The College Athletic Commission has rejected nearly $15 million in name, image and likeness deals since it began evaluating them over the summer, representing more than 10% of the value of all the deals it has reviewed and closed.
The CSC released its latest statistics on Monday, saying it failed to close 524 deals worth $14.94 million, while it closed 17,321 deals worth $127.21 million. All data was current as of January 1.
The figures came in the context of a “reminder” memo the commission sent to sporting directors last week, citing “serious concerns” about contracts being offered to athletes before they had been approved through the commission's NIL Go platform.
The CSC is in charge of evaluating all offers worth more than $600 offered by third-party companies that are often affiliated with the schools that recruit the players.
“Without prejudging any particular agreement, the CSC has serious concerns about some of the agreement terms being contemplated and the consequences of those agreements for the parties involved,” the Friday night memo said.
The CSC said the main reasons the deals were not approved were that they lacked a valid commercial purpose; they did not directly activate a player's NIL rights, but rather “stored” them for future use; and that players were paid at levels that were not “commensurable with similarly situated individuals.”
The memo reminded ADs that signing players to deals that had not been approved by the CSC left players “vulnerable to deals not being approved, promises not being kept, and eligibility being jeopardized.”
Other statistics from the latest report:
There were 10 agreements in arbitration as of December 31, eight of which have since been withdrawn. All involved an administrative problem resolved at a school not named by the CSC.
• 52% of offers submitted to NIL Go were resolved within 24 hours.
• 73% of agreements were resolved within seven days of sending all required information.
• 56% of the 10,848 athletes who have at least one approved agreement play football or men's basketball.
