Student-athlete pay will account for 13 percent of UI, ISU athletics budgets

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Revenue sharing with student athletes will account for at least $41 million, or 13 percent, of Iowa’s public university athletic department expenses this budget year, according to the first higher education-related research report from the two-year-old Iowa branch of the nonpartisan Common Sense Institute.

That $41 million of a total $326 million in athletic department expenses across the Iowa Board of Regents system is the combined $20.5 million that both Iowa State University and the University of Iowa have budgeted to pay athletes — the most allowed for the year that started July 1 based on a percent of the average media revenue of Power Five conference schools.

The $20.5 million cap can i