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Coaches are the individuals who have a profound impact on the next generation. There are over 500,000 coaches in the United States, ranging from youth to collegiate levels. Yet, they are one of the most underserved groups of leaders.

BETTER exists to fill that gap for coaches, athletes, and the leaders supporting them.

The best way for you to join in that mission? Forward this newsletter or share this link to another coach, athletic director, or athlete who needs it.

🗓️ What’s in this week’s newsletter?

• 💰 The Pressure is Real: How the rev-share era is reshaping budgets.

• 🧱 Culture as Leverage: A shift from “extra” to essential.

• 🧠 Research-Backed ROI: Why investing in people yields performance.

• 🔧 Five Ways to Lead in Lean Times: What top programs are doing right now.

• 🏁 Conclusion: When you can’t outspend, you out-lead.

💰 The Pressure Is Real

It’s finally official. Rev-Share is here.

In the last few weeks, more than a few athletic leaders have asked us a version of the same question:

“With all the financial pressure on athletic departments right now, is what you do still a priority?”

It’s a fair question.

Athletic departments across the country are operating with unprecedented scrutiny. As revenue distribution models evolve—especially in light of the NCAA’s rev-share agreement—budget decisions are being viewed through a sharper lens.

Big-name NCAA institutions, such as Michigan, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Indiana, among others, have publicly announced that they’re eliminating positions. And those are just the public decisions we can see. We’ve spoken with both the individuals who have to make those decisions and many of those affected.

Line items once considered “nice-to-haves” are being re-evaluated. Administrators are asking: What’s essential? What’s ROI?

But here’s the thing: investing in your people and your culture has never been more essential. Not despite financial pressure, but because of it.

🧱 Leadership As a Competitive Advantage

In some ways, the playing field is more level than ever.

Power dynamics are shifting. Legacy advantages—like market size, donor base, or tradition—don’t carry quite the same weight when your athletes can now choose programs based on alignment, trust, and leadership just as much as dollars.

This moment is clarifying. Departments that once relied on brand equity now have to build something deeper: belief, cohesion, purpose.

Just take NCAA Men’s Basketball for example. There are ten programs —Duke, UNC, Kentucky, BYU, Arkansas, Indiana, Louisville, Michigan, St. John's, and Texas Tech —that have been reported as spending over $10 million on their players this year. At least six of those eclipsed $12 million. We are aware of a few more who are spending those amounts that have not been reported yet.

If you’re not one of those programs, it’d be easy to feel sorry for yourself and claim that you can’t compete for talent. But viewed a certain way, it hones your focus. If you’re going to compete for that talent, it’s not going to be because of resources; it’s going to be because of your culture.

Would any player jump for a bigger paycheck? Or would some take a little less to play for a coach, a staff, and a team they love being around every day? We’ve written about a couple, but there are more of these programs than you’d think.

That’s not marketing.

That’s culture.

And culture isn’t fluff—it’s infrastructure. It’s not a retreat or a T-shirt slogan; it’s the operating system that determines how your people show up every day. In high-pressure environments, it’s either your most outstanding liability or your most incredible multiplier.

📊 Research Insight: The ROI of Investing in People

A 2023 study in the Journal of Sport Management found that leadership development and internal cohesion were directly correlated with improved team performance and lower staff turnover, particularly in under-resourced departments. In other words, when resources are scarce, culture bears a greater share of the burden.

Similarly, McKinsey’s 2021 report on organizational health across sports organizations concluded that top-performing departments didn’t necessarily spend more, but they did invest more effectively: in clarity, communication, and leadership capacity.

When you can’t spend your way to competitive advantage, you have to lead your way there.

🛠️ Putting It All Together:

So what are smart departments doing right now?

Here are five practical responses we’ve seen from forward-thinking athletic leaders:

1. They audit where culture lives.
   Every line item is under review—so they’re asking, “Where does our culture actually live?” Is it on the wall? Or in our hiring process? Our staff meetings? Our team leadership structures?

2. They decentralize leadership.
   With smaller staffs and tighter margins, the best programs are training leaders at every level. Your culture is only as strong as your least visible leader.

3. They align leadership and messaging.
   Student-athletes today spot inauthenticity in a second. The programs that thrive ensure their values aren’t just in recruiting pitches—they’re lived in the locker room.

4. They measure what they say matters.
   Words like “accountability,” “resilience,” and “cohesion” are great—but leaders are asking, “Do we actually track any of this?” What gets measured gets managed.

5. They choose clarity over complexity.
   You don’t need 10 new initiatives—you need alignment on the two that matter most. In a season of financial contraction, clarity becomes a competitive advantage.

🏁 Conclusion: When You Can’t Outspend, You Out-Lead

The era of easy answers is over. There’s no magic bullet, no infinite budget, no one-size-fits-all fix.

But this moment creates an opportunity.

When every department is under pressure, how you lead becomes your edge. Culture, character, and cohesion aren’t soft—they’re sharp. They cut through the noise. They create clarity in chaos. And they move teams forward when the margin is razor-thin.

Because revenue may fund a department.
But leadership?
That’s what sustains it.

The good news? You don’t have to do it alone. Reply to this email to learn how we can help you make your leadership and culture a competitive advantage.

🛠️ Your Summer Playbook

The summer is an ideal time for high school and college coaches to establish their culture. Most people know what they want to do, but they don’t know how to do it.

They need a system.

The Culture Playbook is BETTER’s custom system, complete with tools that you can use with your team to establish a culture. It’s full of team exercises you can do with your team in very little time to help you establish your culture.

These tools are used by entities such as Microsoft, Google, and athletic departments like Mississippi State, Florida State, and thousands of high schools.

And you can see it all with no commitment. Coaches — access your free trial below.

🛠️ Want to win more? Know Yourself First.

Just last week, nearly 60 leaders signed up for our 5-day leadership course based on your Voice!

It will be sent to your inbox starting the Monday after you take the assessment and run for that week.

The assessment takes 10-15 minutes. Take it below.