Louisiana State University (LSU) has long been recognized as one of the premier athletic programs in the country. But as the era of revenue sharing and NIL reshapes college athletics, even the most successful programs are grappling with unprecedented challenges. For LSU, the questions were clear: How do we manage millions of dollars in contracts and payments across multiple sports? How do we give coaches and student-athletes clarity without overwhelming them with systems and processes? 

To answer those questions, LSU turned to Teamworks General Manager (GM) and Wallet. By integrating budgeting, contracts, and payments into one connected ecosystem, LSU was able to streamline operations, give athletes a smoother financial experience, and allow coaches to focus on what they were hired to do — win championships.

The Challenge

As the new landscape of college athletics began to take shape, LSU administrators quickly realized their existing tools and processes would not be enough.

• Bandwidth constraints: With so many stakeholders involved — administrators, coaches, and student-athletes — managing contracts and payments across dozens of teams was overwhelming.
  
• Clarity and communication: Coaches needed clear insights into how dollars would be distributed, while student-athletes needed straightforward solutions that worked seamlessly.
  
• Financial visibility: With revenue share dollars, third-party NIL deals, and scholarships all in play, LSU lacked a single view of the full financial picture.

“When you’re talking about working with individuals who are 18, 19, 20 years old, you need to make it easy. It needs to be effective. It needs to be quick. And that was really important to our senior leadership and our staff when we were talking about how we were going to start this process and why Teamwork’s GM and Teamwork’s Wallet”
– Taylor Jacobs, Associate AD of NIL & Strategic Initiatives (NILSU)

The risk was twofold: burdening athletes with complex, fragmented systems, and stretching administrators thin by relying on manual workarounds and spreadsheets.

The Solution: Teamworks GM + Wallet

At LSU, Teamworks GM and Wallet have become the backbone of revenue share operations, powering everything from budgeting to contracts to payments. Staff use GM to model budgets, test scenarios, and plan for future years, while Wallet ensures funds flow seamlessly and accurately to student-athletes. By syncing contracts and payments, LSU has eliminated manual steps and reduced errors.

“Having Teamworks GM and Teamworks Wallet to manage the rev share contracts and the payments is helpful because they’re synced together. It’s one less step in that the schedule is already built.”
— Andrea Tepe, Chief of Staff for Athletics

The platform has also shifted how coaches and administrators collaborate. Coaches can focus on building winning teams, while NILSU staff, who are responsible for revenue share operations, can bring clear, visual budget scenarios to the table.

“Coaches were hired to win championships, not to be CFOs. So this tool has been incredibly helpful just in us being able to communicate this whole new change with them.”— Taylor Jacobs

The results have been transformative:

• Holistic visibility across revenue share, NIL, and scholarships in a single snapshot
  
• Efficiency gains, with contracts and payments that once took hours now streamlined
  
• Daily operational consistency, as NILSU staff use GM every day to push payments, build budgets, and adapt to shifting needs
  
• Better collaboration, with data-driven conversations between coaches and administrators

“This platform gives us a very clear, quick snapshot of what we need… It has been incredibly helpful in just speeding that process up in communication, distribution, receipt, and tracking of contracts.”— Taylor Jacobs

The Athlete & Staff Experience

By keeping GM and Wallet under the broader Teamworks umbrella, LSU minimized onboarding friction and avoided “yet another app” fatigue for both staff and athletes. As LSU already uses a number of Teamworks products, such as Influencer, Hub, Academics, Nutrition, and more, adding GM and Wallet was a natural extension of their existing technology ecosystem.

For staff, that meant familiar technology, synced workflows, and fewer manual steps, giving them more time to focus on strategy. For athletes, it made receiving payments simple, secure, and stress-free.

“It’s been a positive impact in that it’s already under an umbrella that people are comfortable working with.”
– Andrea Tepe

Advice to Other Schools

As one of the first programs to adopt GM and Wallet for revenue sharing, LSU has valuable advice for peers navigating the same changes:

• Be open-minded: The college athletics landscape is evolving quickly. Don’t be afraid to try new approaches.
  
• Prioritize athlete experience: Make processes as simple and streamlined as possible for student-athletes.
  
• Define staff roles early: Decide who will own GM and Wallet, and tailor your rollout accordingly.
  
• Adapt the platform to your vision: GM can flex to support different institutional approaches to revenue share, NIL, and scholarships.

“That would be my biggest advice: you’re going to have to get uncomfortable, whether it’s just stepping into the space, whether it’s adding new technology that you’re going to have to learn and understand and introduce to your coaches. Don’t be afraid to find those things and implement them if you feel like that’s going to help your coaches and staff and student athletes at the end of the day.” – Taylor Jacobs

Revenue sharing is transforming the business of college sports, and with it, the day-to-day realities of athletic departments. For LSU, Teamworks GM and Wallet have been the keys to managing this complexity: streamlining operations, giving coaches clarity, and providing athletes with a seamless financial experience.

By integrating payments, contracts, and budgets into one connected system, LSU has positioned itself not just to adapt to this new era but to lead it.

If you’re ready to learn how GM and Wallet can streamline your rev share operations, reach out to our team for a customized demo tailored to your department.