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5 House settlement changes college fans will notice immediately

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6 months ago

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It’s a new dawn in the world of college athletics. On Friday night the long-awaited $2.8 billion House settlement was approved, officially ushering in an era where schools can directly pay players.

Immediately after the landmark agreement, a number of new entities and executives emerged to lead college sports into the future. While this is all expected to play out in the coming months and years, there is already A LOT of moving pieces.

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You can read all about what’s included in the settlement here, but if you’re looking for a quick breakdown of some of the more immediate changes, we’ve got you covered.

Here are the people, terms and regulations you need to know about.

The College Sports Commission

Say goodbye to the NCAA’s wildly unpopular enforcement and penalty process, and say hello to its replacement: the newly-created College Sports Commission. You’re going to be hearing about it a lot when it officially begins operations on July 1, 2025.

Here’s what the new oversight authority will be in charge of policing, per USA TODAY’s Steve Berkowitz:

▶Rules-making.

▶Managing the NIL Go system, an electronic system that athletes will be required to use to report the details of their NIL deals with entities other than their schools.

▶Figuring out how to determine the legitimacy of those deals, and how to deal with appeals by athletes, who — under the settlement — can seek arbitration if they want to challenge a determination that a deal is not legitimate relative to having a “valid business purpose” and being within “a reasonable range of compensation.”

▶Forming a new regulatory and enforcement entity that will be led newly named chief executive officer Bryan Seeley. According to the announcement of his hiring on June 6, Seeley “will build out the organization’s investigative and enforcement teams and oversee all of its ongoing operations and stakeholder relationships. … Seeley and his team will also be responsible for enforcement of the new rules around revenue sharing, student-athlete third-party name image and likeness (NIL) deals, and roster limits. The Commission will investigate potential rules violations, make factual determinations, issue penalties where appropriate, and participate in the neutral arbitration process set forth in the settlement as necessary.” 

Speaking of enforcement, the CSC is expected to resolve any investigations within 45 days — a major shift from the long, drawn out NCAA investigations fans have come to expect. The CSC’s CEO can be the judge, jury and executioner here with the ability to impose fines and penalties.

College Sports Commission CEO Bryan Seeley

For all intents and purposes, Seeley is the new top dog when it comes to college sports compliance. He was hired by the four power conference commissioners (ACC’s Jim Phillips, Big Ten’s Tony Petitti, Big 12’s Brett Yormark and SEC’s Greg Sankey).

So here’s the skinny, per ESPN’s Jeff Passan and Pete Thamel:

Seeley is MLB’s executive vice president, legal & operations, and he brings investigative experience, which will be key in this role. In the post-settlement era, the NCAA will no longer be in charge of the enforcement of most rules. (It will still maintain purview over things like academics, but it will not patrol benefits.)

The CSC is the new era’s enforcement arm that will have final say in doling out punishments and deciding when rules have been broken. It’s one of the most important roles in this new era, as the industry has been craving some type of guidance since the advent of name, imagine and likeness has made the descriptor “wild, wild west” a common one in regard to the generally unregulated college sports industry.

In a formal announcement, Seeley’s job is described as having to “build out the organization’s investigative and enforcement teams and oversee all of its ongoing operations and stakeholder relationships.” Per the release: “Seeley and his team will also be responsible for enforcement of the new rules around revenue sharing, student-athlete third-party name image and likeness (NIL) deals, and roster limits.”

Some more quick facts about Seeley:

  • 42 years old
  • Joined MLB as Vice President, Investigations & Deputy General Counsel in 2014
  • Served as Assistant U.S. Attorney in Washington D.C. from 2006-2014, prosecuting white-collar crimes, fraud and corruption
  • Attended Princeton University and Harvard Law School

NIL GO

No, this is not the latest streaming service. It’s a clearinghouse established by Deloitte to handle number-crunching and maintain compliance between schools, athletes and third parties. It will also fall under the CSC’s purview.

Per ESPN’s Pete Thamel and Jeff Passan:

LBi Software and accounting firm Deloitte have been lined up to handle salary cap management and to manage the clearinghouse for NIL. Those NIL deals will be outside of the revenue share directly from schools, and how they are approved has been the focus of much conversation around college sports.

The clearinghouse that Deloitte has established will be known as NIL Go, which will be used to verify whether deals between athletes and boosters or associated entities are for a valid business purpose rather than a recruiting incentive.

