With NIL money flying and deals being broken often, it’s a wonder more lawsuits haven’t been filed by college athletes or the schools paying them. But the first such scenario at Maryland has arrived, with former star basketball player Ja’Kobi Gillespie suing for NIL payments he claims he’s owed.

The Baltimore Sun’s Taylor Lyons reported that the former Terps point guard, who transferred to Tennessee after the season, is suing Blueprint Sports — the outside company that manages much of the school’s NIL operations — because did not receive the final payments for his deal, despite that it has no clause stating the deal wouldn’t be paid out if he transferred elsewhere. He wrote: 

“Blueprint, which says on its website it works with more than 70 college athletic departments, has partnered with Maryland since 2023. The school announced a “multiyear partnership extension” with the collective last month.

Connor and Byron Gillespie told The Sun that Blueprint is refusing to honor Ja’Kobi Gillespie’s NIL contract that he signed with the collective before last season. They said the contract did not have a clause that terminated the agreement if he entered the transfer portal, which he did days after Willard left to become the coach at Villanova on March 30.”

Ja’Kobi Gillespie was one of Maryland’s best players, earning second-team all-Big Ten honors after averaging 14.7 points and 4.8 assists per game on 45.3 percent shooting overall and 40.7 percent from three. His deal was worth around $600,000 for the year, leaving an unpaid balance of $100,000, sources told InsideMDSports. Lyons reported that Blueprint offered to settle for one-quarter of the remaining amount; the company says there was a clause that negated the remainder of payments because Gillespie transferred, while the player’s camp says there was no such deal.

Byron Gillespie referenced the issue to IMS in April, when he also criticized Willard for how his departure went down.

“We were smart and our lawyer/agent kept the original contract. They added language in [after the fact], because his wasn’t like the other agreements. Most said once you enter the portal, it nulls the agreement. Ours didn’t,” he wrote in a text. 

What I’m Hearing: Early reviews of new-look Maryland basketball and the deal with Zion Elee

On Willard’s sketchy departure, he said in that April interview: “The coaching circle talks … I knew he was gone when we were in Seattle. I understand taking a job that’s better for you and your family. I just wish it didn’t come out and cause a distraction during such a great run … Over and over he told them that. [That] he was using it for leverage [to get a new deal from Maryland]. All the way ’til the last game. He told Ja’Kobi that Saturday night [two days after the Sweet 16 loss] he had decided to take it.”

The elder Gillespie told Lyons that Blueprint’s failure to pay gives credence to Willard’s complaints before he left, about Maryland not having enough NIL money. And Gillespie’s mother, Heather Johnson, told IMS: “We loved it there and I’m just so disappointed in a few different ways. Ja’Kobi did his job.”

But the best quote of the story came from booster Harry Geller, who ran the point on the basketball program’s NIL negotiations before Willard left, bout Willard and former AD Damon Evans, now both gone.

“There was always a rift,” Geller told the Sun. “Willard had an attitude about it the whole time and Damon didn’t do much to help it. The two of them went at it. They butted heads from the beginning. In the end, they both had exit strategies and Maryland got screwed.”

Geller said in an April radio interview that Maryland’s NIL budget was significant.

“We had a pretty competitive NIL, all donor-based fundraising, and I think his his biggest complaint was a lot of other schools were assisting the NIL collectives and Maryland wasn’t. They kind of left us, myself and the other guys that run and women that run the Turtle NIL and the athletic foundation, to ourselves to run it,” he said. “as far as dollars spent this year, we were probably in the lower part of the top half of the Big Ten. There was schools certainly ahead of us. Indiana spent a lot more money than we did, and look where that got them. And some schools spent less, but I would say we were probably five, six, seven in the Big Ten out of 18 schools.

“And I think Buzz is coming in into a better situation. I think he was a very good hire. He’s won everywhere he’s been. I really applauded the administration for moving quickly on it because there’s – this year is an unusual year for NIL because there, the NCAA is phasing out all collectives July 1, including ours. Until then, you have an opportunity to raise money and sort of pre-pay for next year. So the player amounts are hyper-inflated right now, and it should level off to more of a de facto salary cap next year. But I thought, and I went to the administration and said, ‘Look, if you want us to pre-spend the money next year, we only have a few weeks to do it. So you really got to get moving on this hire.’ And to their credit, they were proactive about it.”

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Cast against their brown and beige office backdrops, the four horsemen of the settlement spoke as one.

Tony Petitti, Jim Phillips, Greg Sankey and Brett Yormark — commissioners of the conferences that control major college sports — conducted a remote news conference Monday morning to share their views on the momentous House v. NCAA settlement and what’s next for the industry.

They were joined on the Zoom call by Teresa Gould, commissioner of the Pac-12, which was a named defendant in the lawsuit (along with the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, SEC and NCAA) and therefore a participant in constructing the post-settlement world order.

Together, the quintet reiterated the need for congressional help to codify rules and provide antitrust protection in order to end the barrage of legal challenges to the NCAA.

