This article originates on BruinReportOnline.com.

House plaintiff attorneys have reached a deal with the power conferences and NCAA officials that will alter the new enforcement arm, the College Sports Commission (CSC), relating to how NIL collectives can pay athletes, according to Yahoo! Sports.

House plaintiff co-counsel Jeffrey Kessler told On3 that he has “nothing to announce yet.” Multiple NIL collectives told On3 in the last week that they were actively speaking with lawyers about bringing suits forward against CSC and the NIL clearinghouse if changes were not made.

“Conversations with class counsel remain ongoing,” a CSC spokesperson told On3. “A formal statement will be issued when the issue has been resolved.”

As part of the agreement, the College Sports Commission is expected to treat collectives or any “school-associated entity” in a similar fashion as other businesses when determining the legitimacy of third-party NIL deals submitted to the CSC’s NIL Go clearinghouse, according to Yahoo.

The CSC recently laid out a firm approach to how it plans to handle booster-funded NIL collective deals. The key goal behind the House v. NCAA settlement was to shift the flow of dollars to athletes from collectives to institutions. Kessler and his other co-counsel, Steve Berman, wrote a letter to the power conferences and NCAA officials earlier this month that the NCAA and conferences “retract” the guidance.

“Lawsuits are about to come,” a source previously told On3 if guidance was not altered. “If they had not come out and said something on Friday, we probably would have already filed something.”

On3 reported this month that the NIL clearinghouse is facing lengthy delays. An SEC NIL collective told On3 that it submitted a deal 14 days ago with multiple deliverables for an event. With the clearinghouse’s delay, the event that the football player was supposed to execute has since passed. One source told On3 that a booster-driven Big Ten collective deal has been waiting 19 days for the clearinghouse’s response on a six-figure deal.

“Let me be clear – college athletics is not broken, but it is strained,” SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said last week.

Multiple NIL collectives recently told On3 that head coaches were asking questions about how payments will get to athletes with NIL clearinghouse delays. Athletes are required to submit deals for a “fair‑market‑value evaluation” within five business days of execution. But delays have led to booster-backed collectives waiting over 20 days, in some instances.

Sources speculated that some schools will start paying players under the table – a fear many have openly discussed in recent months as the House settlement was finalized.

“We were already talking to an attorney,” an NIL collective leader said. “And then Friday, Kessler and Berman came out and reprimanded the NCAA and CSC about the guidance. Who are they to determine what a valid business purpose is? If they really want this thing to work, they need to approve more than they deny. They need to give everybody some grace and not be iron-fisted.

“Not to say the quiet part out loud that we’re trying to kill collectives. They just provided the opening statement for the first lawsuit against them. That you’re going to treat people differently. Or people are going to start paying under the table, or kids aren’t going to submit deals.”

GREG SCHIANO: I first want to thank Commissioner Petitti for everything he does for our league. This has been the most transformational time in college athletics maybe in the history of college athletics. I feel very confident in our leader in how he handles our business as a conference.

I would also like to welcome our president. We have a new president, William Tate, who has come to join us from LSU. Very excited about that. I had a chance to meet with him. He had a chance to address our football team, and it was great, and can’t wait to work together with him.

I want to thank our board chair, Amy Towers, for her tireless work in making sure that we have a president who is going to do a great job for our university.

Today we bring three great representatives of our football program. Athan Kaliakmanis, our quarterback, who has transferred in and has become literally the leader of our program. This is definitely his football team.

Wide receiver Ian Strong, who I think has just grown consistently since he arrived. This will be his third season with us, and he is I think an excellent football player and a great young man.

Then linebacker DJ Djabome, who is from Canada, came down. Great story. DJ came down to go to one of our football camps and drove down from upstate New York and didn’t have a hotel room. He, his coach, and two teammates slept in a car in late July. He went through our camp and did a great job.

