They pulled off huge March Madness upsets. Now they’re opting out of revenue sharing

Three notable underdog schools in NCAA basketball history—Saint Peter's, Fairleigh Dickinson, and Maryland-Baltimore County (UMBC)—have declined to participate in college sports' new revenue-sharing model stemming from the House settlement. While all members of the Power Five conferences (ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, SEC) and many other Division I schools opted in by the June 30 deadline, these schools chose not to.

Saint Peter's, which reached the 2022 men's Elite Eight as a No. 15 seed, opted out. Fellow Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference members Iona and Manhattan also did not opt in. Similarly, UMBC and Fairleigh Dickinson, the only two men's basketball teams to achieve a 16-over-1 tournament upset, opted out. The entire Northeast Conference (FDU's league), except for Long Island University, opted out.

Multiple reasons were cited for opting out. Idaho's athletic director explicitly stated the high cost was prohibitive, leading Idaho and several other Big Sky Conference schools to decline. Additional concerns include Title IX implications, scholarship limitations, and roster restrictions, with Central Arkansas' athletic director highlighting roster limits as a primary factor in their decision.

Despite the opt-outs, participation is widespread. All Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) leagues have full participation, except the military academies (Navy, Air Force, Army), which are prevented by military rules from compensating athletes via NIL. Furthermore, several other conferences saw all their full members opt in, including the Atlantic 10, Big East, Coastal Athletic, Horizon, Missouri Valley, Southwestern Athletic, Western Athletic, and West Coast. The Big West had full participation except for Cal Poly and UC Davis, whose football teams play in the Big Sky.