They explained that the distribution of $20.5 million to athletes starting July 1 won’t be determined at the conference level. How much to allocate to football, men’s basketball and the Olympic sports will be a campus decision.

And they acknowledged the post-settlement world is evolving. They don’t have all the systems and personnel in place to immediately clean up what Phillips (ACC) called “an unregulated environment with no rules and no enforcement.” They believe answers, and solutions, will come with time.

But is there any reason to believe cheating will disappear? That pay-for-play, which has taken so many forms over the decades, will be expunged from the system? That “bad actors,” as Sankey (SEC) described them, will be banished forever?

If effort and determination count, the clean-up effort could succeed.

“It’s progress over perfection,” Yormark (Big 12) explained. “There will be challenges. But we’re very confident.

“Our schools want rules. We’re providing rules, and we will be governed by those rules. And if you break those rules, the ramifications will be punitive.”

As part of the settlement, the power conferences created the College Sports Commission, with a chief executive, Bryan Seeley, a former lead investigator for Major League Baseball, and a singular mission: Ensure NIL deals are legitimate.

For the past four years, they have been anything but.

Remember the old-fashioned cheating, when bags o’ cash were given to recruits and their handlers in exchange for signatures on letters of intent? The moment NIL became the law of the land in the summer of 2021, a new, legal form of pay-for-play emerged, courtesy of booster collectives.

High school recruits and transfers alike were lured to schools by collectives offering six- and seven-figure deals. Those deals did not require players to participate in the promotional and endorsement opportunities at the heart of what the NCAA described as legitimate NIL.

The fake NIL was under-the-table cheating out in the open — unregulated but entirely legal.

Which brings us to the College Sports Commission (CSC) and the industry’s latest attempt to clean up the player procurement process.

In addition to the $20.5 million they will receive directly from the schools as part of the House settlement, athletes retain the ability to strike NIL deals with third-party entities. The difference: Now, they must report any contract of at least $600 to NIL Go, a technology platform designed by Deloitte that will determine if deals fall within a reasonable range of compensation. (That’s code for fair market value.)

If NIL Go rejects the deal, athletes have the option to adjust the terms and resubmit.

Or they could seek arbitration.

In theory, they could ignore NIL Go, agree to the contract and take the field (or court). But there’s a risk to competing with an invalid NIL deal, because the schools are arming the CSC with enforcement authority.

How will Seeley, a former assistant U.S. attorney, gather evidence? He won’t have subpoena power.

Also, who will design the penalty matrix?

“We’re in the process of developing some of those rules and structure and overall implementation,” Phillips said.

The industry is watching, and skeptics are everywhere.

Even if NIL Go successfully filters out the illegitimate business deals — the financial arrangements that are outside a reasonable range of compensation — the specter of pay-for-play remains.

And it could very well take a familiar form. That’s right, folks: Get ready for the return of bags o’ cash.

The CSC is designed to eliminate the donor collectives that paid players (legally) without demanding anything in return except a signature and their best effort on gameday.

But if deep-pocketed fans of School X want to help the team secure vital commitments from coveted transfers or blue-chip prospects, is the CSC really going to stop them?

Privacy Manager

Cast against their brown and beige office backdrops, the four horsemen of the settlement spoke as one.

Tony Petitti, Jim Phillips, Greg Sankey and Brett Yormark – commissioners of the conferences that control major college sports – conducted a remote news conference Monday morning to share their views on the momentous House v. NCAA settlement and what’s next for the industry.

They were joined on the Zoom call by Teresa Gould, commissioner of the Pac-12, which was a named defendant in the lawsuit (along with the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, SEC and NCAA) and therefore a participant in constructing the post-settlement world order.

Together, the quintet reiterated the need for congressional help to codify rules and provide antitrust protection in order to end the barrage of legal challenges to the NCAA.

They explained that the distribution of $20.5 million to athletes starting July 1 won’t be determined at the conference level. How much to allocate to football, men’s basketball and the Olympic sports will be a campus decision.

And they acknowledged the post-settlement world is evolving. They don’t have all the systems and personnel in place to immediately clean up what Phillips (ACC) called “an unregulated environment with no rules and no enforcement.” They believe answers, and solutions, will come with time.

But is there any reason to believe cheating will disappear? That pay-for-play, which has taken so many forms over the decades, will be expunged from the system? That “bad actors,” as Sankey (SEC) described them, will be banished forever?

If effort and determination count, the clean-up effort could succeed.

“It’s progress over perfection,” Yormark (Big 12) explained. “There will be challenges. But we’re very confident.

“Our schools want rules. We’re providing rules, and we will be governed by those rules. And if you break those rules, the ramifications will be punitive.”

As part of the settlement, the power conferences created the College Sports Commission, with a chief executive, Bryan Seeley, a former lead investigator for Major League Baseball, and a singular mission: Ensure NIL deals are legitimate.

