Louisiana is poised to hike taxes on sports betting to pump more than $24 million into athletic departments at the state’s most prominent public universities.

Legislation pending before Gov. Jeff Landry would make Louisiana the first state to raise taxes to fund college sports since a judge approved a landmark settlement with the NCAA allowing schools to directly pay athletes for use of their name, image and likeness (NIL). Anticipating the court’s approval, Arkansas this year became the first to waive state income taxes on NIL payments made to athletes by higher education institutions.

More states seem almost certain to adopt their own creative ways to gain an edge — or at least keep pace — in the rapidly evolving and highly competitive field of college sports.

“These bills, and the inevitable ones that will follow, are intended to make states ’college-athlete friendly,’” said David Carter, founder of the Sports Business Group consultancy and an adjunct professor at the University of Southern California. But “they will no doubt continue to stoke the debate about the `perceived’ preferential treatment afforded athletes.”

The new NCCA rules allowing direct payments to college athletes kick in July 1. In the first year, each Division I school can share up to $20.5 million with its athletes — a figure that may be easier to meet for big-time programs than for smaller schools weighing whether to divert money from other purposes. The settlement also continues to allow college athletes to receive NIL money from third parties, such as donor-backed collectives that support specific schools.

Louisiana bill sponsor: `We love football’

The Louisiana legislation won final approval just two days after a judge approved the antitrust settlement between the NCAA and athletes, but it had been in the works for months. Athletic directors from many of Louisiana’s universities met earlier this year and hashed out a plan with lawmakers to relieve some of their financial pressures by dividing a share of the state’s sports betting tax revenue.

The biggest question for lawmakers was how large of a tax increase to support. The initial proposal sought to double the state’s 15% tax on net proceeds from online sports betting. But lawmakers ultimately agreed on a 21.5% tax rate in a compromise with the industry.

One-quarter of the tax revenue from online sports wagering — an estimated $24.3 million — would be split equally among 11 public universities in conferences with Division I football programs. The money must be used “for the benefit of student athletes,” including scholarships, insurance, medical coverage, facility enhancements and litigation settlement fees.

The state tax money won’t provide direct NIL payments to athletes. But it could facilitate that indirectly by freeing up other university resources.

The legislation passed overwhelmingly in the final days of Louisiana’s annual session.

“We love football in Louisiana – that’s the easiest way to say it,” said Republican state Rep. Neil Riser, who sponsored the bill.

Smaller universities are feeling the squeeze

Many colleges and universities across the country have been feeling a financial squeeze, but it’s especially affected the athletic departments of smaller schools.

Athletic departments in the top Division I football conferences take in millions of dollars from media rights, donors, corporate sponsors and ticket sales, with a median of just 7% coming from student fees and institutional and government support, according to the Knight-Newhouse College Athletics Database.

But the remaining schools in Division I football bowl conferences got a median of 63% of the revenue from such sources last year. And schools without football teams got a median of 81% of their athletic department revenues from institutional and governmental support or student fees.

Riser said Louisiana’s smaller universities, in particular, have been struggling financially and have shifted money from their general funds to their sports programs to try to remain competitive. At the same time, the state has taken in millions of dollars of tax revenue from sports bets made at least partly on college athletics.

“Without the athletes, we wouldn’t have the revenue. I just felt like it’s fairness that we do give something back and, at the same time, help the general funds of the universities,” Riser said.

Other states are investing in college sports

Louisiana would become the second state behind North Carolina to dedicate a portion of its sports wagering revenues to colleges athletics. North Carolina launched online sports wagering last year under a state law earmarking part of an 18% tax on gross gaming revenue to the athletic departments at 13 public universities. The state’s two largest institutions were excluded. But that might be about to change.

Differing budget plans passed by the state House and Senate this year both would start allotting sports betting tax revenue to the athletic programs at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University. The Senate version also would double the tax rate. The proposals come a year after University of North Carolina trustees approved an audit of the athletics department after a preliminary budget projected about $100 million of debt in the years ahead.

Other schools also are taking actions because of deficits in their athletic departments. Last week, University of Kentucky trustees approved a $31 million operating loan for the athletics department as it begins making direct NIL payments to athletes. That came after trustees in April voted to convert the Kentucky athletics department into a limited-liability holding company — Champions Blue LLC — to more nimbly navigate the emerging financial pressures.

Given the money involved in college athletics, it’s not surprising that states are starting to provide tax money to athletic departments or — as in Arkansas’ case — tax relief to college athletes, said Patrick Rishe, executive director of the sports business program at Washington University in St. Louis.

“If you can attract better athletes to your schools and your states, then this is more visibility to your states, this is more potential out-of-town economic activity for your state,” Rishe said. “I do think you’re going to see many states pursue this, because you don’t want to be the state that’s left exposed or at a disadvantage.”

Just about anything can be bought with $8 million, but it couldn’t lure quarterback LaNorris Sellers away from South Carolina. 

Sellers’ father, Norris, told The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman that his son was offered a two-year, $8 million NIL offer from another school, which he declined. 

