College Sports Commission, House attorneys end standoff over policing collectives: Sources

By Ralph D. Russo, Stewart Mandel and Justin Williams

The newly formed College Sports Commission and the plaintiffs’ lawyers in the House v. NCAA settlement have reached a preliminary agreement to classify name, image and likeness collectives the same as other “valid” businesses by the NIL Go clearinghouse, three people informed of the negotiations told The Athletic on Tuesday.

The deal settles a standoff that began on July 10, when the CSC issued a memo stating that “an entity with a business purpose of providing payments or benefits to student-athletes or institutions, rather than providing goods or services to the general public for profit,” does not satisfy the new model’s “valid business purpose requirement.”

“By eliminating unnecessary roadblocks, this agreement moves us closer to treating NIL collectives like every other legitimate business operating in the college sports ecosystem,” said Hunter Baddour, chairman of the Collective Association, a trade organization with dozens of collectives as members.

The CSC’s initial guidance came as a warning shot to collectives that they should expect their NIL deals with athletes to be denied by the newly established clearinghouse, even if the athletes are being paid to promote merchandise or attend a for-profit event.

Jeffrey Kessler, the lead plaintiffs’ attorney in the House settlement, sent a letter to CSC, the power conferences that oversee the new enforcement organization and the NCAA the next day, demanding the guidance be retracted, saying it violated the terms of the settlement. If not, he said, they would seek relief from the court-appointed magistrate overseeing the settlement.

Kessler declined comment when reached by The Athletic. “Conversations with class counsel remain ongoing,” a spokesperson for the CSC told The Athletic. “A formal statement will be issued when the issue has been resolved.”

The deal reached Tuesday avoids going to the magistrate. Instead, a clarification of the guidance is expected to be handed down by the CSC that clarifies collectives can offer goods and services for profit in the form of NIL payments, and they can send those deals through the clearinghouse for approval.

“We’re looking for more clarity on what’s going to be allowed there, and until we get some of that clarity, it’s going to be a little bit hard to move forward,” Ohio State coach Ryan Day said at Big Ten media days. “We’re going to make sure we’re competitive with everybody else, but we have to make sure we’re doing what’s right.”

The change could be seen as a blow to conferences and schools, which have been banking on the CSC model to prevent members from going above the $20.5 million revenue-sharing cap to attract athletes. Allowing collectives to continue operating as they have in the past now opens the door to a “soft cap” in the form of third-party deals with athletes.

The collectives’ deals, as with all third-party businesses, will still be subject to a “range of compensation” limit that will be evaluated through a service run by the accounting firm Deloitte.

(Photo: Lance King / Getty Images)