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The new agency in charge of regulating name, image, likeness deals in college sports sent a letter to schools Thursday saying it had rejected deals between players and donor-backed collectives formed over the past several years to funnel money to athletes or their schools.

Those arrangements hold no “valid business purpose,” the memo said, and don’t adhere to rules that call for outside NIL deals to be between players and companies that provide goods or services to the general public for profit.

The letter to Division I athletic directors could be the next step in shuttering today’s version of the collective, groups that are closely affiliated with schools and that, in the early days of NIL after July 2021, proved the most efficient way for schools to indirectly cut deals with players.

Since then, the landscape has changed yet again with the $2.8 billion House settlement that allows schools to pay the players directly as of July 1.

Already, collectives affiliated with Colorado, Alabama, Notre Dame, Georgia and others have announced they’re shutting down. Georgia, Ohio State and Illinois are among those that have announced plans with Learfield, a media and technology company with decades of licensing and other experience across college athletics, to help arrange NIL deals.

Outside deals between athlete and sponsor are still permitted, but any worth $600 or more have to be vetted by a clearinghouse called NIL Go that was established with the help of auditing giant Deloitte and run by the new College Sports Commission.

In its letter to the ADs, the CSC said more than 1,500 deals have been cleared since NIL Go launched on June 11, “ranging in value from three figures to seven figures.” More than 12,000 athletes and 1,100 institutional users have registered to use the system.

But the bulk of the letter explained that many deals could not be cleared because they did not conform to an NCAA rule that sets a “valid business purpose” standard for deals to be approved.

The letter explained that if a collective reaches a deal with an athlete to appear on behalf of the collective, which charges an admission fee, the standard is not met because the purpose of the event is to raise money to pay athletes, not to provide goods or services available to the general public for profit.

The same would apply to a deal an athlete makes to sell merchandise to raise money to pay that player because the purpose of “selling merchandise is to raise money to pay that student-athlete and potentially other student-athletes at a particular school or schools, which is not a valid business purpose” according to the NCAA rule.

Sports attorney Darren Heitner, who deals in NIL, said the guidance “could disproportionately burden collectives that are already committed to spending money on players for multiple years to come.”

“If a pattern of rejections results from collective deals submitted to Deloitte, it may invite legal scrutiny under antitrust principles,” he said.

On a separate track, some college sports leaders, including the NCAA, are seeking a limited form of antitrust protection from Congress.

The letter said a NIL deal could be approved if, for instance, the businesses paying the players had a broader purpose than simply acting as a collective. The letter uses a golf course or apparel company as examples.

“In other words, NIL collectives may act as marketing agencies that match student-athletes with businesses that have a valid business purpose and seek to use the student’s NIL to promote their businesses,” the letter said.

The House settlement hasn’t yet been in place for a full college season. Already, however, coaches around the country are looking for a solution to fix issues they see with revenue sharing. That now includes Colorado Buffaloes head coach Deion Sanders.

At Big 12 media days, Sanders suggested putting a cap on rev-share, raising some eyebrows in the process. In the wake of those comments, Paul Finebaum and Greg McElroy appeared on Get Up. There, Finebaum boldly told Sanders to stick to coaching.

“Right now, there’s so many issues in college football that getting to a cap,” Finebaum said. “It may happen one day, but I think they need to solve some more basic problems first.”

Finebaum notably thinks that Sanders’ argument would be different if he still had some of last season’s stars on his team. So, the messaging is likely based on what would be best for Colorado right now.

“I just love Deion for a lot of reasons,” Finebaum said. “But especially how he just changes the narrative depending on who is on his team. I mean, those two guys that he had last year, Shedeur [Sanders] and Travis [Hunter], could have left and broken everybody’s bank, and would have had he not had that hold over them. So I just think Deion needs to stick to coaching football. Let the college football leaders screw up the game the way they have already.”

The House settlement allows for revenue sharing of up to $20.5 million with athletes at a given school. How that money is divided and if the school spends the entire amount is up to the school. However, in most cases, football will receive the majority of the funding.

On top of that, House also looks to set a fair market on NIL spending. NIL deals above $600 will need third-party approval and will be sent to a new clearinghouse called NIL Go. There is also a new enforcement agency in place called the College Sports Commission. 

“It’s just unrealistic at this point. I do think at some point there’ll be donor fatigue. I do think at some point, there will be more parameters in place,” Greg McElroy said. “And I’m cautiously optimistic that there will be competitive balance across the college football landscape. But the reality is, college football has never been fair. It’s like Major League Baseball. That’s what it is. I mean, we don’t live in the salary cap world in college football. Those with resources that can spend, win.”

