NIL
Are We Headed Back To The Pre-NIL Era By Paying Athletes Under The Table? Maybe
Will college athletes start being paid under the table again in this new NIL era? PublishedJune 13, 2025 10:22 AM EDT•UpdatedJune 13, 2025 10:22 AM EDT Facebook Twitter Email Copy Link Are we headed back towards the pre-NIL era in college athletics with the new parameters around deals of over $600 being disclosed to the […]

Will college athletes start being paid under the table again in this new NIL era?
Are we headed back towards the pre-NIL era in college athletics with the new parameters around deals of over $600 being disclosed to the new clearinghouse? Don’t be surprised when boosters try to find ways around the system in the House settlement aftermath.
In the aftermath of the settlement, it has athletic directors across college sports scrambling to figure out how to approach NIL deals that may be over the allowed amount before they are dissected. This is the point in time where we could be heading back to the days of under the table money being exchanged.
As we’ve gotten to this point in collegiate sports, it’s not hard to understand why some players will decide not to disclose NIL deals that could be flagged for being over the ‘market value’, when it’s hard enough to actually define what that monetary value is.
Who’s to say what a player can be allowed to make, or how an NIL deal is put together that will benefit the student-athlete?
“SEC’s William King says “there is nothing in the settlement specific to a collective,” but all NIL deals will be reviewed to determine if they are “real” NIL vs. “pay-for-play.”- Ross Dellenger reported on Thursday from a hearing in DC.
Well, that’s going to be a really big problem.
Under the new guidelines for NIL deals, everything over $600 has to be submitted to the NIL-GO system, which will then determine if the compensation is of fair market value. If the clearinghouse flags a certain player’s deal, and deems it to be ‘illegal’, then it will either be denied, or they can take it to arbitration.
Doesn’t this sound like a process that is going to force plenty of players to not disclose some of their deals, in fear that they will be denied? Sure it does, which is why there will be plenty of ‘deals’ that go unreported in the future.
House Settlement Will Force Schools To Make Tough Decisions, Could Turn Into An NIL ‘Sh-t Show Moving Forward’
And, in that same mindset, there will be plenty of lawsuits filed if a deal is denied, which is what the College Sports Commission is trying to avoid. So the bigger question is how they come up with the financial numbers that would be perceived as fair in this current era of college athletics.
How Is ‘NIL Go’ Setting Fair Market Value For These Deals?
If Arch Manning were to sign a multi-million dollar deal with Dr. Pepper, would that be the standard for a quarterback of his caliber and fame? See where I’m going here? There is going to be a gray area when it comes to some of these NIL deals that are negotiated in the coming months.
Are we going to act as if these deals that were front-loaded over the past five months are just fair game now? Yes, because these schools wanted to get the money invested in these players off the books before the July 1st date on which the revenue-sharing cap would go into place.
So, how are some of these schools going to police the deals that are done behind closed doors? That’s the tricky part, especially if an athlete decides not to disclose how much money he is making to the school.
In return, the athletic department could be penalized for not keeping tabs on what was being spent by third-party collectives, which would not count towards the $20.5 million cap that was put into place by the House settlement.
As discussed above, we are going to see some boosters take matters into their own hands when it comes to compensating athletes.
Whether that is ‘fronting’ a business a certain amount of money that will go towards a player’s salary, or trying to keep its name out of the news for putting together an NIL deal that might not be approved by the clearinghouse.
This is where the system is going to be tested, and I have a feeling that we are going to see a number of ‘deals’ being hammered out that might not be entered into the ‘NIL Go’ database.
At the end of the day, we might not be heading back to the pre-NIL era, but we damn sure could get close.