“He was offered all kinds of crazy numbers,” Norris Sellers said. “I told him he could say, I’m gonna stay or I’m gonna go. By my two cents: It was to get into college on a scholarship, play ball, get our degree and go on about our business. This NIL deal came later. We didn’t come here to make money. We came here to get our education, play ball, and with schools calling, we’re not gonna jump ship because they’re offering more than what we’re getting. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

LaNorris echoed the sentiment, saying: “I’ve been playing football all my life for free. I’ve built relationships here, my family’s here, my brother’s here. There’s no reason for me to go someplace else and start over.”

Still, $8 million is an eye-popping figure, even compared with some of the most expensive NIL offers to be publicized recently. 

Texas signal caller Quinn Ewers was rumored to have been offered $6 million by an unnamed school to forego the NFL draft and enter the transfer portal, although Ewers did not pounce and instead opted to go pro. 

Carson Beck reportedly signed a $4 million NIL deal to transfer to Miami after going 24-3 as Georgia’s primary starting quarterback in 2023 and 2024.

Sellers led the Gamecocks to a 9-4 record in 2024, passing for 2,534 yards and 18 touchdowns, and he’ll look to build on those numbers in 2025.

“He’s made of the right stuff,” South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer said. “He’s got a great family around him. He knows what he means to this state. LaNorris has a chance to leave a legacy here.”

NC State Head Coach Will Wade spoke with the Wolfpack fanbase on Saturday night at a 1PACK NIL event.

Here’s what he had to say.

How’s everybody doing? We appreciate everybody coming out tonight. We appreciate everybody’s support. Our players are working hard.

Sorry, my voice is a little messed up. I’ve been encouraging everybody all week. My voice is getting back into coaching shape.

I have a lot of my coaching staff here tonight. We have most of our players here in town here tonight.

Matt Able, one of our freshman, he left this morning for USA Basketball. So he’s in Colorado Springs. Hopefully he’ll make the U19 team, and then he’ll go to Switzerland to compete there. So we’re excited for Matt.

But I’ll introduce the guys first. You follow us up close. We tried to sneak a few things in there, but you guys catch us every time.

But Tre Holloman, he’s a transfer from Michigan State. Tre really helped get everything going. He was one of the first guys that committed to us. For somebody that wants to be a lead guard, to step out and commit first and help other guys come along was huge.

But, my man. Quadir Copeland, the transfer from Syracuse. I didn’t realize there was a bit of history until it happened.

Q is a lot like me. You like him if he’s with you. You hate him if he’s on the other team.

So that’s why Q and I get along pretty well. But Q is somebody that had a great couple of years at Syracuse. He was really good for us at McNeese.

Alyn Breed, another transfer from McNeese. We’re excited about him. He got cleared in another two weeks to start working out and practicing for us, so we’re excited to get him off the injured reserve and get him going.

Oh, Ven-Allen Lubin, stand up.

I don’t know where we got him from. We found him on the side of the road.

The other school was too dumb to not play him. When he plays 28 plus minutes, he’s done that in 23 games, he averages 15 and 8. I don’t know why the hell they didn’t play him, but we’re going to play him. So he’s going to average 15 and 8. We’re excited about Ven.

Terrence Arceneaux, transfer from Houston. He has that ‘eaux’ on the end.

You should have seen the hotel worker’s face when he handed him the card trying to figure out where he was from. Terrence is a great kid. Somebody I’ve known since he was a sophomore in high school from Beaumont, Texas.

He’s the 12th best defender in Big 12 history. Not like this year…in the history of the Big 12.

But, we’re going to add a little offense. We’re trying to add a little offense, Terrence, and keep the defense the same.

Jordan Snell. Jordan needs no introduction. He’s in his third year with us. Jordan’s in his fourth year. Jordan’s been tremendous since the first team meeting. He’s been all on board, very, very excited about things. Jordan’s done a great job.

Colt Lincoln. It’s important for us to have kids from North Carolina, have folks that are very, very excited about playing for NC State.

I don’t know who’s more excited, Colt or his dad, that he’s playing for NC State. But, we love the passion. We’re really excited about Colt.

Who’s next? Darrion Williams. Transferred from Texas Tech. Tremendous player. #1 player in the portal. We had to wait through the draft process. But, the wait’s going to be well worth it. Excited to have him. He was D5, but he’s going to be number one now. So, I guess he’s D1 now.

Jerry Deng. Transferred from Florida State. Tremendous shooter. Very good offensive player. Trying to teach him a little bit about defense, but, he can really, really shoot the ball. So, we’re excited about him.

Last but certainly not least, Paul McNeil. Paul was one of the best players in the ACC in the last 10 games. He’s had a tremendous start to the summer. He’s getting stronger. He’s really, really worked hard in the weight room. Very, very excited about Paul.

So, our guys have been working hard. Our guys have been putting a lot of time in. We’re going to come together. We’re in the process of working together. We’ve got another couple of guys that will hopefully be here as the summer moves on. So, we’re excited about that.

I did have a couple of folks ask me about some recruiting stories. So, I’ll share one with the crowd. This is something I talk a lot about in recruiting.

