people wanted to believe it. Recall the summer of 2021 when the infamous Sliced Bread "reported" Texas A&M spent $30 million on its legendary 2022 recruiting class. (Knowing what we know now, that seems silly, doesn't it?) Think back to the summer of 2022 and the fervor Ryan Day created when he told the Columbus business community that it would take $13 million to build a championship roster. (Knowing what we know now, that seems quaint, doesn't it?) Three years later, the numbers have only gone up, and that's before you add in rev share.

As Sarkisian referenced, Texas is not the only program paying top-dollar in the NIL market, and it's certainly not the only program planning to make rev share payments. 

But Texas is arguably the most hated program in college football. It was the big, bad villain of the Southwest Conference, blamed for the instability and breakup of the original Big 12, and has made no friends in Year 1 of the SEC. 

After the worst decade in program history, Texas has revived under Steve Sarkisian, going 25-5 over the past two seasons with a Big 12 title, an SEC runner-up, two CFP semifinals trips, and a national-best 23 draft picks over that span. Plenty of people are happy to point to the correlation of a Longhorn renaissance coinciding with the legal payment of players to conclude that the 'Horns bought their way back to the front of the line, end of story. 

"If that's the narrative you want to paint for our team," Sarkisian said, "that's fine."