How benchmarks work

Vantage benchmarks athlete revenue sharing allocations reported by each participating institution: total budget, sport-level dollars, roster sizes, and athletes receiving payments, organized by fiscal year.

Vantage is not a NIL deal database, agent marketplace, or substitute for NCAA, conference, or House settlement filings.

Authorized users complete a structured intake for each fiscal year, including:

• Institution name and conference
• Total annual revenue sharing budget and varsity sport count
• Per-sport allocation: dollars allocated, roster size, and athletes receiving payments

Submissions are private to your account; peer views never display other schools' names.

Peer benchmarks compare your institution to other schools in the same conference.

A school is included in peer aggregates for a fiscal year only when it has submitted allocation data for that year. Selecting a new fiscal year in the app without a submission for that year will not show conference peer comparisons for your institution.

Conference peer medians, percentiles, ranks, and distribution charts appear when at least 5 institutions in your conference have submitted data for the selected fiscal year (including yours). Below that threshold, the product may still show your institution's own values with a notice that peer aggregates are not yet available.

Vantage shows two related peer measures: conference rank (for example, #1 of 5) and percentile (for example, 90%). Both use the same underlying values and the same direction— higher values rank closer to #1 for metrics where a larger number is better—but they are calculated differently, so the numbers will not always look like mirror images.

Conference rank is your ordinal position when every school in the peer group for that fiscal year is sorted from highest to lowest on the metric. Rank #1 means your institution has the largest value in the conference for that measure.

Percentile uses a standard statistical percentile-rank formula: count how many schools in the full peer group have a strictly lower value, add half credit for schools tied at your value (including your own institution), then divide by the total number of schools in the group.

Because your school is included in that denominator and receives only half credit for the tie with itself, the top rank in a conference does not display as 100th percentile.

Conference medians and quartiles on benchmarking views exclude your school; percentile and rank include every submitted school in the conference for the selected fiscal year.

Benchmarking, Comparisons, Insights, Overview charts, and exported PDFs use anonymous aggregates only. Other institutions are never labeled by name in peer benchmarking views.

Your own institution's values are always visible to your team; conference statistics describe the peer group, not identifiable schools.

Vantage operators may mark an institution as flaggedwhen data quality concerns arise. Flagged schools are excluded from other institutions' peer comparison sets. Your school's own submitted values may still display for your users where the product allows.

Each fiscal year requires a new submission by your organization's administrator. Invited team members can use the app without completing intake, but peer benchmarks for a year appear only after the admin has submitted for that year. You can switch fiscal years in the app to review prior submissions when those years appear in the year filter.

Many athletic departments plan revenue sharing in the context of the House settlement framework and separate NCAA rules. Vantage is a voluntary benchmarking consortium—not an NCAA, conference, or House settlement filing portal.

Figures you enter should reflect your institution’s internal summary of athlete revenue sharing allocations by sport for the selected fiscal year—the same numbers you would use for conference peer comparison and planning. Reporting categories, timing, and definitions required by NCAA rules or House settlement administrators may differ from this intake.

The product may reference the widely cited D1 revenue sharing cap (for example, $20.5M) when showing budget utilization. That reference is for planning and data-entry consistency only; it is not a compliance determination.

Intake may warn when a reported total budget exceeds $20,500,000, a common D1 planning reference used in the product. That check is for data entry consistency only and is not legal, tax, or compliance advice.

Vantage does not provide legal, tax, NCAA, or House settlement guidance. Consult your institution's counsel and compliance offices for regulatory questions.

Participation is invite-onlyfor collegiate athletic departments. There is no public leaderboard of institutions or open browsing of other schools' submissions.