Last September, Deloitte and the University of Kansas announced a “first-of-its-kind” partnership between the consulting giant and a college athletic department.

The $200,000 deal was unveiled by KU months before Deloitte was publicly identified as the firm tasked with administering a digital clearinghouse for college athlete NIL deals, as stipulated in the pending House v. NCAA settlement.

Notably, the concept of such a clearinghouse was broached in a Wall Street Journal sponsored column in Jan. 2021—seven months before the NCAA ever adopted its interim NIL policy. The article, authored by three Deloitte principals and titled “Colleges Brace for New Student-Athlete Sponsor Rules,” envisioned “a clearinghouse for NIL payments with a means for estimating fair market value of NIL opportunities.” That vision is now close to becoming reality, with Deloitte set to play a central role in administering the athlete deal information center known as “NIL Go.”

With the settlement process having hit headwinds in its final stages, Deloitte’s prospective engagement in the NIL system is facing heightened scrutiny amid newly surfaced details.

At the same time, Deloitte’s other athletic department work has made little noise in the nine months since the KU partnership was announced.

For years, Deloitte has maintained an extensive presence in both the athletics and higher education sectors. However, the prospect of one arm of the firm specifically advising athletic departments on NIL issues while another plays a role in evaluating or adjudicating athlete NIL deals at those same schools raises concerns about potential conflicts of interest.

“Deloitte maintains a robust governance process and thoroughly vets all projects across a number of dimensions including potential conflicts,” a company spokesperson told Sportico in a statement. “Regarding this project, the new entity that will be stood up by the defendant conferences’ settlement implementation committee (pending the final approval for the settlement) will be responsible for the enforcement of its terms, including all decision-making pertaining to third-party NIL deals.”

An official with one of the defendant conferences told Sportico that there will be “bright lines” separating the firm’s consulting work from its clearinghouse duties—boundaries that will be clearly defined in Deloitte’s contract with the new enforcement entity, College Sports Commission LLC.

“There is a general expectation and verbal understanding that is the way this is going to get papered up and locked in,” said the conference official, who spoke under the condition of anonymity since the settlement has not been finalized.

Steve Berman, co-lead counsel for the House plaintiffs, expressed confidence in the oversight mechanisms that will be in place.

“Deloitte must abide by the settlement terms, and all of its decisions will be subject to review through the neutral arbitration system—with respect to individual athletes—and by the court if it acts in a way contrary to the settlement agreement,” Berman said in a written statement. “We will monitor as class counsel.”

According to a person familiar with the situation, Deloitte’s “NIL Go” team includes several key figures: Tim Juravich, leader of the firm’s design-led products and engineering practice; Peter Woelflein, a senior manager with expertise in valuation services; Nicholas Eyer, a senior strategy manager in Deloitte’s sports and entertainment practice; Nick Fries, lead product manager at Deloitte Digital; and Kat Harwood, a leader in the firm’s sports industry practice. Overseeing Deloitte’s broader sports industry work is Pete Giorgio, who co-authored a 2021 Wall Street Journal sponsored column.

Deloitte’s advisory services for athletic departments are led by Caitlin Field Jacklin, who, according to her LinkedIn profile, was named the U.S. College Athletics Leader in Feb. 2024. While Jacklin’s résumé does not indicate prior direct experience in college athletics, she has a background in higher education consulting. She is joined by Sam Renault, a former NFL agent and former director of sports law and business at Arizona State University’s law school.

Based on their LinkedIn profiles, several others on the team bring firsthand experience as former college athletes: former LSU swimmers Angele Cherbonnier and Summer Spradly; Gib Versfeld, who played lacrosse at Johns Hopkins; Tyler Rudy, a former Georgetown and MLS soccer player; and Max Winters, who played baseball at William & Mary.

While Deloitte’s “NIL Go” and college sports consulting practices appear to each operate with distinct personnel, there has already been some overlap. For example, Harwood contributed to an eight-page white paper Deloitte published in January titled The New Era of College Athletics. Another contributor to that report was former University of Iowa athletic director Gary Barta, who retired in 2023. Reached by text, Barta said he was “thrilled to have been asked to assist Deloitte with its college sports practice,” but declined to elaborate on the nature or extent of his involvement.

