With revenue sharing taking over college athletics with a $20.5 million House settlement expected to be agreed to next month, Maryland Athletics is working to get ahead of the curve with former star wide receiver Geroy Simon back in the program as the Executive Director of Revenue Share Management and General Manager, tasked with overseeing the NIL distribution among the revenue and non-revenue sports. With much still uncertain as to what the future will ultimately look like, Simon broke down his role, the process and where Maryland stands on GCR:
On the emotions of being back at Maryland in a significant role
“It means a lot. This is a place where I essentially spread my wings and learned the business of athletics and really got a taste of playing on a big stage and seeing the world for how big it is. To when I left here, I wasn't sure of quite what was going to happen. I bounced around the NFL, I moved to Canada and spent a significant amount of time there. But it's funny, I had a great career out there, but all the years that I was on the West Coast, I was always looking back to the East Coast to have an opportunity to come back. And when this opportunity came, I jumped at it without hesitation, just because, again, this is a place that I feel is essentially my second home, a place that I have fond memories of, and a place that I love. So having the opportunity to help Maryland athletics and the University of Maryland and having a small part in helping build the athletics programs is something that's really important to me.”
On how Simon ended up at Maryland
“Maryland was one of the first schools that really recruited me, one of the big major schools that recruited me. And it was really intriguing for me because one, you know, they ran a run and shoot at that time, and that's the offense that I played in in high school. And then, you know, it's the number one school in the country for criminal justice which, if I wasn't going to be a professional athlete, I wanted to go into law enforcement or the Secret Service. And then the weather was perfect. It's better than - the weather here is better than being in Pennsylvania, where it's snowing and cold all the time. You only have to wear a winter coat for about two months out of the year as opposed to six months in Pennsylvania. And it's only a three hour drive. So it was a perfect setting for me. And when I got on campus, I fell in love with campus and knew that this is the place that I wanted to be at.”
On what his role entails
“I just had a meeting with women's basketball and that's a part of the athletics that, being an athlete, you understand basketball. But when you have to get down into the nitty gritty of the analytics of basketball and things like that, that's where you have to rely on people on your staff and people that that work in that world to help you. So essentially, my job is director of revenue share, revenue share management. And that's - revenue shares is going to kick in July 1, where essentially a portion of the university's revenue that that we bring in, we'll be sharing with our athletes here. And essentially, I'll be negotiating contracts and then managing salary caps for each sport, whether football, basketball, women's basketball and then in any in the Olympic sport. So essentially, I'm in charge of the money and making sure that the dollars are spent efficiently and in the proper way.”
On whether Simon is involved with identifying talent
“I work closely with the head coaches and directors of player personnel on each sport, and, just being a football guy, I'll gravitate to more the player personnel and that side of it, but I'm not going to go and tell Kevin, you know, coach Willard that, hey, there's a point guard I saw. You should sign them, or you should look at him, and we should sign him. It's, more of them explaining to me what they want in in a player and how they want to build their roster. And then they identify that player, and then I help execute the contract and getting them to Maryland. So with the basketball side of it, it's more them telling me what they want. And then, the same thing with coach Locksley on the football side. But you know, with me being a former general manager in the professional ranks, I have experience in building a roster. So, Coach Locks, he trusts me to give input and have somewhat of an opinion on a player and their values.”
“I think the way that college athletics is going, it’s going to go, it's going to mimic more of a pro model where coaches, the head coaches will be involved, sometimes the coordinators will be involved. But you have a full-on personnel staff that identifies talent, recruits the talent, and then the coach makes the final decision on who's a take and who's not a take and who you're going to keep on the roster and who you're going to move on from. But I think it's such a big job now that some of those responsibilities have to be delegated to members of your staff. And if you don't have that, you have to build that out.”
On the $20.5 million house settlement taking effect July 1
“So, once the house settlement is decided in April, the specific number will be defined. But we're thinking it’s $20.5 million and we're, as a university, we're opting in to share that with our athletes. But yeah, it's in, you divide it based on the division will be divided based on your school and what your thoughts are for each sport.”
