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.”