Whether or not a school opts in to provide NIL payments to athletes, any Division I athletes who signs an NIL deal worth $600 or more will have to go through NIL GO.

Salary Cap And Roster Limits

Yep, it’s happening in college sports.

Schools will start with a $20.5 million cap that’s set to increase by four percent annually, with a notable caveat, per Berkowitz:

In Years 4, 7 and 10, new baselines would be established based on the defined set of Power Five athletics department revenues. However, under certain circumstances connected to the timing and value of media rights contracts, the plaintiffs’ lawyers have two options during the 10-year settlement period to have new baselines set more quickly.

The settlement was temporarily help up in court by the issue of roster limits, as programs already began cutting walk-ons and other players in anticipation of the salary cap. That was resolved through a “grandfathering” agreement that will delay some roster limits if players were already promised a spot.

Per CBS Sports:

[U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken] asked attorneys to craft a plan to allow current players to be “grandfathered in” with the new roster limits. The NCAA, power conferences and the plaintiffs in the lawsuit instead offered a compromise: schools have the option to keep current players on their rosters and temporarily exceed new limits until their eligibility expires.

The new roster limits were expected to lead to the cutting of nearly 5,000 athletes from teams across the NCAA’s 43 sponsored sports. Some sports will increase roster limits compared to previous years, but many will be trimmed despite offering unlimited scholarships within those new thresholds. Football rosters will shrink to 105 players, resulting in schools cutting more than 20 players, though most schools are expected to exceed those limits by grandfathering in current athletes.

March 1 Deadline For Non-Power 5 Schools

The start of March has now become one of the most crucial days on the sports calendar as non-Power 5 schools will have to declare by then whether or not they are opting into revenue sharing for the following academic year.

Per the CSC:

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 15, 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.

This is a whole new world of college athletics and there’s a lot to process here. We’ll continue to break down all the developments over the coming months (and years).





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Tennessee AD Danny White calls for collective bargaining to fix college sports

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42 minutes ago

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December 18, 2025

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The Transfer Portal has yet to open, but there are already players announcing they’ll be entering. Oftentimes, that’s as coaches tamper with other rosters and offer improved NIL or revenue-sharing deals. Now, Tennessee Volunteers athletic director Danny White believes he has a solution.

White took to Twitter on Wednesday. There, he quoted a post from Dan Wolken of Yahoo Sports, saying, “Everyone in college sports knows the solution, they just don’t have the stomach (yet) to execute it.” Wolken himself was responding to a complaint from Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz regarding tampering. That solution, which White wanted to highlight, is collective bargaining with the players.

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This,” Danny White wrote. “There is a pathway to build a much healthier environment for college athletics within the current laws of our country – it’s called collective bargaining. It will be complicated, hard, and likely not perfect, but it’s far past time that we roll up our sleeves and do the work.”

Collective bargaining is relatively common in the United States and in professional sports. In essence, it’s when representatives, usually a union, negotiate on behalf of a group of employees with the employer. They do so to come up with legally binding agreements on contracts, wages, hours, working conditions, and other considerations.

This would be a seismic shift for college sports because of the reality that collective bargaining fundamentally involves employees. That’s a status that colleges and the NCAA have been very tentative to give to student-athletes.

There are a few benefits to collective bargaining. In particular, as the NCAA has lost court battles, forcing it to allow things like NIL and unlimited transfers, this would be a legal agreement that would set some rules in stone. For instance, the maximum that a program spends, how often players can transfer, and multi-year contracts could all be negotiated.

Danny White is far from the only one who has suggested that collective bargaining could help college sports and tampering, in particular. When the Transfer Portal was cut down to one window, former player Chase Daniel called it smart and called for collective bargaining. ESPN’s Rece Davis did the same, calling for collective bargaining to end tampering.

Separately, 23 different Power Four GMs backed collective bargaining in a closed-door Athletes.org meeting in August. That group, which didn’t have any names attached, “agreed in unison” that it would be the best path forward for college sports.

For his part, Danny White has been out in the open, pushing for major changes in college sports before. In the past, he’s shared a proposal to establish a national organization to employ and unionize athletes. Of course, those changes still appear to be a long way away.



