There is more than the National Championship Trophy on the line when the Michigan Wolverines and Washington Huskies play on Monday night.
Being called 2024 National Champions goes down in history and adds to the legacy of these deep-rooted college programs, but could they also add to the pockets of each school?
How Much Money Does the National Championship Winner Get?
There are millions of dollars floating around college football, so you would expect the winner of the National Championship to be in for a big payday.
Business of College Sports reports that the conference that each team in the College Football Playoff represents receives $6 million. However, there is no extra money paid to the teams that make the National Championship Game or to the winner.
That means the Pac-12, Big Ten, Big 12, and the SEC receive $6 million each for their representation.
The only money received by the two teams in the title game is expenses that cover travel, accommodation, and food. For the semifinals and the National Championship Game, it is estimated that the amount is $2.85 million per game.
Conferences also receive $4 million for their teams playing a non-playoff bowl game and an additional $300,000 per teams that meet the NCAA’s APR that participate in postseason football.
Once the conferences receive the money, it is up to them how they redistribute the funds. Each conference uses a different formula, and the sole discretion of its distribution is with the conferences.
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Per game played in the playoffs, the Big 12 distributes the funds as a participation subsidy of approximately $2.5 million, plus a travel subsidy of $450/one-way mile or a subsidy of about $2.1 million with an additional travel subsidy of $900/one-way mile, whichever is higher.
The SEC has an even simpler formula, giving $2.05 million to each SEC team in the semifinal, with an additional $2.15 million for making the National Championship Game.
However, both the Big Ten and the Pac 12 provide no additional bonus for teams that make the College Football Playoff. That means that Michigan and Washington will receive no extra funds other than expenses for making the playoffs, making the championship game, or winning it all.
Instead, the respective conferences will get the cash and distribute it based on existing formulas.
Despite the big payout, the money goes to the program and the administrators, while the players don’t see any prize money from this pot.
It has led to Michigan HC Jim Harbaugh speaking out about the issue. During the pre-game media day, he set out his vision for the future of NIL.
Harbaugh spoke passionately about the need for revenue sharing for players, saying, “They don’t come to watch the administrators. They come to watch the players.
And in a world where the revenue is ever growing, the student-athletes being able to participate in that ever-growing revenue, who could argue against them?”
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