College Sports Commission Clears $80 Million in NIL Deals
Muhammad Hashir | NILvana Sports
The group released its first comprehensive update on the new system on Thursday. It announced that the College Sports Commission has approved over 8,300 name, image, and likeness deals valued at nearly $80 million. The commission is responsible for reviewing contracts worth $600 and above between college athletes and external companies. The system would introduce regulation and uniformity to the rapidly expanding NIL market.
NIL Go has thousands of athletes
Over 28,000 student-athletes have signed up since the NIL Go platform went live on June 11. As of Aug. 31, 28,342 athletes had registered with the commission, and almost 3,200 representatives, including agents and marketing professionals, were present. The platform serves as a clearinghouse of NIL deals, making transactions transparent, well-documented, and in accordance with regulations.
NIL Go was developed for the House settlement that transformed college athletics by enabling schools to pay athletes directly for their name, image, and likeness. It also does not limit athletes’ options to receive income via outside endorsement agreements, which NIL Go is accused of evaluating.
Problem of premature submissions
Not every contract has been breached. According to the commission, 332 deals were not accepted, and 75 were resubmitted with amendments. Arbitration can be used when an athlete or company wishes to appeal against a decision, although no cases have reached that stage yet.
The most prevailing issues are the absence or lateness of information, conflicting or misrepresented deal terms, clerical errors in entering information, and contracts not satisfying the need for a valid business purpose. The latter, the commission reported, was a source of confusion at the platform’s early launch.
Deals Range Up to $1.8 Million
According to the CSC, deal values have ranged from a high of $1.8 million to a low of $1.8 million. Officials also added that reports on deal flow will be released regularly to update NIL activity. The update provides an initial overview of the new system’s operations and indicates the necessity of NIL opportunities and the difficulty of controlling them.