On whether the total dollar amount will vary
“I think the thought is that there's going to be the hard cap overall. But I think once you declare what your number is per sport, I think you're going to have to stick to that. And that's how I'm operating, is once we decide what the number is for each specific sport, that's the number we're sticking to, and we're gonna essentially treat that as a hard cap.”
Whether revenue sharing allows Maryland to be more competitive in football
“Yeah. The thinking is, in the past, teams had an exorbitant amount of money that they can just spread around, and you just can't compete at different schools. But now this brings, this brings the floor up, and then your ceiling might not be as high, but the gap isn't as big as it has been in the past. So, yes, I think this will one, this will level out the playing field as far as what you're able to offer each student athlete. But then, it just keeps things kind of in order where you don't have as much of a competitive advantage when it comes to dollars and cents.”
On schools able to offer additional NIL on top of revenue sharing
“Yeah but the NIL will be scrutinized through a third party, so there's going to be even rules and regulations based on that. Based on what a player's value actually is as opposed to giving a backup quarterback a million dollars. There'll be scrutiny placed on that.”
On the thought that revenue sharing is ruining college athletics
“I don’t think it's ruining it at all. I think it's giving athletes the opportunity to make dollars that they that everybody thought they should be making in the past as opposed to the brown paper bags that had been going on for hundreds years…this regulates that and gives the university an opportunity to share the revenues that the players help generate and give them an opportunity to make money along with being a student athlete. So I don't think this is ruining college athletics at all. I think this is enhancing it because now a player doesn't have to try to run off to the next school because they were promised a certain amount of money. They can - and that will always happen. Players will move just because they see dollar signs, but you'll get the true players and athletes that want to stay and want to stay in school and not chase the professional ranks because they're making money and able to set themselves up for the future.”
On negotiating contracts, multi-year deals
“Moving forward, I think with the transfer portal, you can always sign multi-year deals and when you when you have a young player coming into your program, you expect them to stay for the foreseeable future and finish their careers at the university. But you also have to be realistic and know that players have the ability to move, and although you don't want it to happen, you should always plan accordingly. So yes, there will be multi-year deals, but that doesn't really matter because a player has the right to transfer. Especially in football, there's two transfer windows where they can go into the portal and move. So you're always, you're planning for them to stay, but you shouldn't be surprised if they hit the portal.”
On whether there could be multi-year contracts rather than one-year deals
“You can sign a multi-year contract, but again, if they move, but in the end, this is a year-to-year thing right now, and that's just for me, that's how I'm going to operate. And that's essentially what I came from, coming from the Canadian Football League. We did have multi-year deals, but then we also have one year deals. So once you bring a player on campus and have them committed, you immediately start the process of re-recruiting them to retain their services.”
On whether there’s a larger emphasis on the transfer portal
“Yeah, it does, but at the same at the same time, you have to have knowledge and experience on both sides of it. So yes, you do want to live in that portal world because that gives you a little bit of certainty on a player. But in building the core of your team, you want to bring in some young talent and then develop that talent at the same time. So it’s a mixed bag of each situation.”
On the excitement of handling a new era of college sports at Maryland
“The thing with me is I'm a risk taker. I'm a builder. I'm a guy who I'm willing to walk in the unknown and understand that the qualities that brought me to this point are going to be the same qualities that helped me to be successful. So this is a new world, and it's new, it's exciting, but there's a lot of unknowns. And for me, I want to be on the frontend of that and help shape the direction of how we build this thing and how we operate as an institution. So coming here, coming back home, yes, it's great that it's Maryland, but it's also great that it's a new experience and I have an opportunity to help build and shape the way we operate as a university.”
On whether revenue sharing can impact stay-or-go basketball decisions like Derik Queen
“Conversations happen. You know, you have to be prepared, have to plan and you have to have an understanding of what you're looking at in the next not only week, but the next six months. So those conversations are happening for sure. And that's where I said, when you bring a guy on campus or female on campus, you have to start, once they're committed, you have to start re-recruiting them to make sure you know what's going to happen in the future. NBA money is in another stratosphere.”
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