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Big 12’s Brett Yormark says college athletics needs legislation that’s stalled in Congress :: WRAL.com

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2 hours ago

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December 17, 2025

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ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark says legislation currently stalled in Congress is needed to regulate college athletics and put a stop to what he essentially calls uncapped spending for name, image and likeness in football.

“Let me be clear about this,” Yormark said Saturday before the Big 12 championship game between No. 5 Texas Tech and 11th-ranked BYU at the home of the Dallas Cowboys. “The House of Representatives must do what is right for over 500,000 student-athletes and pass the SCORE Act. We must protect their future, their well-being and their fair treatment. They deserve action and not excuses.”

An effort backed by the NCAA, the U.S. Olympic organization and the White House faltered in Congress this past week, with opponents raising concerns over the wide-reaching power it gives the governing body of college sports and its most powerful programs.

The NCAA and Division I conferences portray the legislation as codifying the rules created by the multibillion-dollar lawsuit settlement that allows college players to be paid, providing clarity that supporters say is long-needed.

House Republican leaders had planned to push the bill to a final vote this past week. But those plans were abruptly scrapped after a procedural vote to advance the bill nearly failed.

Yormark said he supports the revenue-sharing model that is part of the settlement and agrees with those who believe NIL spending on top of the $20.5 million could be destabilizing for college sports.

UCF coach Scott Frost said on national signing day this week he thinks college football is “broken” because of unregulated spending on players.

In 2017, Frost led the Golden Knights to a 13-0 record without a bid in the College Football Playoff, which included four teams at the time, before getting fired in the middle of a fifth unsuccessful season at Nebraska, his alma mater. UCF, which was in the American Conference for Frost’s first stint but has since joined the Big 12, went 5-7 in his return this year.

“I will be spending time with the commissioners next week on some of the challenges and issues that face collegiate athletics, and we’re working through them,” Yormark said. “But I want you to understand that nothing’s broken in this system. And I respect Scott. But nothing’s broken. It’s all about progress, not perfection. There is no perfection in any industry, but there is progress, and we’re making great progress.”

Yormark is ready for 16-team playoff

Yormark said he believes in the playoff model with five automatic bids, even if it might cost the Big 12 a second team this season. That scenario also fits his opinion that the CFP needs to be 16 teams — with 11 at-large bids — instead of the current 12.

“I believe that on a percentage basis, when there’s 136 FBS (bowl subdivision) schools, the number 12 is too low,” Yormark said. “We need more access for all the right reasons. And I’m very consistent about that.”

Yormark indicated he doesn’t think the playoff will expand for 2026, even with an extra eight weeks to try to reach an agreement. The new deadline is Jan. 23.

“I can tell you we’re working on it, but we can’t rush it,” Yormark said. “A lot goes into it. It’s not just about picking a number. You also have to look through a filter and say what are the unintended consequences of those decisions, which is what the commissioners and myself are working on. I’m not overly optimistic we’re going to be able to change anything for next year. But we’re in the lab.”

___

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Kentucky Basketball loses recruiting prediction for Christian Collins as NIL looms large

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2 hours ago

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December 17, 2025

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Collins, a 6-foot-8, 200-pound forward from Bellflower, California, is widely regarded as one of the premier frontcourt prospects in the country. His blend of athleticism, scoring ability, and defensive versatility made him a major priority for Kentucky head coach Mark Pope and his staff as they work to build future recruiting classes.

According to Jacob Polacheck of KSR, Collins’ recruitment is being heavily influenced by NIL structure and contract details, a growing trend at the top of the recruiting landscape. That reality was addressed publicly earlier this month by Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart during Will Stein’s introductory press conference as the Wildcats’ new football head coach.

Barnhart pushed back strongly against the perception that Kentucky is at an NIL disadvantage, saying, “Enough about ‘have we got enough?’ We’ve got enough.” He also emphasized that Kentucky will not compromise its standards to land recruits. “We’ve got to do it the right way,” Barnhart said. “We’re not going to break the rules. That’s flat-out.”

While Kentucky no longer holds a crystal ball prediction for Collins, the Wildcats are not out of the race. However, his recruitment now appears far more fluid, underscoring the increasingly complex balance between elite talent, NIL expectations, and long-term program philosophy in modern college basketball.