McElroy looked to emphasize his comparison by explaining that the deepest pockets don’t always win. Upsets do happen. So, even if Sanders and Colorado aren’t the richest program, there are still opportunities on the field.

“The good news is, just like in baseball, the Yankees don’t win the World Series every year. The Tampa Bay Rays, who have one of the smallest payrolls, compete in the playoffs regularly,” McElroy said. “And are, at times, much better than those of their big-spending counterparts in the Red Sox and the Yankees. So I think college football, yes, it’s nice to have resources, but it can also work against you. Texas has just one national championship since 1970 and they have the deepest pockets in the land. So I think that, yes, it’s nice to have money, but at the end of the day, it doesn’t necessarily always equate to success on the field.”

Deion Sanders explained why he wanted to see a rev-share cap by pointing to last season’s national champions, the  Ohio State Buckeyes. In particular, he looked at headlines that their roster was worth upwards of $20 million.

“I wish there was a cap. Like, the top-of-the-line player makes this and if you’re not that type of guy, you know you’re not going to make that. That’s what the NFL does. The problem is, you’ve got a guy that’s not that darn good, but he could go to another school and they give him another half a million dollars. You can’t compete with that. It don’t make sense,” Sanders said.

“You talk about equality … all you have to do is look at the playoffs and see what those teams spent, and you understand darn near why they’re in the playoffs. It’s kind of hard to compete with somebody who’s giving $25, $30 million to a darn freshman class. It’s crazy.”

When Joe Castiglione was hired at Oklahoma at athletic director in 1998, there was no way for him to predict how much the NCAA landscape would change during what will end up being a three-decade tenure in Norman. Particularly, in the last decade of his tenure with the implementation of NIL and the NCAA transfer portal.

Castiglione has overseen 26 of Oklahoma’s 45 total national championships, and is OU’s longest-serving AD. He positioned the Sooners for long-term success since the beginning his tenure, and it’s followed into the new era of college athletics. Under his guidance, Oklahoma seen at least one team compete for a national championship in each of the last 12 years.

“One of the most challenging parts of the period that we’re in is, there’s never been a moment like it. Not only in college athletics, I think you could look across various industries, they all go through some moment of disruption and change,” Catsiglione said. “And the ones that see the future, that adapt, pivot, be flexible, those are the ones that navigated, not only survived, but become stronger when they get on the other side.”

The Sooners have done just that, positioning themselves to be at the forefront of college athletics for years to come after aligning with the Southeastern Conference alongside Texas ahead of the 2024-25 academic calendar year. The move came just weeks after it was ruled that athletes could begin compensating from their name, image and likeness.

“We have to be uncomfortable with the uncomfortable period that we’re in, and that’s where we are,” he continued. “So if you’re not willing to lean into it, get scarred up, nicked up and try to find the solutions that are necessary in this moment in time where we’re still not structured the way we should be, … realize sometimes that you don’t have full control of everything, but you better exert as much as you can. Lean into the future and don’t be afraid to be a change agent.”

Those at the forefront of college athletics are the ones who are able to adapt to the current state of college athletics. With just under three years to find Castiglione’s successor, adaptability is likely a quality the Sooners will be looking for in their next athletic director.

“However you want to define the the skills of the next AD, you better be a leader that can lean in, accept and effectuate change of the future,” Castiglione said. “Because if the people in the business don’t do the leading, then who is?”

Rock Hill, S.C. – D1 Softball announced its 2025 Mid-Major D100 Player Rankings and Winthrop standout Megan Powell was ranked 97^th.
 
Powell adds more recognition to a season that saw her voted as the 2025 Big South Conference Player of the Year. Powell was also an All-Big South First Team selection, NFCA All-Region Selection and was named to the Big South All-Tournament Team. She also earned academic recognition as she was named to the College Sports Communicators Academic All-District Team.
 
This year she led the team with a .333 average to go along with 27 runs, seven doubles, 10 home runs, 35 RBI, 22 walks and an on-base percentage of .425. In the circle she was 16-12 with a 2.15 ERA, 16 complete games, five shutouts and 122 strikeouts in 163 innings. She also held an opposing batting average of .206.
 
Powell was 1-of-2 Big South Conference players recognized, joining Radford’s Dakota Redmon on the list.  
 
The Top 100 rankings list can be found here.
 
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