We have kids on visits. We tell them, ‘Hey, look, it’s going to be tough. We’re going to have to work harder. This is what we’re about. We’re blue collar. The standards are going to be the standards.’

So, I always tell them there’s this guy who was at the gates to heaven with St. Peter. St. Peter asked him, ‘Do you want to go to heaven or do you want to go to hell?’ And the guy said, ‘Well, I don’t know. I think I want to visit both. I’ll let you know. I’ll let you know when I get back.’

So, St. Peter said, ‘Well, do you want to go to heaven first or hell first when you’re visiting? So, he said, ‘I’ll go to hell first.’ St. Peter says, ‘All right, off to hell.’

He goes to hell. It’s incredible. Beaches, tiki bars. It’s incredible. Incredible.

Comes back to St. Peter and says, ‘Man, that wasn’t like anything I thought it was. That was pretty cool. St. Peter says, ‘Well, do you want to go to heaven?’ He’s like, ‘Yeah, I’ll go try out heaven. Hell was that good. I can’t imagine what heaven is.’

So, he goes to heaven. Heaven, very nice, orderly, you know, middle America, nothing over the top, but really, really nice.

Comes back to St. Peter and St. Peter says, ‘Well, it’s time to make the decision. He thinks about it for a little bit.

He says, ‘Well, I think I’m going to go to hell.’ St. Peter said, ‘Are you sure? This is for eternity.’ He said, ‘Yeah, I’m going to go to hell.

He says, ‘Alright, off to hell.’

Goes to hell for eternity. Fire and brimstone, the worst when it gets down there.

Guy says, ‘Man, this isn’t what I signed up for. This isn’t what I thought it was. Guy goes to the next guy in hell and says, ‘Hey, I need to go see the devil. Where’s the devil?

He said, ‘Go around the corner to the right. You’ll see the devil.’ Man walks around the corner to the right, sees the devil and says, ‘Devil, what in the world’s going on? He said, ‘Hey man, recruiting season’s over. This is the real s&%$.’

So, my point, we try to tell them how it’s really going to be when we’re recruiting them. We don’t try to trick them. We let them know exactly how it’s going to be. We’re really pleased with the guys that we got.

I appreciate everybody being here. We’re going to have a great year. We’re going to kick the ACC’s ass.

Go Pack!

If there was anyone from last season’s Kentucky team who wanted to see a sophomore season of Travis Perry in Lexington more than head coach Mark Pope, it would be his fellow Bluegrass native.

Trent Noah and Perry were roommates at UK in 2024-25, their first season as college players. Neither expected to be teammates before arriving on campus as young and eager freshmen. They’d competed against each other as opponents in high school, including the 2024 state championship game at Rupp Arena, won by Perry’s Lyon County squad in an exciting matchup against Noah’s Harlan County.

But teaming up as Wildcats was not the vision when Perry was hoisting the championship trophy.

Perry was committed to Kentucky at the time, but under former head coach John Calipari. Meanwhile, Noah was signed with South Carolina, Calipari showing little interest in the three-star high school recruit. But once Pope was brought on board, he wasted no time linking the two in-state talents together. Injuries to players ahead of them in the rotation helped, but both played significant roles off the bench as true freshmen.

Those two, along with fellow freshman Collin Chandler, quickly formed a bond as the rookies on a team filled with veterans. So when Perry shocked the Big Blue Nation by entering the transfer portal in the offseason, and thus committed to an intraconference foe in Ole Miss, it hurt.

“It definitely stung,” Noah said Monday of Perry’s departure. “I did everything I could to keep him here, he’s one of my good friends and he was an excellent player. But at the end of the day, you got to do what’s best for you, and that’s what he thought was best for him. I love him and wish him the best, not looking forward to playing him, that’s for sure.”

Noah says that Perry kept everyone in the loop with his decision, notifying the remaining members of the team of his intentions to transfer before it all went public. Perry didn’t want his teammates to learn the news on social media. They understood the reasoning, especially with the 2025-26 roster expected to be even deeper than it was in 2024-25. Perry has known Ole Miss head coach Chris Beard since high school.

A better opportunity, in Perry’s eyes, was out in Oxford. In that regard, there are no hard feelings.

“We definitely talked. We’re both freshmen and we lean on each other for little things,” Noah said. “That’s how just how it goes in this day and age of college basketball. You just try to put yourself in the best position and he thought Ole Miss was the best position, so I hope he has a great year.”

“I feel like God has a plan for people,” Chandler added. “And that’s what he felt he needed to do for him and his life, which we all have to respect. It’s just gonna be sad when we have to beat up on him when we play him in SEC play.”

Noah, Chandler, and Perry all shared similar growing pains as college freshmen. Chandler found his rhythm as the season rolled along and returns with expectations of being an impact player in 2025-26. The path to playing time was not going to be as clear for the other two, though. Perry elected to find those minutes elsewhere, but Noah wants to continue fighting for them in his home state.

“No. Nah. This is the greatest place on earth,” Noah said when asked if he thought of transferring in the offseason. “I love Coach Pope’s vision for me and he sees kind of the same path that I see. That’s what we’re looking to do this year and on the way win number nine.”

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