For the past four years, they have been anything but.

Remember the old-fashioned cheating, when bags o’ cash were given to recruits and their handlers in exchange for signatures on letters of intent? The moment NIL became the law of the land in the summer of 2021, a new, legal form of pay-for-play emerged, courtesy of booster collectives.

High school recruits and transfers alike were lured to schools by collectives offering six- and seven-figure deals. Those deals did not require players to participate in the promotional and endorsement opportunities at the heart of what the NCAA described as legitimate NIL.

The fake NIL was under-the-table cheating out in the open – unregulated but entirely legal.

Which brings us to the College Sports Commission (CSC) and the industry’s latest attempt to clean up the player procurement process.

In addition to the $20.5 million they will receive directly from the schools as part of the House settlement, athletes retain the ability to strike NIL deals with third-party entities. The difference: Now, they must report any contract of at least $600 to NIL Go, a technology platform designed by Deloitte that will determine if deals fall within a reasonable range of compensation. (That’s code for fair market value.)

If NIL Go rejects the deal, athletes have the option to adjust the terms and resubmit.

Or they could seek arbitration.

In theory, they could ignore NIL Go, agree to the contract and take the field (or court). But there’s a risk to competing with an invalid NIL deal, because the schools are arming the CSC with enforcement authority.

How will Seeley, a former assistant U.S. attorney, gather evidence? He won’t have subpoena power.

Also, who will design the penalty matrix?

“We’re in the process of developing some of those rules and structure and overall implementation,” Phillips said.

The industry is watching, and skeptics are everywhere.

Even if NIL Go successfully filters out the illegitimate business deals – the financial arrangements that are outside a reasonable range of compensation – the specter of pay-for-play remains.

And it could very well take a familiar form. That’s right, folks: Get ready for the return of bags o’ cash.

The CSC is designed to eliminate the donor collectives that paid players (legally) without demanding anything in return except a signature and their best effort on gameday.

But if deep-pocketed fans of School X want to help the team secure vital commitments from coveted transfers or blue-chip prospects, is the CSC really going to stop them?

Pay-for-play could simply return to its former location – under the table – and proceed with limited hesitation.

How can the CSC police the actions of thousands of donors representing hundreds of schools across 10 major college conferences?

How could it investigate and punish private citizens?

Will the schools report suspicious activity, invite Seeley to town and hand over whatever evidence helps expose transgressions committed by a million-dollar donor who is also helping to fund the new engineering building?

The commissioners know far more about the CSC than we do.

They have discussed the clean-up project extensively with campus officials desperate for law and order.

They made a shrewd move hiring a former assistant U.S. attorney and not a college sports lifer.

But it’s difficult to ignore the leap-of-faith component built into their new world order. College sports has too many athletes with financial needs, too many sources of cash and too many fans who care about winning above all else.

The result is a revamped system that’s rooted in best intentions but dependent on a leap of faith.

“Ultimately,” Sankey said, “it’s incumbent upon everyone, presidents and chancellors, athletic directors, head coaches, assistant coaches and staff and, yes, commissioners, to make the terms of this settlement work.”

FRISCO – East Texas A&M University softball graduate student-athlete Maddie Cason is among the honorees around the conference that was named to SLC All-Academic team on Monday morning.
 
Cason (Honey Grove) was named to second team all-academic following her lone season in Commerce in which she was also named to second team all-Southland Conference outfield.
 

Currently working towards receiving her masters of business administration from East Texas A&M, Cason started 50 games last season, batting .320, which was second on the team, along with 25 runs scored and 11 stolen bases. She also had a fielding percentage of .983 in the outfield, which is top 20 in the Southland.
 
Cason has also been named to the SLC Commissioner’s Honor Roll this spring. She is the second Lion to be selected to the Southland All-Academic softball team over the last three years.
 
Southland Conference All-Academic Teams are voted upon by the head coach, sports information director and an academic/compliance staff member from each school. Student-Athletes of the Year are voted upon by an awards committee which consists of one administrator from each member school. Voting for one’s own athletes is not permitted.
 
To be eligible for all-academic distinction, an athlete must hold a minimum 3.25 cumulative grade point average through the semester prior to the sport’s championship, completed at least one full academic semester at the nominating school prior to nomination, and participated in at least 50 percent of the team’s competitions during the most recently completed season. Student-Athlete of the Year nominees must have held at least a 3.50 GPA and have completed at least two years of athletic competition at the nominating school, including the current season.
 
First Team All-Conference athletes who meet all-academic nomination criteria are automatically named all-academic.
 
SOUTHLAND SOFTBALL STUDENT ATHLETE OF THE YEAR: Maria Detillier, Southeastern
 
SOUTHLAND CONFERENCE SOFTBALL ALL-ACADEMIC-FIRST TEAM

 
SOUTHLAND CONFERENCE SOFTBALL ALL-ACADEMIC-SECOND TEAM

 

-ETAMU-