OXFORD – Ole Miss wasn’t going to be left behind in the ever-evolving world of Name, Image and Likeness. That much was made even more clear this week.
Ole Miss announced the creation of a new position in its athletics department Wednesday – senior associate athletics director for strategy and cap management. The job will be held by former Ole Miss Athletics Foundation associate athletics director for development Matt McLaughlin.
In an era where NIL is one of the key components in building college athletic programs, the Rebels opted to act sooner than later on installing someone to lead the charge. McLaughlin will report directly to athletics director Keith Carter and has already begun in his new role.
“We just felt that now that rev share is likely going to happen starting July 1 with the house settlement and, just a lot of the player payments, if you will, are going to be coming from the athletics department. We needed somebody who was thinking about 24/7,” Carter told the Daily Journal. “And Matt is the perfect guy for the job.”
Ole Miss was already “a first mover” in the NIL space, Carter said, and that McLaughlin’s institutional knowledge fit the bill for what the title requires – keeping the Rebels atop all the latest NIL developments. As Carter puts it, McLaughin is now “the keeper of all things rev share and NIL.”
McLaughlin has worked as a major gifts officer at the Ole Miss Athletics Foundation since 2012 and has been the associate athletic director for development the last two. McLaughlin “has been responsible for advancing fundraising efforts through philanthropic major gifts to the Vaught Society and Champions. Now. campaign, amongst other revenue generation initiatives throughout his tenure,” according to a press release. He has helped oversee significant fundraising campaigns and gifts, including the naming of the SJB Pavilion. McLaughlin has also previously worked with the Grove Collective, Ole Miss’ NIL collective, per the release.
Revenue sharing has been a significant topic in college sports the last few months. According to the Associated Press, schools will soon be allowed to pay their athletes a combined total of about $21 million per year, which is “up to 22% of the average power league school’s annual revenue to athletes.” Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger reports revenue sharing is set to begin for the 2025-26 academic year.
McLaughlin will help manage the revenue sharing budget and will continue working with the Grove Collective as well, Carter said, though the exact role of the collective going forward remains a bit nebulous. McLaughlin will also work with Carter and his office on creating revenue sharing cap numbers for each sports’ roster. Carter envisions McLaughlin working directly with coaches but also occasionally with student-athletes directly.
“The way I envision it is that at some point, we’ll tell football, ‘Here’s your number.’ We’ll tell men’s basketball, ‘Here’s your number,’ on down the line. And so they’ll have a number, just like they do their recruiting budget or their travel budget or their staff salary budget,” Carter said. “ … (McLaughlin’s) charge will be then to ensure that they follow that and that he works with them to stretch the dollar as far as it can go.”
There is also the question of how revenue sharing will be distributed among the various sports in regard to Title IX. A recent memo from the Department of Education, “said in its guidance that revenue share payments would be considered ‘athletic financial assistance’ and thus should be divided ‘proportionally’ between male and female athletes” rather than to the sports that produce the most revenue, according to CBS Sports.
“We’re monitoring that, obviously, and I think it’s probably too early to really make a comment on it. But, obviously, we saw that last week and are factoring that into a lot of our discussions and monitoring where that might end up,” Carter said. “But our goal is – this is revenue sharing – and we have sports that make revenue and some that don’t, and so we’re trying to just figure out the right balance for what that means. And our goal would be to certainly, whether it’s through rev share or scholarship, additional resources and other ways, we want to make sure that we’re helping all of our sports and help them remain competitive.”
While the role will inevitably transform as NIL itself does, Carter felt it was important for Ole Miss to have someone who is dedicated to all of its nuances.
“It’s a big job, and a lot of unknowns still,” Carter said. “But Matt’s going to be great with it.”
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