Revenue sharing, which allows NCAA Division I colleges and universities to pay student-athletes from athletic department revenue, is coming to Colorado College.  Following last year’s House vs. NCAA settlement, schools across the country had the opportunity to opt into revenue sharing, allowin g them to pay student-athletes up to $20.5 million annually.  CC Vice President and Director of Athletics Lesley Irvine announced the school’s decision to opt in back in March, and in a December interview with The Gazette, said the institution hopes to be able to enhance the packages offered to Division-I student athletes with revenue sharing starting this fall. The Tigers only have two Division-I sports in ice hockey and women’s soccer.  “We’ve got some steps to get through to make sure that we really think through what does that look like? What does the paperwork look like, those types of things?” Irvine said. “We’re preparing and knowing too that the landscape, certainly from a hockey perspective, calls for it, right? This is what your recruits are asking about and it’s out there now. And so they’re asking us, ‘What types of benefits do I get here?’” Irvine said the school doesn’t have a set process or program in place yet, but she has guidelines for how the school would partake in revenue sharing. For one, she doesn’t envision the school trying to “buy players.” Rather, she believes the revenue sharing could be more focused on retaining athletes who are performing well and rewarding players who have a team-first mentality, show up to practice daily and have a high work ethic. Ultimately, she does not want to lose focus on CC’s long-held goal of developing athletes in their sport while also offering them a top-notch education.  “When you think about the commitment to our student-athletes here at CC, it’s not only the (revenue) share piece. That’s one small piece of it. It’s also the scholarship dollars. It’s the Alston funds that we continue to do for academic achievement. It’s summer school. It’s some of those types of things that have helped players like Gleb (Veremyev) and Noah (Laba) here soon, graduate even after they leave, after they leave after their junior year. So we’re committed to making sure we tell that whole story as well,” Irvine said. In terms of how much athletes will be paid, Irvine said the sum will be modest. She sees revenue sharing as a tool to tip the scales in the college’s favor in terms of recruitment, not as the whole package. Irvine made it clear that CC won’t be a great fit for athletes who are only focused on how much they will receive from revenue sharing. “What I would say is we don’t want to lose ourselves in this,” she said. “We’re not a transfer portal squad, we need guys who are excellent hockey players. … I sometimes read people feel that Colorado College is limited in terms of our access to the talent pool because we have academic standards. I really push back on that because I think there’s a lot of extraordinary hockey players who are really successful academically here. Noah Laba being the most recent that I can think of.”   When it comes to CC specifically, Irvine believes the school is at an advantage. She said that some schools, like those from the Big Ten, are allocating most of the funds in their cap to football and basketball.  The opportunity leaves CC to focus on its Division-I programs. Irvine believes the Tigers can be leaders, especially when it comes to women’s soccer. She noted that the college has donors who are very interested.  “Our general sense is if we do a little as far as (revenue) share with women’s soccer, that we’d be getting out ahead of some things. We could be a leader in that space across our conference,” she said.   As for CC’s other athletic programs, which are played at the Division-III level, those athletes will not have access to revenue sharing. Irvine did note that Division-III student-athletes can participate in third-party Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) deals. ...read more read less