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Kentucky loses recruiting prediction for 5-star forward Christian Collins as NIL looms large

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3 hours ago

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December 17, 2025

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Kentucky Basketball suffered a notable recruiting setback this week as 247 Sports national analyst Travis Branham removed his crystal ball prediction for the Wildcats to land class of 2026 5-star power forward Christian Collins. Branham originally placed the prediction in early November, fueling optimism that Collins could commit to Kentucky as the early national signing period approached. That announcement never came, and momentum has since cooled.

Collins, a 6-foot-8, 200-pound forward from Bellflower, California, is widely regarded as one of the premier frontcourt prospects in the country. His blend of athleticism, scoring ability, and defensive versatility made him a major priority for Kentucky head coach Mark Pope and his staff as they work to build future recruiting classes.

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According to Jacob Polacheck of KSR, Collins’ recruitment is being heavily influenced by NIL structure and contract details, a growing trend at the top of the recruiting landscape. That reality was addressed publicly earlier this month by Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart during Will Stein’s introductory press conference as the Wildcats’ new football head coach.

Barnhart pushed back strongly against the perception that Kentucky is at an NIL disadvantage, saying, “Enough about ‘have we got enough?’ We’ve got enough.” He also emphasized that Kentucky will not compromise its standards to land recruits. “We’ve got to do it the right way,” Barnhart said. “We’re not going to break the rules. That’s flat-out.”

While Kentucky no longer holds a crystal ball prediction for Collins, the Wildcats are not out of the race. However, his recruitment now appears far more fluid, underscoring the increasingly complex balance between elite talent, NIL expectations, and long-term program philosophy in modern college basketball.



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Former college football star QB shuts down career move amid political rumors

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4 hours ago

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December 17, 2025

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Less than two months after announcing his intention to run for lieutenant governor in Alabama, former three-time national champion Crimson Tide quarterback AJ McCarron has announced he will exit the race.

McCarron is seeking to rededicate himself to football, an effort that will require “100% of my focus, commitment, and attention that I was to give to the office of lieutenant governor, so it is time to end my campaign,” he said in a statement.

A historic career at Alabama

McCarron led the Crimson Tide to back-to-back BCS national championships in 2011 and 2012 and was part of the national title team as a redshirt player in 2009.

A native of Mobile, the quarterback became the first player at his position to win consecutive BCS titles and also received several of college football’s more prestigious awards, including the Maxwell, Johnny Unitas Golden Arm, and Kellen Moore Awards.

As a junior, McCarron established an Alabama record with 30 touchdown passes in a season, and broke Greg McElroy’s former record with 3,063 passing yards in a season during his senior campaign in 2013.

McCarron finished his Alabama career with a 36-4 overall record, completing almost 67 percent of his passes with 77 touchdowns and 15 interceptions.

McCarron in the NFL

The quarterback emerged as a fifth-round selection in the 2014 NFL Draft by the Cincinnati Bengals, playing as a backup for four years.

McCarron spent the next four seasons as a reserve first with the Oakland Raiders, followed by a stint with the Houston Texas, and finally the Atlanta Falcons.

From there, he played in the XFL with the St. Louis Battlehawks, a franchise that then moved to the United Football League.

McCarron’s political ambitions

The former quarterback star was running as a Republican for the second-highest office in his home state, a move he said was inspired by the murder of conservative political activist Charlie Kirk.

“Alabama’s conservative and cultural values are under attack from every direction,” McCarron said in his announcement for office.

“That’s why Charlie Kirk’s assassination affected so many of us so deeply. His example convinced me to get off of the sidelines, get into the game, and stand tall for our conservative beliefs.”

McCarron currently serves as a college football commentator as part of The Dynasty podcast, which he presents with fellow Alabama alum Trent Richardson and Crimson Tide broadcaster Chris Stewart.

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Jayden Maiava returning to USC on new NIL deal

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5 hours ago

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December 17, 2025

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Dec. 17, 2025, 1:41 p.m. ET

USC will get its starting signal-caller back in 2026.

On Tuesday, the program announced that quarterback Jayden Maiava has signed a new NIL deal to return to the Trojans next season. Maiava, who previously played at UNLV, would have had a significant transfer portal market and also ranked as a top-10 quarterback prospect in the 2026 NFL draft, per ESPN’s Mel Kiper.

Maiava started 11 games at UNLV in 2023 before transferring to USC, where he ultimately lost the starting job to Miller Moss ahead of the 2024 season. However, amid subpar play from Moss, coach Lincoln Riley made a change as he started the final four games.



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