Mark Harlan Provides Updates On Utah Athletics, Big 12 Spring Meetings
May 29, 2025, 5:30 PM | Updated: May 30, 2025, 12:05 pm
Harlan has earned yet another title as he will be an advisor for the Olympic and Paralympic Collegiate Advisory Council starting fall of 2024. (Photo Cred: Utah Athletics)
(Photo Cred: Utah Athletics)
SALT LAKE CITY —The world of college sports isn’t just changing — it’s being dismantled, rebuilt, and restructured in real time. Conference chaos. Revenue sharing. And the House v. NCAA settlement still looms large.
With the Big 12 Spring Meetings, there have been some updates from the conference on a variety of those subjects. There’s also been updates on individual schools and athletic programs.
KSL Sports caught up with Utah athletic director Mark Harlan, who shared some updates on Utah Athletics.
Utah Is Ready for Revenue Sharing
One year ago, the NCAA agreed to the $2.75 billion settlement, which would usher in the Revenue Sharing era. This is what will allow institutions to pay their athletes up to $20.5 million, which would be generated from media rights money, ticket sales, bowl and championship distributions, and other revenue streams.
That settlement has still not been approved, but according to discussions at the Big 12 meetings, it seems close.
“I think the No. 1 thing we’re discussing is that the House Settlement appears to be getting closer to realization,” Mark Harlan shared.
With the House settlement believed to be trending toward approval, Power Conference schools will soon be on the hook for direct athlete revenue sharing. This isn’t theory anymore. It’s about to be real money — tens of millions — flowing directly from schools to players.
“We’re planning out how that will all work out on our campuses— how we can implement the best practices for that to make sure our student-athletes thrive in that environment,” Harlan said.
As for Utah, specifically, they’ve been among the schools that have been in prep mode— adjusting revenue-sharing budgets, and reworking department structures, and appear ready to distribute the maximum $20.5 million.
“We feel very good about where we’re at, we’ve been preparing for well over a year, we’ve had working groups internally looking at how we’re going to distribute revenue,” Harlan stated. “We’re certainly going to be at the max distribution at the University of Utah, thanks to our great donors, our great administrative support, so we’re excited about it.”
Thoughts on the College Football Playoff format?
The other hot topic this week has revolved around the future of the College Football Playoff. Next year’s format will remain a 12-team playoff, but tweaked to a straight seeding model for the 2025 season.
However, it’s the format beyond next season that has been at the center of it all.
The SEC and Big Ten have controlling interest and decision-making power. Though Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti has been quiet on the matter, Greg Sankey has made it abundantly clear that he is looking out for the SEC’s best interest.
The latest format gaining steam is a 16-team model that gives four automatic bids each to the SEC and Big Ten, then another two bids each to the Big 12 and ACC, with one to the Group of Six, and three at-large bids. Another possibility is five automatic bids for conference champions plus 11 at-large bids.
“First and foremost, I like 16. More access is better for the Big 12 for sure. But I’m also about fairness, and there’s been a lot of conversations out there about AQs and from where I sit – and I know I speak for our coaches and ADs – we want to earn it on the field. And I’m adamant about that. I think a 5+11 format does that,” Brett Yormark said during a Thursday afternoon hit on ESPN’s SportsCenter.
Harlan echoed a similar message with KSL Sports.
“I think at the end of the day, it’s a philosophy that’s win on the field,” Harlan said. “I’m for the expansion of it, I think that would be really good to have more teams involved. I have great belief in the committee, not just because I served on it, but I’ve seen how hard these people work and know they have good people every year. I hope where it all ends up, whether it’s a straight 16 or perhaps a 5+11, I think that’s the best way to go.”
Can Utah Grow Revenue Creatively?
“Continuing to maintain the sellouts at Rice Eccles Stadium is critical to every student-athlete,” Harlan shared. “With Alex here leading men’s basketball, the opportunity to fill up the Huntsman Center more profoundly with the work Alex is going to be putting forth is exciting as well.”
Revenue has always been important to sustaining athletic departments. With the revenue distribution directly to athletes on the horizon, a significant amount will be dedicated to that.
Generating revenue beyond the typical means is going to become more and more important in this new college athletics landscape.
“New revenue streams are being contemplated, and that’s really fun,” Harlan shared. “We brought in a new chief revenue officer who has really looked at different things we haven’t thought of before. We have a very entrepreneurial school president, who was the dean of the business school. So, we work very closely with him and his team, and we’re looking at things we haven’t contemplated before, and I think we’ve already seen some real uplift on that.”
That chief revenue officer is Patrick Nowlin, who has been on the job for nine months. His primary duty is seeking out new, innovative ways to generate revenue streams. At the very top of the Big 12, commissioner Brett Yormark not only has been a proponent of generating out-of-the-box ideas, but he’s taken the initiative.
“Yormark is skilled at that; he’s a great, thoughtful business person,” Harlan said. “He’s bringing in corporate sponsors that hadn’t been contemplated in the conference before. Anything the center can do, i.e., the conference, to assist in these times is absolutely critical.”
As the intercollegiate athletics industry continues to rapidly evolve, Utah and the Big 12 are embracing these changes and are pushing forward in this new era.
Other odds and ends
- Given their newness to the process, Harlan is working with Alex Jensen, Wes Wilcox, and Ralph Chillious on the 2025-26 schedule. He mentioned that they will be announcing some scheduling news soon for the men’s basketball program.
- Shared that there haven’t been very many student-athletes impacted by the previous roster limits, but that the department is working with coaches to bring those back that might have been.
- Prioritization of revenue distribution will focus primarily on the revenue-generating sports of football and men’s basketball. Their focus is on keeping those programs competitive.
