There’s new legislation in Lansing aimed at preventing universities and other groups from interfering with Michigan college athletes earning money by marketing their name, image, or likeness —also known as NIL.

NIL has become a profitable sideline for many Michigan athletes. Analysts say those deals can be worth millions of dollars, though most are more modest.

But a recent settlement of a national anti-trust lawsuit may change the game.

The House v. NCAA settlement was finalized earlier this month. It resolves multiple antitrust lawsuits against the NCAA and its member schools, awarding $2.8 billion in back pay to athletes who were denied the chance to profit from their name, image, or likeness between 2016 and 2024.

The settlement also creates a framework for future revenue sharing between schools and student-athletes, allowing schools to directly pay athletes for NIL rights, and introduces new roster limits to replace scholarship limits.

However, a clause in the settlement that establishes a special commission to assess deals that student athletes can get is not being welcomed by NIL supporters.

Ramogi Huma, the executive director of the National College Players Association, said he believes such a commission would cost athletes.

“If such violations of Michigan’s NIL law do take place, it could cost Michigan college athletes tens of millions of dollars in NIL compensation each year,” said Huma.

And Thomas Dieters, the board president of Charitable Gift America, a group that negotiates NIL deals, sees the commission as essentially being unfair to student athletes.

“School administrators and coaches are very quick to negotiate their own seven figure contracts without a third party determining their value,” said Dieters, “Students should have those exact same rights.”

Former State House Speaker Joe Tate (D-Detroit) is a former standout athlete at Michigan State University, as well as a player in the National Football League. He’s currently running for Michigan’s open U.S. Senate seat in 2026.

Tate’s bill would block schools, conferences, governing bodies and other groups from interfering with athletes cutting their own NIL deals.

“One of the things that this legislation looks to do were not only protecting student athletes in their ability to take advantage of their name, image, and likeness — also empowering them,” said Tate.

A University of Michigan Athletics spokesperson declined to comment on the legislation.

After receiving long-awaited approval, the House v. NCAA settlement is now beginning its implementation process. The College Sports Commission is also now part of the landscape, tasked with enforcing key terms of the agreement.

The newly formed entity – led by former Major League Baseball executive Bryan Seeley – will take the lead on enforcing rules in place under the settlement. Once Judge Claudia Wilken granted final approval, the commission launched and named Seeley as CEO shortly thereafter.

Penn State coach James Franklin previewed what the new enforcement model will look like. He acknowledged there could be some bumps in the road, but he’s hoping for a more streamlined process when it comes to making decisions.

“This is not going to be one of these things that we’ve all kind of grown up with under the NCAA where it goes on for two years and a lot of times, the coach is gone and the next coach is coming in and having to deal with it. … This is going to be something where decisions are going to be made and made swiftly,” Franklin told Urban Meyer on The Triple Option. “Very similar to, I think maybe a Major League Baseball model, an NFL model, is what they are trying to bring to college football.

“So I think in theory, I think you’ll like what they’re trying to do. As we both know, the theory of it and the reality are two different things, and there’s going to be some growing pains as we work through it. I’m hopeful.”

James Franklin: ‘I’m still learning every single day’

While the College Sports Commission will not replace the NCAA as far as enforcement goes, its key tasks will center around the House settlement. Topics such as revenue-sharing, roster limits and the new NIL Go clearinghouse will fall under its purview, and Bryan Seeley brings a strong investigative background from his time in MLB as executive vice president of legal and operations.

Documents also showed some of the policies in place by the CSC, including membership. The agreements spell out that institutions must waive their right to sue the commission, and schools could risk being kicked out if they don’t sign.

While James Franklin has not yet seen those specific documents, he pointed out the importance of signing. He also acknowledged the implementation committee in place to help lead the charge into the post-House world.

“Even when we were at Big Ten meetings, that still [was not] something that was out there for all of us to see, that they’re still working through the details,” Franklin said. “I think a lot of this, they were waiting until the judge formally made the decision. And then, there’s the implementation committee – partly from the NCAA, commissioners, athletic directors, that are part of implementing, basically, the House rules. And it’s going to go from there.

“We’re still learning, I’m still learning every single day and getting more information. But what has been explained to me, I think they’re hopeful, is the best way to describe it, that we can move in this direction.”

Sacramento State has informed the Big Sky Conference of its intention to leave starting June 30, 2026, the league announced Thursday. The Hornets are expected to announce a move to the Big West for every sport but football starting July 1, 2026. The move will leave the Hornets without a football conference home starting next year as the school waits for final word on its waiver application to reclassify as an FBS school next season. 

