Bursar Bulletin: Big 10, Big 12 announce landmark athlete payments partnership
PayPal has partnered with Big 10, Big 12 to enable digital payments from athletic departments directly to students as part of new NCAA revenue-sharing model.
Some big (10), big (12), news this week…
PayPal has entered into a multi-year agreement with the two conferences to manage digital disbursements to students. This is an awesome partnership, and one that shows an acceptance of FinTech into Higher Education (though of course PayPal has been around a long time, and at this point feels more like an incumbent!).
Excited to cover a few things this week:
A quick recap of the ruling that got us here in the first place
A summary of what was announced
How this could work in practice, and any risks that may be involved
What got us here?
On June 6, 2025, a federal judge approved the $2.8 billion House v. NCAA settlement, fundamentally altering the landscape of college sports. This landmark decision allows NCAA Division I schools to directly compensate student-athletes, introducing a revenue-sharing model.
This revenue-share model permits these schools to make up to $20.5 million in annual payments per school directly to student athletes, starting July 1, 2025 (aka today!!). The cap also increases annually, and will reach approximately $32.9 million by 2034–35.
This settlement builds upon the 2021 Supreme Court ruling in NCAA v. Alston, which deemed the NCAA's restrictions on athlete compensation as violations of antitrust laws, paving the way for athletes to profit from their name, image, and likeness - more commonly referred to as “NIL”, though I probably didn’t need to explain that to this audience.
What got announced?
PayPal announced it will be the official payments provider to the Big 10 and Big 12 for disbursements made to athletes as part of the new revenue-sharing model.
This whole thing actually started in 2024 when PayPal began discussions with the Big 12 about buying the naming rights for the conference. In the end, Big 12 decided not to sell its naming rights at all, and this partnership became the ‘child’ to those initial discussions.
CBS reported that the deal with the Big 12 alone is worth up to $100 million over five years - it’s unclear if this is for both conferences, but regardless, $20 million a year is no small price tag. In fact, I know for certain that those figures come close to naming rights for a stadium, let alone just a payments partnership.
How will it work?
Under this new model, athletic departments within the Big Ten and Big 12 will utilize PayPal's platform to disburse payments directly to student-athletes, and student athletes will receive those payments into PayPal accounts.
I pulled together the top five (5) questions I was asking myself, and thought it might be helpful to try and answer them for you (through research and also my general guesses of how things will work).
#1 Will the universities open PayPal bank accounts?
This one is a little unclear. The press release states that “the Big Ten and Big 12 will utilize PayPal's platform to disburse payments directly to student-athletes”, however, there are two ways they could do this:
The universities might be fully utilizing PayPal’s business platform, ingesting and pooling funds in the PayPal account for the revenue-share, and paying directly out of that account.
The universities might just be ‘linking’ their current operating bank accounts to PayPal, and PayPal is providing some unique user interface for the athletic departments to make payments to students.
#2 Is accepting payments through PayPal mandatory, or can students choose a different payment method?
Another unclear one, however, the fact that the partnership is named as the official sponsor, and not the exclusive one, means that there might be some flexibility.
I mean… if Bud Light is the official drinking partner of the NFL, presumably you are still okay to enjoy a refreshing Coors Light during the game (for the avoidance of doubt, the Bursar Bulletin is not sponsored by either 😉).
#3 Is PayPal charging payment fees to Universities?
No. At least, not for the initial disbursement.
PayPal says the payments will be powered by its fee-free institutional payments infrastructure, separate from its consumer Venmo product. This means the student-athlete will receive the full amount, and won’t get hit with any unexpected or surprising fees.
However, once it hits their PayPal/Venmo accounts - all fees will apply as normal for the premium services they offer. For example, instant withdrawals to a separate bank account would still incur fees.
This again goes back to whether or not using PayPal to receive funds is mandatory, because if a student needs funds asap elsewhere, then they may end up having to incur fees (even if PayPal doesn’t charge for the initial disbursement.
#4 How much payment volume could this represent?
Like any foreigner, one might assume the Big 10 has ten schools in it, and the Big 12 has twelve schools in it… but don’t worry, I know better (or at least Google does!).
Assuming 34 schools being involved, and the initial $20.5 million cap per school, this looks like ~$700 million in annual payment volume. That assumes all payments go through PayPal, and also doesn’t assume any other schools/conferences joining the party.
Interestingly enough, the settlement I talked about above called for up to $2.8 billion in compensation to former players across the NCAA. It’s unclear whether this will be under the purview of the partnership as well.
#5 What’s in it for PayPal?
We know they aren’t getting paid for this (they are the ones paying - and paying big), and they aren’t charging fees, which begs the question what’s in it for them?
Enter into Higher Ed with a Bang: In its press release, PayPal says “Tuition payments through PayPal are expected to launch in early 2026”. Who knows what that actually means… but it doesn’t take a genius to realize this announcement is meant to be the initial big bang preceding a larger market entry.
Brand Awareness: While I was at SoFi, I actually worked on a couple of similar-ish deals; one where SoFi became the official cash management product for Samsung, and the one that resulted in SoFi Stadium. What I learned is that these announcements are as much about brand awareness in a particular market as anything else, and always precede a larger entry into that market from the sponsor… it doesn’t take too long reading the PayPal press release to realize that is exactly what’s happening:
Venmo will be working with the Big Ten and Big 12 to enable acceptance for real-world campus spending (e.g. bookstores, ticketing, merchandise).
15% cash back at select national brands, including Sephora, Walmart, Lyft, McDonald's, and Walgreens, for students who use Venmo Debit Card
Venmo will kick off college conference sponsorships for the 2025-2026 school year, beginning with football season and on-campus activations.
Monetization: Of course, PayPal has a way to make money directly from this too - though it won’t make up the $20M a year it is paying for the partnership. PayPal can and will earn interest on the deposits held in at least the student accounts, particularly if they keep them there for the long term.
Something to keep your eyes on! I wonder if all this will ever end up in the Bursar’s office to be managed…
See you next week!
Cal