Revenue sharing era of Texas A&M volleyball reaping early rewards

COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KBTX) – Jamie Morrison’s belief in professional volleyball in the United States led him to the position of director of sports performance at League One Volleyball, which debuted in 2024.

However, it didn’t take long for the desire to return to Morrison to get back to his roots in coaching – development.

Three seasons into his tenure as head coach at Texas A&M, Morrison is living a hybrid experience thanks to the dawning of the revenue-sharing era of college athletics.

“I’m thankful every single day that there’s an investment in our program, and I think the next step is there’s got to be a return on that investment,” Morrison said.

Alberts selected the Aggie volleyball team as one of six programs within the athletic department that will receive revenue-sharing deals, a practice opened in July by the approval of a settlement in the House v. NCAA antitrust case. Volleyball joins football, men’s and women’s basketball, baseball, and softball as the six sports that will have players earning compensation off certain revenue brought in by their program.

In those early days of developing a revenue-sharing plan, Morrison knew that the investment was necessary to build a championship-caliber program. It’s why he was on the front lines pitching his program to Alberts as one of the six to receive compensation.

That didn’t mean he liked the change, initially.

“I left professional volleyball because I wanted this to be about development,” he said. “I’ve really kind of said that to our staff over and over again, ‘This is why I came back is to develop people over time, and we’re not going away from that.’ And, as I got frustrated, my staff came to me and basically said, ‘Jamie, you’re the most equipped to do this, because you came from the professional level world.’ I’ve had these conversations before.”

At the forefront of any recruiting pitch, Morrison and his staff still stress the importance of long-term development as a tenet of the program. From early returns, Morrison said he still believes this core value is a priority for recruits.

“They want to be cared for – still the No. 1 thing – and they want to be in a place where they’re going to develop,” Morrison said. “That’s probably the No. 1 or No. 2 thing. Then, if all else is even, they’re going to want some money. So, I think in that process, as we’re going through it, it’s not going to change from the things that we’re about, but it’s a nice thing to add on top of it.”

With that, development can take place beyond the court as well. The program has implemented some processes where they can teach athletes financial literacy so they can leave college improved in volleyball and in life, he said.

The exact total of compensation given to individual players is protected by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, A&M contended when KBTX requested the data via open records request.

The Aggies’ 21-8 record and journey to the third round of the NCAA Tournament last season have positioned A&M as one of the premier programs in the department this season. A&M returns the SEC’s leading blocker in middle blocker Ifenna Cos-Okpalla, as well as the conference’s fourth-best attacker in outside hitter Logan Lednicky. They also bring back libero Ava Underwood, who has become a face of women’s sports for the university in the athlete compensation era.

Over the offseason, Underwood was a part of a team from A&M athletics that traveled to Washington D.C. to lobby for federal protections for college sports. She was also recently featured in an ad campaign for Adidas, the official apparel provider for A&M athletics.

“It’s been really cool, because when I committed to A&M, I committed because I wanted to go to A&M,” Underwood said. “It wasn’t because I was committing for an NIL deal or for the money or for anything like that. It was just because I just love this school. To see all that stuff come later on has been really rewarding and really cool.”

Volleyball claimed that sixth and final revenue spot due to Alberts’ belief that the program has room to grow – both physically in Reed Arena as well as in popularity. He has proof of that concept from his time at Nebraska, building one of the sport’s most recognizable programs. The Cornhuskers took the national stage in 2023 by playing a game in Nebraska football’s Memorial Stadium in front of a record crowd of 92,003.

The investment in the Aggie program is just beginning, but is already showing signs of life. A&M broke the program record with 1,073 season tickets sold for this season, according to a program spokesperson.

“I think that there’s so much more buzz than there ever has been, and so it’s what we do with that, our performance, is going to keep that thing rolling,” Underwood said.

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