To be sure, athletic department advisory services amount to a microdroplet in the revenue bucket of Deloitte, a global firm with $67.2 billion in annual revenue. And, so far, there’s been little indication that athletic departments are flocking to engage the firm’s services, even if it’s just to get in good with “NIL Go.”

“I look at it as an asset even though the two [services] are completely separate,” Collin Sexton, KU’s deputy athletic director and chief strategy officer, said in a telephone interview.  “From a brand association (perspective) … what would preclude someone from wanting to be associated with Deloitte? To me it is only a potential benefit to have an expert in the commercial NIL space.”

Sexton said Kansas primarily was interested in seeking help in terms of House revenue-sharing, and wanted expertise outside the traditional rolodex of athletic department consultants.

“We figured we needed to take a deep dive into our business setup as a whole to see how we were set to take on a new $20 million line item every year,” said Sexton, referring to the maximum amount of combined revenue schools can share with athletes next year under the terms of the settlement. 

Aside from Kansas, only one other university, Alabama A&M, has publicly announced retaining Deloitte for athletics-related work. In March, the SWAC school signed a $50,000 contract for two months of consulting that included hosting an “in-person strategy session” with AAMU staff to address “fundraising, NIL strategy, community engagement and competitive excellence.”

According to a statement of work obtained by Sportico, the project was led by ShaVonne Cammack, a Deloitte manager and Alabama A&M alumna who served as the university’s 2023 Founder’s Day speaker.

That same month, public records show East Carolina University entered an 18-month, $50,450 contract with Deloitte for consulting services related to its athletic department. The project, overseen by Renault, also included involvement from Game Plan founder and CEO Vin McCaffrey, a Deloitte consultant. In its request-for-proposal submission, Deloitte indicated its focus would be on financial modeling related to athlete compensation and sport-specific budget planning.

While the partnership was not formally announced by either ECU or Deloitte, Pirates athletic director Jon Gilbert told the university’s athletics and advancement committee in February that Deloitte was helping to develop a House-compliant revenue-sharing model for the school. An ECU athletics spokesperson declined to comment.

In September, Texas A&M paid Deloitte $99,000 for what appears to be, at least in part, athletic consulting work. A purchase order posted online shows the school retaining Jacklin, a Texas A&M graduate, alongside six other Deloitte employees, including Kat Ladd, McCaffrey, Rudy, and Maya Bordas—a former collegiate gymnast at Cal.

A Texas A&M spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

Deloitte effectively signaled its entry into the intercollegiate athletics space last July by co-sponsoring the annual convention of the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics. A NACDA official confirmed that Deloitte will return as a sponsor for this year’s upcoming convention in Orlando.

“College sports is really, really unique … and incredibly complex,” Jacklin said in a sit-down interview with D1.ticker and Athletic DirectorU last summer. “What we do at Deloitte is bring together the depth and breadth of all the services that we offer all our clients across all industries—retail, banking, hospitality, travel.”

Jacklin added, “I really see our superpower being connecting all the dots across our specialties and disciplines.”

(Jacklin did not respond to repeated interview requests for this story.)

Around the same time, Jacklin moderated a one-hour webinar titled “The Current State of College Athletics,” featuring Washington AD Pat Chun and Baylor president Linda Livingstone, who also serves as chair of the NCAA Board of Governors. While both of their institutions have existing relationships with Deloitte, neither has contracted the firm for athletic department consulting work to date.

Deloitte’s entry into college sports consulting follows the move by Chicago-based Huron Consulting Group, a higher education and healthcare advisory firm which launched its collegiate athletics practice in 2023. Huron assembled a high-profile advisory team that included former Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany, former Big 12 commissioner Kevin Weiberg, former Penn State athletic director Sandy Barbour and longtime Duke AD Kevin White. 

Sexton said Kansas had considered partnering with Huron before ultimately selecting Deloitte.

According to a person familiar with Deloitte’s collegiate sports strategy, the firm’s expanding presence in the space appears to be driven less by short-term revenue and more by long-term talent development, expanding upon initiatives like its “Student-Athlete Leadership Experience”—partially funded by the Deloitte Foundation—that offers career development opportunities for college athletes.

For now, Deloitte’s initial consulting work with athletic departments doesn’t appear to be aimed at securing immediate repeat business.

“We loved working with them,” said Sexton. “But the goal wasn’t to bring them back—hopefully, that won’t be necessary.”