Damon Evans...

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AD Damon Evans announces how much Maryland will pay athletes and who it will go to, pleads with fans​

In a letter to supporters on Tuesday, University of Maryland athletic director Damon Evans revealed how much Maryland will pay athletes and who it will go to.​

In a letter to supporters on Tuesday, University of Maryland athletic director Damon Evans confirmed the university will be paying the maximum of $20.5 million to athletes this calendar year, the limit set by the groundbreaking U.S. House settlement allowing universities to share revenue with athletes.

The news comes as no surprise, with SEC and Big Ten schools largely expected to spend the max during the first year of paying players directly.

"College athletics is transforming right before our eyes. The era of conference realignment; Name, Image and Likeness (NIL); the transfer portal and litigation challenges have led to a revolution across the collegiate athletics landscape. From the beginning, the staff and coaches of Maryland Athletics have demonstrated innovation and resilience in navigating these new, turbulent waters," Evans wrote.

He also confirmed Inside Maryland Sports' previous reporting that most of the money will go to the three biggest programs at Maryland.

"Starting with the 2025-26 season, we will be sharing the maximum-allowable amount of $20.5M with our student-athletes, with the vast majority of it going to our revenue-producing sports – football, men's basketball and women's basketball. This level of investment attests to our enduring commitment: to compete for conference and national championships."

Sources told IMS that Maryland's revenue-sharing fund will send roughly $13 million to the football program, $4-5 million to men's basketball, $1 million to women's basketball and the rest to the school's non-revenue programs. Football is by far the most expensive because the roster size is about six times as large as basketball, meaning more players to pay.

Roster limits are set to rise in both football and basketball, meaning schools will also need to fund more scholarships. They'll also have some back pay to fulfill, like everyone else.

"In addition to permitting revenue-sharing, the legal settlement would replace scholarship limits with roster caps. This will provide us with the opportunity to add scholarship support to our varsity programs. The settlement also provides back damages to student-athletes who competed from 2016-24, a total of nearly $2.8 billion. Our share of those back damages totals $1.5 million annually for the next 10 years," he wrote.

Naturally, the news came with a plea for support. Maryland doesn't have the money many of its Big Ten counterparts have. The school reported total athletic revenues of $121,183,392 in 2022-2023, ranking 14th among the 14 Big Ten Conference members for that period. Four Big Ten programs are in the top 10 nationally in revenue: No. 1 Ohio State ($251 million), No. 4 Michigan ($210 million), No. 6 Nebraska ($203 million) and No. 7 Penn State ($201 million). Also, in the top 25 nationally in revenue: Iowa, Michigan State, Indiana and Minnesota.

The money for revenue-sharing will be more easily found at a lot of peer schools. It doesn't help that the school's two revenue programs, football and basketball, have struggled recently, eroding some fan support and decreasing revenue from ticket sales concessions and donations. Tickets to both teams' games can commonly be found online for less than $20 apiece.

But Maryland did get a $10 million donation to athletics in December from alum Steve Schanwald. He spoke about how much of it can go to NIL during an appearance on IMS Radio.

From Evans:

Moving forward, we will be asking you to continue and augment your support of Maryland Athletics. To remain competitive, we will need to significantly grow our resources. To that end, I ask you to do the following:

• Renew your season tickets, whether it's for football, men's basketball, women's basketball or all three.

• Renew your Terrapin Club membership. Even better, please consider upgrading your membership level.

• Starting with the 2025-26 athletic season, we will be increasing our ticket fee by $2.50 to help underwrite our academic support and leadership development programming.

• Support forthcoming fundraising campaigns.

• Recruit new fans and members to Terrapin Nation.

Maryland is one of 18 programs lucky to have the highest conference revenue-sharing deal in college sports, with the Big Ten sending about $60 million to each of its member schools in 2023, thanks to its massive TV rights deals.

More from the letter:

While we support the proposed settlement and the new opportunities it provides for our student-athletes, it also creates significant financial challenges for our program. In all, we anticipate new expenses exceeding $25 million annually. Maryland Athletics has developed a comprehensive new strategy and structure not just to navigate this new collegiate landscape, but to thrive in it. While we will be evaluating targeted reductions in operating expenses, we know that we cannot grow our program by cuts. Our focus must continue to be on revenue growth."

The forthcoming transition to the per seat model for football and men's basketball, including the upcoming reseat process, will provide a solid foundation for future growth. Last month, we opened The Maryland Club, a terrific new premium club overlooking the court in XFINITY Center, that provides a best-in-class member experience as well as new revenues for our department. We are also actively revitalizing our ticket sales and annual fund plans, investing in major gift fundraising, and exploring additional premium amenities.

"The success of Maryland Athletics over the past decade has been the result of dedicated administrators and coaches, outstanding student-athletes, and generous support from donors like you. We built and opened Jones-Hill House, the incredible home of Maryland Football. We renovated and expanded the Field Hockey & Lacrosse Complex. The Barry P. Gossett Basketball Performance Center will open in Fall 2025, providing a gleaming new home for women's and men's basketball. Indoor hitting facilities for Maryland Baseball and Maryland Softball are under construction. And we invested in new state-of-the-art video boards and sound systems at XFINITY Center and SECU Stadium.

Your generosity has also led directly to victory on the field. Since we joined the B1G, we have won 55 national and conference championships, behind only Ohio State and Michigan in the conference. I hope you all take great pride in these collective achievements.

I cannot begin to show my gratitude for the longstanding loyal support from fans like you. Because of you, we have provided an incredible experience for thousands of student-athletes and proudly represented our great state and university.

My pledge to you is this: We will continue to lead boldly into the next era of collegiate athletics, to rise together to meet the forthcoming challenges and to continue to compete for conference and national championships.