Pitt A.D. Allen Greene Talks Revenue Sharing, Future of Pitt Athletics

Heather Lyke did a lot of good during her time as the Director of Athletics in Pittsburgh, but the decision to move on wasn’t made on a whim. It was a calculated effort to better prepare for what lies ahead.

A national search was conducted to find Lyke’s replacement, and Allen Greene was chosen as her successor. He arrived as a noted fundraiser and revenue generator at multiple stops in the SEC. He’s approaching the rapidly changing landscape of college athletics with an eye on what’s important.

It’s about money, for better or worse, and that isn’t likely to change any time soon. Just look back at what Jeff Capel said at Greene’s introduction.

With revenue sharing expected to start on July 1, pending a final hearing scheduled for April 7, there is roughly $20.5 million in play across departments — which is outside the realm of NIL even.

“I think about this every day, and so does our staff, and we work on plans and strategies to try to put us in position knowing that the world changes every day,” Allen Greene said on a radio appearance with Pat Bostick. “For the general fans to have an understanding, this is really complex, layered. We use the word ever-changing quite a bit, and I’m gonna try to keep my answer relatively brief, but it’s a really challenging time in college athletics right now.

“The House settlement is one that is capturing — that’s the watchword right now, it’s the catch settlement. Just last night, we got word that the NCAA settled some other cases in preparation for the House case or at least is getting close to settling. So, each time there’s a new data point, each time there’s a new decision, it in theory alters the outcome. So, right now our industry is preparing for the approval of the House settlement, which will allow us to share revenue. In theory, with a capital of up 20.5 million dollars across our board as we see fit.”

Pitt Director of Athletics Allen Greene

Greene told Pitt fans not to overreact to news that breaks in the coming weeks and months, at least until after the April hearing to approve the settlement. But the athletic department is preparing for what’s to come.

There are still a whole lot of unknowns, even for Greene and his fellow athletic leaders across the country, but he feels like Pitt can compete at the highest level:

“Let’s put what we do in college athletics, at least at Pitt, in two buckets,” Allen Greene said. “Let’s put it into the business model bucket that is more business-esqe, a la football and men’s basketball. And then let’s put our operations into the enterprise bucket and that would be any other sport — I’d put volleyball in there, too, into the revenue piece. And then the sports that aren’t generating revenue, that goes into a different bucket. From the business side of what we do, we’ve gotta treat our operation more as a business, which means that we are going to make more transactional decisions. That is in large part antithetical to why I got into this business, but it’s the reality of where we are. And if we’re going to be in the game, let’s play the game.

“I think we’re very fortunate here at Pitt that we have a chancellor in Joan Gabel and we have a board led by John Verbanac who are very supportive of athletics, who understand that we are the front porch as our chancellor says. And we are the largest marketing arm for the institution, therefore it only makes that we ensure that football and men’s basketball in particular are successful not just in the league but in the conference. It also produces pride in our city, we are the city of champions, we love winning championships. Our community used to win championships, and we want to provide that sense of pride for them. On the flip side, we make more enterprise decisions for everybody else, which is what most people would consider the traditional model of college athletics. So, they’re not necessarily transactional decisions, transactional approach, it’s all — no matter whether it’s the business decisions or the transactional decision — it’s all about our student-athletes but we have to understand what drives the train and what gives us the opportunity to support our department and what drives the university and our community and that is through the main mechanisms of football and basketball.”

And when it comes to Pitt fans and the local community, especially when it comes to donors, is pivotal in the age of NIL and revenue sharing:

“I’ve been in this industry for 20-plus years, and we’ve always talked about talent acquisition,” Allen Greene said. “The name of the game in college athletics is about recruiting. That is the biggest differentiator between what we have versus professional sports. What talent acquisition looks like has evolved over the years and right now that talent acquisition is incredibly transactional. It used to be about scholarships and about facilities and about some of the shiny stuff. And it went from glitz and glam to green. And right now, the best way that we can acquire talent, and really the national landscape acquires talent, is through money. So, we are paying student-athletes, and that’s the name of the game.

“So, our differentiator is the passion of our fans, our differentiator is our ability as a department to squeeze all the juice out of the orange as we can from being really responsible with our expenses and also having the university help us with those expenses. And rev share obviously is a real thing and for us to be competitive at the highest level, we have to rev share at the highest level and in some cases, depending on the set of circumstances, we may have to provide more resources, more cash, more money to student-athletes to acquire their talents if you will. So, in my mind from a fan perspective, the things that they can do to support this and enjoy their experience when they come to the Pete or when they come to Acrisure Stadium is make sure that you buy your season tickets, make sure that if you have a couple of extra nickels to rub together that you make a contribution to the athletic department, give a little bit above and beyond. Every little bit matters and as we know, if people can do a little bit more then it’s going to create even more of an advantage for us. That by and large is the nomenclature across the board.

“It’s really gonna come down to desire from the Pittsburgh community, from the university leadership to athletic department leadership to community leadership. If we can all those three things humming at the same time, then we’re gonna have a tremendous opportunity to generate a lot of pride for our community.”