LAS VEGAS — Less than a month into the implementation of the House settlement, college sports’ new enforcement entity is adjusting its approach.

Attorneys for the House plaintiffs have struck an agreement with the power conferences and NCAA officials to amend the decision-making from the industry’s new enforcement arm, the College Sports Commission, related to how booster-backed collectives can compensate athletes. Multiple sources spoke to Yahoo Sports under condition of anonymity.

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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.

This is a change from the CSC’s previously publicized approach.

According to a memo sent to schools two weeks ago, the CSC — created and administered by the power conferences — explained that it has denied dozens of athlete deals from collectives because it is holding collectives to a higher threshold, announcing that businesses whose sole existence is to pay athletes (i.e. collectives) cannot meet the definition of a “valid business purpose.”

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House plaintiff attorneys Jeffrey Kessler and Steve Berman took issue with that interpretation, sending to the NCAA and power league officials a letter demanding the guidance be retracted and suggesting those rejected deals be reinstated. Kessler, in his letter, threatened to take the issue to the magistrate judge, Nathanael Cousins, who is presiding over House settlement disputes.

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Some of the NIL deals that the CSC rejected while applying the previous guidance will be re-evaluated based on the new approach.

The interpretation of the “valid business purpose” rule is not insignificant.

It is one of two measurements used by the new CSC’s NIL Go clearinghouse to determine the legitimacy of third-party deals. The second is a Deloitte-created “compensation range” standard that deals must fall within.

The change to the valid business purpose standard potentially opens the door for the continuation of school-affiliated, booster-backed collectives to provide athletes with compensation that, if approved by the clearinghouse, does not count against a school’s House settlement revenue-share cap. This provides collectives a path to strike deals with athletes as long as those transactions deliver to the public goods and services for a profit for the organization, such as holding athlete merchandise sales, autograph signings and athlete appearances at, for example, golf tournaments.

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The resolution creates what administrators term more of a “soft cap” as opposed to a hard cap, as SEC commissioner Greg Sankey described it last week in an interview with Yahoo Sports. The expectation is that collectives will create legal ways to provide additional compensation, as Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti described Monday in an interview with Yahoo Sports from Big Ten media days.

“When something works, it gets copied,” he said. “Things happening out there to provide additional NIL deals for student athletes that make sense and are allowed under rules, you’re going to see more versions of that.”

The change also, at least for now, prevents a legal challenge from leaders of a group of NIL collectives who began drafting a lawsuit against the CSC’s approach. Over the last four years, collectives have served as the driving force for schools to compensate athletes, raising millions in booster money to provide schools a way to recruit and retain players.

However, the CSC’s original interpretation of the “valid business purpose” definition, and resulting denials of collective deals, speaks to one of administrators’ goals of the settlement — to shift athlete pay from these booster-run organizations to the schools, which are now permitted to directly share revenue with athletes under the capped system that began July 1. That said, many schools are still operating their collectives as a way to, perhaps, circumvent the system.

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For example, schools continue to operate their collectives — some out of fear that others are doing the same and some believing that the settlement will fail under the weight of legal challenges.

“We know that some people are saying, ‘We’re not worried because we don’t think they can really enforce it.’” Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin told Yahoo Sports last week from SEC media days. “They don’t think NIL contracts are going to get kicked back [by the clearinghouse] or they think they’re not going to be able to win long-term [legal challenges] because of players rights.”

Ultimately, Sankey suggested, schools hold authority to control their own affiliated collectives.

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“For how long have people been begging for guardrails?” Sankey asked. “Well, now we have guardrails. Those broadly across the country that claim they wanted guardrails need to operate within the guardrails. If you allow what’s happened to continue to escalate, there would be a very small number of programs that would be competitive with each other and we’d not have a national sport or a national championship.”

The resolution may not completely end what will likely be continuous negotiations over particular enforcement rules between the power leagues controlling the CSC and the House plaintiff attorneys, who hold authority and veto powers over various aspects of the settlement.

Petitti cautioned Tuesday that more such negotiations are expected in the future.

“I don’t think it will be the last time that an issue comes up in the process,” he said. “The settlement approval came later than expected. It compressed the time period.”

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The guidance change may also not prevent future legal challenges over other enforcement aspects, including Deloitte’s compensation range concept or the appeals arbitration system that athletes can use for deals denied a second time.

The CSC, in its first month of existence, is reliant on athletes submitting deals. Athletes are required to submit any third-party deal of $600 or more to an NIL clearinghouse, NIL Go. Those deals flagged by NIL Go are sent to the CSC and its new leader, Bryan Seeley, to determine an enforcement decision. As of two weeks ago, more than 100 deals were denied and at least 100 more were under review. More than 1,500 deals had been approved.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Schools have only been able to pay players directly for three weeks, and questions have already surfaced about the sustainability of the new system.

ACC commissioner Jim Phillips’ message Tuesday: Give this model a chance to work.

“Without question, there’s still significant work to be done, but we must acknowledge that, collectively, we are truly in a better place and we have a responsibility to make it work in the future,” Phillips said at the start of his league’s football kickoff.