We offered him. We brought his family down on a visit immediately, and he started with us in training camp a couple of weeks later. Now to be standing here at Big Ten Media Days and DJ will be representing us, it’s a great story. Excellent football player and even better young man.

Those guys, thrilled to bring them out here to represent our team and our program.

I would also like to thank our coaching staff. Really I’m indebted to them. They do an unbelievable job. Kirk Ciarrocca, our offensive coordinator, who is going into his third season, has done an unbelievable job leading our offensive staff. I would like to welcome Robb Smith back to Rutgers. He and Zach Sparber will be co-coordinators on defense and have done a great job getting everybody up to speed this spring and summer. Then Eddie Allen, who handles our special teams, does a great job. Leading our staffs and them leading our players.

Also, in this new day of college football, I would like to recognize, we have two assistant GMs. Assistant GM for finance is Jordan Wolkstein, who has done an incredible job putting all the financial end of things together. Then our assistant GM for personnel, Eric Josephs, who has been in that role with personnel since we arrived but now has additional responsibilities. Can’t thank them enough.

Again, after all the changes that are going on in college football, it still comes down to a few things: Getting prepared, being tough, and then go putting it on tape. That’s what this team I think has done a great job of doing so far in this offseason in summer, and I can’t wait to coach them.

This will be my 37th year coaching. I’ve never been more excited about doing it. I feel like I did when I was 25, and can’t wait to get this thing underway.

With that, I’ll open it up for any questions.

Q. Rutgers returned to bowl contention in 2024 with disciplined defense and ball security principles with just two fumbles and seven interceptions all season. With some returning starters and a sharper focus on creating takeaways, what specific areas are you targeting this offseason to push the program from good to constantly elite?

GREG SCHIANO: Well, that’s a great question. For sure the ball is the program at our place. There’s a huge amount of emphasis on that.

We came back to Rutgers. This will be our sixth season back. We were dead last and we could hardly see it from there. It was a tough start, but we’ve kind of step by step climbed our way to the middle of the league. I didn’t come back to do that. I came back to win the championship. That may sound funny to some that have followed college football, but that’s what we’re going to do.

I can’t tell you when that’s going to happen, but that’s why we’re back. I have the staff to do it. We’re constantly getting better and better players, and we’re constantly growing as a program.

Our fan base is growing. All the things that you need to climb the ladder, and that’s what we do. We just come in every day and try to get a little bit better. Can’t have any backslides. Have to keep getting better and better, and eventually you’ll get there. That’s really what we focus on.

Q. Obviously rebuilding the program. You talked last year about winning the state back and recruiting. Obviously the transfer portal is a huge factor. Losing guys, you lose your all-time — one of the best rushers in school history to the NFL. How did you kind of navigate NIL and the portal and all those different things to field the roster that you have right now?

GREG SCHIANO: That’s another great question because it’s certainly been the focus of college football, right? NIL, revenue share, all those things, it still comes down to finding the right fit for your program. What is fit? Fit is culture. Fit is athletic ability. Fit is student-athlete. What kind of student, can he fit in, do the work in the classroom? That’s always going our primary focus. Do I wish we had some more money when the NIL stuff was going on? Absolutely. Who doesn’t?

At the end of the day, players and families are going to entrust us with their sons. If they know they’re going to be treated well, they’re going to develop not only on the field, but off the field. That’s what we can promise.

I can’t tell them if they’re going to start. I always tell players. You know, where do you see me? Well, a year from now I see you being the guy that’s on our team. If I’m promising someone else at that time that they can come in and start, how does that make you feel? You come in and earn it at Rutgers. Everything is earned. Nothing is given. I think we have a bunch of guys, a team full of those guys, that understand that and that do that every day.

We have to be very, very careful when we go into the portal at a place like Rutgers. You need to make sure your culture is the driving force. If we’re going to bring a guy in from the transfer portal, not only does he have to be able to help us right now, but he has to be a cultural fit because if you are recruiting the good players in the transfer portal, they’re going to help you; but if they help you and they’re not a cultural fit, they’re going to lead people in the wrong direction, and we can’t have that.

