Introduction
With the formation of the new College Sports Commission, things are starting to get intriguing. There is a new commission headed up by Bryan Seeley, a former United States Federal Prosecutor whose job, among other things, is to seek to make sure college sport NIL deals are legitimate and reasonable, fall within the rules and guidelines, and otherwise are within comparable player-athlete deals to ensure the integrity of college sports going forward.
This is not a future possibility; this is current reality in effect July 1st, 2025. More on this law below.
Overview of House vs. NCAA antitrust case that created the new oversight body
Here is a quick overview from Google AI of this very important sports law case.
As you can see, this settlement creates a whole new system, which has resulted in the creation of the College Sports Commission
The new College Sports Commission ("CSC")
The College Sports Commission will oversee all new NIL deals and must approve them in order for the athlete to move forward. Revenue sharing starts 7/1/2. If an NIL deal is rejected (not approved), the athlete can (1) revise and resubmit; (2) cancel/refund; or (3) arbitrate. If the athlete side skirts the process, they risk loss of eligibility. All new NIL deals must be reported within 5 days of signing the endorsement contract with the third party. All existing NIL deals must be reported by 6/30/25.
Definitions
Here are the key definitions from the NILGO glossary:
Arbitration
A dispute resolution process in which student-athletes can appeal determinations about their NIL deals. A neutral arbitrator or arbitrators will assess whether a third-party NIL deal is compliant with the new rules.
Cleared Deal
A third-party NIL deal reported in NIL Go that meets necessary requirements and can proceed.
College Athlete Payment System (CAPS)
A reporting system used by participating institutions to track, manage, and report their revenue sharing distribution to ensure compliance with the cap.
College Sports Commission
An independent governing body responsible for ensuring compliance with the new rules around roster limits, revenue sharing and student-athlete third-party NIL deals.
Designated Student-Athlete
Any student-athlete who a school attests was or would have been removed from the school's 2025-26 roster due to the implementation of roster limits who was either:
a. certified as eligible for practice or competition at the school (i.e., on a roster whether as a recruited or walk-on player), during the 2024-25 academic year, prior to April 7, 2025, including student-athletes who transferred, or
b. a student-athlete initial enrollee at a Division I school for the 2025-26 academic year who, prior to April 7, 2025, was recruited to be, or was assured by an institutional staff member they would be, on the school's roster for the 2025-26 academic year.
Name, Image, Likeness (NIL)
A person's name, nickname(s), picture, portrait, likeness, signature, voice, caricature, identifying biographical information, or other identifiable features.
NIL Go
An online portal developed by the College Sports Commission and Deloitte to determine whether NIL deals are made with the purpose of using a student-athlete's NIL for a valid business purpose and do not exceed a reasonable range of compensation. This will allow student-athletes to move forward with their deals confidently while protecting their eligibility.
Not Cleared Deal
An NIL deal that does not meet the standards for compliance with the new rules based on payor classification, compensation amount, or lack of a valid business purpose.
Opt-In Institutions
Refers to the option available to Division I institutions outside the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC to be a part of the new model for college sports overseen by the College Sports Commission and share revenue directly with student-athletes and abide by all relevant rules as part of the settlement agreement.
Payor
The entity or individual providing NIL compensation to a student-athlete.
Range of Compensation (RoC)
A framework for determining if a student-athlete's third-party NIL compensation is commensurate with compensation paid to similarly situated individuals with comparable NIL value. The RoC is a deal level calculation that is intended to capture a student-athlete's unique NIL value based upon multiple factors, including but not limited to the deal's performance obligations, the student-athlete's athletic performance and social media reach, the local market and the market reach of his or her institution and program. The RoC will also be informed by external benchmarks.
Revenue Sharing Cap
The maximum amount an institution can allocate toward revenue sharing for student-athletes, calculated based on 22% of the average revenue of defined revenue streams among schools in the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC.
Roster Limit
The total number of student-athletes allowed to be part of the team in each NCAA sport.
Scholarship Limit
Institutions can now award scholarships to any/all student-athletes on the roster for each team, eliminating previous NCAA restrictions on the number of scholarships per team. Schools can now determine how many scholarships to allocate per sport.
Valid Business Purpose (VBP)
Whether the payor is seeking to use the student-athlete's NIL for a valid business purpose, meaning to sell a good or service to the public for profit.
What is a fair and reasonable NIL deal (factors)?
The compliance system is headed up by Deloitte, who has apparently created a proprietary software program to run analysis to see if an NIL deal is legitimate, fair and reasonable (and in compliance with the rules) or whether it is merely "pay for play"—a way for wealthy boosters to lure top athletes into their program. Their software will apparently find a way to determine what a fair deal is in a certain geography for a certain type of player (e.g., a center on a football team in the Southwest region).
Some of the factors that stand out are what a similarly situated athlete might be expected to be paid for promoting the goods and services of the third party and whether or not they are really selling goods or services (a bona fide business deal).