The questions have centered on whether collectives can continue paying players after the House settlement. Guidance from the College Sports Commission — the new enforcement arm that’s policing deals — suggested those deals aren’t what industry officials consider “legitimate NIL.” Even if the dispute doesn’t trigger more lawsuits, Phillips said Tuesday that the issue could go before a judge for interpretation.

In the meantime, Phillips said the goals of transparency and standardized rules are important to pursue as schools share up to $20.5 million directly with players. He said 15,519 players have registered for the clearinghouse, NIL Go, along with almost 2,000 agents. He also acknowledged the fact that schools have traditionally tried to skirt rules, which is why he’s emphasizing restraint.

“We can’t help ourselves sometimes,” Phillips said. “People know what the rules are relative to $20.5 (million). They know what legitimate NIL is. You can play in that gray area if you want, but all that does is undermine a new structure.

“We fought hard for the things I just mentioned, and we’d be well-served to just kind of relax and let this thing settle in.”

Phillips addressed several other topics Tuesday:

• He favors future College Football Playoff formats that guarantee spots for only the top five conference champions. The Big Ten has advocated for a model that tilts toward itself and the SEC with four bids for those leagues and two apiece for the ACC and Big 12.

Phillips did not address that idea specifically but stressed the “importance of coming together to find a solution that is truly best for all of college football.”

“I want to stay committed to access and fairness to all of college football, not only the ACC,” Phillips added later.

He said he’s open to expansion models that include five conference champions plus either nine or 11 at-large teams.

• The ACC has discussed moving from eight to nine conference games, like the SEC has considered for years. One league’s decision affects the other. Phillips said the ACC prefers eight league games so it can schedule marquee nonconference matchups, like this year’s slate (Clemson-LSU, Florida State-Alabama and North Carolina-TCU). The addition of a ninth conference game for either conference would jeopardize in-state, ACC-SEC rivalries like Florida-Florida State or Georgia-Georgia Tech.

“At the end of the day, I like where our league is,” Phillips said. “But we’ll adjust if we have to.”

• The conference will mandate player availability reports in football, basketball and baseball. The first football report must be submitted two days before a game, then one day before and on the day of. The ACC has not yet come up with a fine structure if coaches or schools are not forthcoming about injuries.

• The ACC will also start fining schools for field/court stormings after games if visiting teams and officials haven’t yet left the area: $50,000 for the first offense, $100,000 for the second and $200,000 for the third. Those fines accumulate over two years.

Also on Tuesday, ESPN announced that it hired former Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher as an analyst for the ACC Network. Fisher led the Seminoles to conference titles from 2012 to 2014 and the national championship in 2013. He left for Texas A&M near the end of the 2017 season.

(Photo: Jim Dedmon / Imagn Images)

The schedule features 16 regular-season contests with 10 matches played at Dorrance Field.

The 2025 slate includes five teams that finished in the top 25 of the final United Soccer Coaches poll last season, highlighted by home games against No. 5 SMU and No. 6 Wake Forest. Including those two, UNC’s opponents feature seven NCAA Tournament teams from a year ago.

Carolina’s schedule includes home Atlantic Coast Conference matches against Wake Forest (Sept. 12), SMU (Sept. 20), Virginia Tech (Oct. 19) and Duke (Oct. 31). The Tar Heels will hit the road against conference foes NC State (Sept. 5), Virginia (Sept. 27), Louisville (Oct. 3) and Syracuse (Oct. 25).

The Tar Heels open the regular season on Aug. 21, hosting UCF, and wrap up the weekend against Seattle (Aug. 24). The following weekend, the program welcomes Evansville (Aug. 28) to Dorrance Field before hitting the road to Charleston (Sept. 1).

Carolina will also face Memphis (Sept. 16), Lipscomb (Oct. 7), and St. Thomas (Oct. 11) at Dorrance Field, rounding out non-conference play by hosting UAB (Oct. 15).

Prior to the start of the regular season, UNC will head to Campbell for its first preseason test on Aug. 9. The Tar Heels will then host VCU on Aug. 15, for their final exhibition.

North Carolina produced a 9-4-5 (4-3-1 ACC) mark in 2024, advancing to the NCAA Tournament for the 31st time in program history.

Ticket information for the 2025 campaign will be available soon. For more information visit GoHeels.com/Tickets.

 

Phillips emphasized the ACC’s leadership role in implementing the new College Sports Commission model, which governs NIL, revenue sharing and roster limits. While acknowledging early challenges, he remained optimistic.

“We’re being thoughtful about every detail and are committed to progress through learning, adapting, and strengthening the model to support and protect college sports for generations to come,” he said.

He also reiterated the ACC’s support of the SCORE Act, a federal bill designed to standardize NIL rules and reaffirm student-athletes’ non-employee status.

“I haven’t had one student-athlete come up to me to say that they want to be an employee,” Phillips said. “I think they appreciate being in college, going to school, working critically hard to earn a valuable degree, and playing a sport at the highest level.”