How NC State distributed its revenue share, scholarship funds by sport in new era of college athletics

When revenue sharing kicked in around college athletics this past July, NC State was committed to funding the maximum amount of $20.5 million to put itself in the best position to compete on the national level. But, until now, the exact distribution of the funds wasn’t made public. 

The athletic department released a breakdown of how it spent the money in the first year of revenue sharing by sport via an open records request placed by TheWolfpacker.com. 

Football, and men’s and women’s basketball received a bulk of the funds to use for increased scholarships, revenue sharing or Alston payments, which are education-related awards that can be maxed out at $5,980 annually per student-athlete. Football is allowed to move from 85 scholarships to 105, while men’s basketball was able to increase its total from 13 to 15. 

It’s unclear how many scholarships Dave Doeren’s team is utilizing this fall, but the football program was awarded $13.5 million to use how the team saw fit, likely a combination of the three buckets mentioned above. Men’s basketball, meanwhile, received $4 million, while women’s basketball rounded out the highest-earning sports with $1 million of the pool.

That breakdown fits with the national pattern of programs investing heavily in those three sports since they are the main revenue-driving athletics teams within most departments. UNC, for example, gave its football program $13 million, while Tar Heels men’s basketball earned $7 million, and baseball and women’s basketball each received $250,000 through the same funneling of funds over the summer as well. 

While those three sports received a majority of the available funding, NC State Athletic Director Boo Corrigan believed it was imperative that each sport received fundamental.. The other 15 Olympic sports on campus weree given $2.5 million, divided between the programs, that the coaching staffs were able to use as they felt fit best by either adding more scholarships, or to pay athletes through revenue sharing or Alston payments.

“If you want to do that in 25 scholarships, you can do it in 25 scholarships. If you want to do it in scholarships plus Alston and lower the number of scholarships, you can do it,” Corrigan recalled telling his coaches during his annual preseason press conference this past August. “Ultimately, we trust our coaches. We want our coaches to have skin in the game, so we provided maximum flexibility for our coaches by giving them a number and then allowing them to plus the numbers they wanted to.”

Only the first $2 million of increased scholarships for Olympic sports counted against the $20.5 million cap. Here’s a look at what each Olympic sport received for the 2025-26 academic year.

Sport	FY26 Budget
Women’s track/cross country	$932,050
Baseball	$792,000
Softball	$726,000
Women’s swimming	$726,000
Women’s soccer	$660,000
Men’s soccer	$561,000
Men’s swimming	$561,000
Men’s track/cross country	$561,000
Wrestling	$561,000
Volleyball	$528,000
Gymnastics	$507,695
Women’s tennis	$302,932
Men’s tennis	$264,000
Men’s golf	$231,000
Women’s golf	$231,000