This is supposed to be a resource tool as well for collectives/schools to use as guidance when negotiating deals in an effort to limit unconscionable compensation packages that resemble "pay for play" (like the last several years have been) versus a legitimate business transaction.
Once again, I will resort to Google AI to provide guidance on the 12 factors the Deloitte software tool will analyze to ferret out pay-per-play deals vs. legitimate and fair sales of goods/services:
Arbitration appeals rights if rejected
Per the CSC website:
After submission, NIL Go analyzes the information provided by the student-athlete to determine if, based on the information provided, the third-party NIL deal is:
- Cleared—The deal meets necessary requirements and can proceed.
- Not Cleared—The deal fails to meet necessary requirements. The student-athlete has three options to consider (see below):
- Flagged for Additional Review—A deal may be flagged for additional review due to concerns regarding payor identity, compensation amount, or contract terms. In these cases, the College Sports Commission will conduct an additional review and provide guidance to the student-athlete.
Should a deal fail to receive clearance, student-athletes have the following options:
The CSC website discusses rejection options
- Revise the deal and resubmit: Student-athletes have the option to work with the payor to renegotiate the deal and resubmit it to NIL Go.
- Cancel the deal: Student-athletes have the option to cancel the deal and refund any money already received.
- Appeal to neutral arbitration: Student-athletes can appeal through a neutral arbitration process to obtain a neutral review of the decision.
If the student-athlete continues with the deal as submitted, they may face enforcement consequences, which could include loss of eligibility.
The NIL deals that get denied will be reviewed by a private arbitrator or arbitration panel, and there are extremely limited circumstances to review the arbitrator's decision.
More information about the arbitration process (run by JAMS):
The settlement creates a new neutral arbitration system through which student-athletes and schools may challenge the College Sports Commission enforcement actions. The parties to the House v. NCAA settlement are still finalizing the arbitration process and procedures and expect to complete this work by mid-July.
Should student-athletes wish to challenge a decision by the College Sports Commission before those procedures are finalized, there are two options available:
- Wait until arbitration procedures are finalized. Student-athletes may choose to wait until the new arbitration procedures are finalized and the pool of arbitrators has been selected to proceed before a pool arbitrator and under the new arbitration procedures.
or
- Proceed immediately with a neutral arbitrator. Student-athletes may proceed immediately with a neutral arbitrator selected by a third-party arbitration service called JAMS under the procedures stated in Article 6, Section 2 of the settlement agreement.
To initiate an arbitration under option two, student-athletes must complete the JAMS Notice of Arbitration form available here and submit it to the College Sports Commission at the following email address: arbitration@collegesportscommission.org.
Additional information and finalized arbitration rules will be posted here once available.
It is important to note that the NCAA's enforcement department (not the College Sports Commission) remains responsible for enforcement of rules not created in connection with the settlement.
Here is a look at the form submission.
Having an experienced business litigation and sports lawyer represent you makes good sense.
Opt-In rights for other schools (not part of the House vs NCAA settlement)
Per the college sports commission website:
All current members of the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC are participating in the new revenue sharing model overseen by the College Sports Commission. Division I schools from other conferences can choose to “opt in” to revenue sharing and must formally do so by June 30, 2025, at which point a full list of participating schools will be made public.
Each year, schools outside of the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC will have the option to opt in to or out of revenue sharing. These schools must notify the NCAA if they will opt in to (or opt out of) revenue sharing for the upcoming academic year by March 1 of each year. In order to opt out, an institution must have fulfilled any relevant obligations to student-athletes and all revenue sharing - or incremental increases in scholarship - must cease.
It is important to note that regardless of whether an institution opts in to revenue sharing, all Division I student-athletes will be subject to the new rules and requirements around third-party NIL deals.
Legal services we provide for athletes, coaches, cheerleaders and others at the college level.
Here is a non-exclusive list of services we provide to college sports talent.
- Sports nickname trademarks
- Sports contracts representation
- NIL deal advice, counsel and appeals (arbitration)
- Eligibility disputes
- Cheating allegations
- Transfer portal legal issues
- Scholarship issues
- Athlete website legal issues
If your legal issue involves high school, Olympic, paralympic or other sports issues, contact us at (877) 276-5084 to discuss.
College Sports Commission Resources
Contact a sports lawyer and Name, Image, and Likeness ("NIL") attorney.
The NIL Go submission and review requirements, as well as the appeals procedure in the event that an agreement is rejected, should be understood by student athletes and college programs alike. Avoiding errors also requires building relationships with lawyers, compliance specialists, and other trustworthy advisors who are knowledgeable about the system and the compliance concerns affecting NIL deals.
There are additional laws, rules, and regulations that apply, and there are laws in various states that may or may not have an impact on a NIL agreement. In addition to offering athletes assistance and training, educational institutions can keep an eye on results to look for any discrepancies in the effects on student populations. Both institutions and athletes should be aware of the intricate legal environment surrounding this new field.
