After more than four months into the NIL Go era, the hard numbers are finally in on how much outside money is hitting college locker rooms. The College Sports Commission said this week it has approved 12,175 third-party NIL deals worth $87.5 million between June 11 and Nov. 1, while rejecting fewer than 400 offers.
These deals are on top of the new way of sharing profits that the House v. NCAA settlement set up. That settlement was approved by a federal judge, meaning Division I schools can now pay their athletes directly from the money they make from sports. The cap starts at about $20.5 million per school in 2025–26 and is set to go up by about 4% a year for the next ten years.
Now there are two streams of money. One is the internal pool schools can share. The other is a national NIL market that still runs through collectives, brands and local boosters. That mix is playing out in a wider sports-money patchwork, where each state is also writing its own rules on things like sports betting and gaming revenue.
California is a good example of what that money-and-rules limbo looks like in practice. Coverage that breaks down betting options for the state of California explains that there are still no state-licensed online sportsbooks at all. That’s why most of the action comes through tribal casinos and offshore sites that accept California players. That gap between demand and a proper state framework is a reminder that, just like with NIL and revenue sharing, the real money often moves first while the rules take years to catch up.
Still, the commission’s first look also answers an important question: Just how fast does it move?
New information released shows that 53% of NIL Go submissions were resolved within 24 hours and 74% were resolved within seven days after all the necessary information was sent in.
The College Sports Commission noted no cases have been sent to arbitration. This is true even though arbitration was meant to be a backup plan for deals that schools or athletes might want to challenge.
There have been a lot of lower four-figure video game contracts recently, which has pushed down the average approved deal to $7,186. The 394 offers that were turned down were worth a total of $10.01 million, with $25,400 being the average amount offered.
That is, the deals that get pushed back are usually much bigger than the small autograph session or one-time social post that is talked about in the same report. Why do they keep getting bounced?
Three main problems have been brought up by the commission. Some offers don’t meet the “valid business purpose” test, preventing sponsors from using NIL just for pay-to-play.
It also doesn’t allow “warehousing,” which is when a company holds on to an athlete’s NIL rights but has no plans to use them right away.
Athletes must also be paid within a fair “range of compensation” for their work. The College Sports Commission has hired Deloitte to help define what that “normal” pay range should look like for different kinds of deals.
The National Conference of State Legislatures says that the House v. NCAA settlement lets schools that choose to participate share up to $20.5 million a year with athletes starting in 2025–26. This limit is expected to rise by about 4% a year until it reaches $32.9 million by 2034–35.
For the Big 12 and the rest of the Power Four, the House settlement now looks less like a theory and more like paperwork with teeth. The SEC, Big Ten, Big 12 and ACC are reportedly drafting a membership contract that would force schools to follow the new NIL and revenue-sharing rules or risk getting kicked out of their leagues.