The waiver is tied to the NCAA’s “bona fide invitation requirement,” which sets an FBS conference invitation as a prerequisite for reclassification. The Hornets currently do not hold a conference invite, and would compete as an independent should they move up.

The FBS Oversight Committee recommended denying the waiver request last week, with the Division I Council set to make a final decision in the coming days. So what’s at sake for the Hornets? And how did they get to this point?

The big bet 

Last year a prominent group of Sac State boosters formed the “Sac12” — an organization dedicated to raising the athletic department’s profile to a point it can earn a Pac-12 invitation in the future. 

According to the group’s website, its goals include: 

• Securing $50M in NIL commitments to cover the first 10 years in the Pac-12.
• Securing funding and approvals to build a football stadium that seats at least 25,000 attendees.
• Securing funding and approvals to build a basketball arena that can seat at least 6,000 attendees.
• Turning out at least 15,000 attendees per home football game for the remainder of the season
• Securing $5.25 million in conference fees for NCAA re-alignment into the Pac-12.

Taking the first toward these goals, the school announced construction on a new football stadium — set to open in 2026 — along with renovations to its basketball arena. 

The athletic department placed a heavy bet on reclassifying with splash offseason hires for both the football and basktball programs. The school tapped Brennan Marion as its football coach, an up-and-coming coordinator from UNLV who drew interest from several FBS schools with coaching vacancies this past offseason. On the basketball side, the Hornets turned to former NBA All-Star Mike Bibby to to lead the team. 

The moves certainly built some buzz around the football program. The Hornets signed an exceptoinal transfer class, headlined by former blue-chip quarterback prospect Jaden Rashada, who is expected to lead Marion’s exciting “Go-Go Offense” in 2025. Overall, the Hornets brought in 40 Division I transfers, 29 of which have significant playing time under their belts. 

What’s at stake? 

Many of Sac State’s strong offseason moves were made under the belief the football team would be playing in the FBS in 2026. A source told CBS Sports the program’s football budget is just north of $1 million for next year, but questions remain as to whether booster support can endure a multi-year transition process. 

There’s also a strong chance several of the Hornets’ high-profile transfers could search for greener pastures after this season rather than toil away in the FCS ranks again in 2026. 

As mentioned above scheduling would be complicated. While Marion told CBS Sports earlier this spring that the Hornets had an independent schedule ready for the 2026 season if the waiver was approved, compiling an FCS independent slate would be a much more difficult endeavor. The Hornets only have two opponents (Lamar and Fresno State) set for the season. 

FBS schools are only allowed to count one FCS team per season toward bowl eligibility, and those opponents are usually set years in advance. The Hornets could be forced into buy games from Division II opponents, which would not only drain funds but further dampen positive momentum the school has made with its donor base.

What happens next?

Sacramento State’s waiver is tied to a similar move made by Liberty in 2017. The NCAA granted the Flames’ waiver, allowing them to play an independent schedule from 2018-22 before the program joined Conference USA. 

The NCAA Oversight Committee was not swayed by the argument, pointing to drastic changes to the college football landscape over the past eight years.

“Although a waiver of the bona fide invitation requirement was granted in 2017, that decision was made in a different era, under a different set of facts and rules,” the council wrote in its waiver denial. “The Division I membership adopted the current legislation to affirm the importance of the nature and purpose of the subdivision reclassification process, choosing to place that decision-making authority with the council.” 

On Wednesday, Sacramento State president Luke Wood penned a letter in response to the oversight committte’s statement:

This week, an NCAA committee recommended against granting Sacramento State a waiver to join FBS as an independent. We remain hopeful as the D1 council has the ultimate decision and authority. The rationale, that a lack of a conference invite ‘signals readiness,’ is flawed. 

In a normal situation this rationale would make sense, except for we are located in a part of the country that has limited FBS conference options. The only reason we don’t have an invite is geography. Multiple FBS commissioners and presidents who are outside our region have told us directly they would welcome Sacramento State, but cannot make the travel work. Geography should not be a deterrent when a university is in a unique geographic situation. The last West Coast school to make the leap was Boise State, nearly 30 years ago.

A conference invite is not the right benchmark. Readiness is measured by investment, infrastructure, and commitment and Sacramento State exceeds the standard. Liberty University was (relatively) recently granted approval to make the same transition but we are now being told ‘that was a different time.’

The fate of the football program now rests in the hands of the NCAA Division I council. A waiver would keep the Hornets’ ambitious plans on track, while a denial would could drastically affect the athletic department’s timeline.