I think our staff and the people I mentioned, Eric Josephs, Jordan Wolkstein, our whole coaching staff have done a great job identifying the players that are a great fit for our football program, and I feel very confident in the guys we got in the portal. I feel really good about the guys we’ve recruited, and I feel really, really good about the guys that are in our program.

That’s the mission, to keep upgrading little by little, net upgrades, until you have a championship football team.

Q. You being, like, a veteran coach, being around for years, like you said, what’s your thoughts on college football, with the salary cap, with the revenue sharing and everything? What’s your thoughts on that?

GREG SCHIANO: Look, I think college football is in a great place, and I know a lot of people like to moan and groan about things that are different. We need to just let things settle down and figure out if what we’ve done, what the court system has done, is it going to allow us to kind of find a level where we can go out and perform, where we can go out and have the kind of teams and programs and leagues that we want to have?

I think tweaking things too early — let’s see how it works out right now. We did a lot. Let’s settle down and see how this works. I know with the CSC there’s a lot of things that are talked about. All those things are great, and they need to be taken care of. I forever have believed that players should be paid. I always felt it was an injustice that players didn’t receive some form of compensation, whether it was a stipend or whatever it would be.

I’m thrilled where we are right now. I think that there needs to be some fine-tuning, but not major changes right now. Let’s see if this will work, and if it doesn’t, then a couple of years from now let’s change it, then. I do. I think college football is still incredibly popular. The fans love it. The players love it. The coaches love it. I can’t wait to get started.

FastScripts by ASAP Sports

The Caitlin Clark-effect is real for the WNBA as the ratings came out following the WNBA All-Star Game over the weekend. Without Clark in action for, appropriately named, Team Clark, the game saw a dip compared to the 2024 edition.

Still, the average of 2.2 million viewers for Saturday night’s game was up 158% compared to the 2023 edition, per ESPN PR. It was the second-most watched WNBA All-Star Game in history.

SBJ’s Austin Karp pointed out the stark reality though. Clark is the breadwinner of the league and it’s evident when she’s missed time due to injury this season. Numbers are up, but not as good compared to when Clark is the main attraction.

“Caitlin Clark effect manifests itself in 2 ways: Anything with Clark, then without, drops hard. NCAA title game -54%. Draft -49%. All-Star -36%. Regular-season -50% during her time out (but still up for 2025),” Karp wrote on Twitter/X. “Numbers even without Caitlin well above years before her arrival.”

Last season, there were 3.44 million viewers for the WNBA All-Star Game. This past weekend, it dipped 36% down to 2.19 million viewers, first reported by Front Office Sports. Team Collier defeated Team Clark, without the second-year superstar, 151-131 Saturday night.

The larger issue surrounding the WNBA is their current CBA negotiation. The players came out for warmups sporting tee-shirts saying “Pay Us What You Owe Us.”

Clark took an apparent shot from fellow all-star Kelsey Plum, who described the shirts postgame with Sabrina Ionescu. She claimed Team Clark wasn’t quite on the same page with the statement at first.

“It was a very powerful moment,” Plum told reporters after the game. “As players, we didn’t know that that was going to happen. It was a genuine surprise. The T-shirt was determined this morning. Not to tattletale: zero members of Team Clark were very present for that.”

Granted, that stirred social media debates about whether or not WNBA players deserve the same pay as NBA players, which spiraled into the semantics of what they actually meant. With expansion in the league, players feel if franchises are much more valuable these days, they feel they are owed a bigger piece of a growing pie.

“WNBA All-Star capts. Napheesa Collier & Caitlin Clark addressing the media right now,” Annie Costabile of FOS said via X during All-Star Weekend. “Both have fielded questions on the CBA. Clark said players are fortunate to have lucrative deals off the court, but they’re fighting for better W paychecks as the league continues to grow.”