On the heels of a stunning announcement by the NCAA ahead of the pending House settlement announcement, the power that shifted to individual conferences has taken on new form in the Power Four.

NCAA President Charlie Baker all but ended their enforcement of amateurism—a thinly veiled one with the state of college football and basketball—acknowledging that the creation of the new entity, the College Sports Commission, will assume that deferred responsibility.

The question is; what precisely is the College Sports Commission and what role does it play in college sports and the ever-evolving NIL landscape?

Intriguingly, Yahoo! Sports Insider Ross Dellenger’s report on the new enforcement entity was tied to the recent Tennessee Senate Bill that allows in-state schools to move freely in the revenue-sharing era of NIL without fear of adverse action by the NCAA.

In essence, the drafted “Membership Agreement” that has been in the works since February would require power conference members to waive their right to sue the commission.

The stunning consequences include being kicked out of the conference or risking being blackballed by the Power Four should schools elect not to sign. 

“You have to sign it,” one athletic director said. “Or we don’t play you.”

This new agreement is likely to lead to a multitude of legal issues.

For one, it’s concerning to sign something that proscribes following state laws. Compounding this concern is the potential eviction from the conference should schools fail to comply.

That’s what the Tennessee law set out to combat, as it specifically prohibits adopting and enforcing rules that violate state law and consequential interference with schools’ membership statuses.

Moreover, the law protects schools in the state from not abiding by rules that violate antitrust law. 

The Deloitte-run NIL clearinghouse known as “NIL Go,” an entity that will strictly enforce booster payouts, is the subject of that intense scrutiny.

As Dellenger reports, Deloitte officials shared alarming news with athletic directors and coaches at last week’s ACC spring meetings that 70% of past deals from booster collectives would have been denied. 

They also stated that they would have approved 90% of deals from public companies. 

However, Deloitte prefaced that announcement with figures shared in March, which should give pause regarding the encouraging 90% approval rate. 

The value of about 90% of those deals was less than $10,000, and 99% were under $100,000.

That implies a severely restricted future where the clearinghouse will threaten millions in earning potential that athletes previously received via collectives backed by boosters that are thinly veiled as endorsement deals—aka pay for play.

That will likely receive antitrust challenges, but it appears that the members who sign the affiliation agreement cannot be a party to them.

The comments included by athletic directors suggest that schools want to go back to an era where they stop circumventing the rules. 

These new state NIL laws are essentially permissions to do just that. It may be enticing for schools to follow them and seek competitive advantages, but the majority is direly searching for stability in the sport. 

This membership agreement presents an imperfect solution, particularly when schools feel all but coerced into signing it.

However, since the NCAA declined to be a part of a clear enforcement future, someone must intervene to halt the circumventions and chaos in college sports.

Amid the negative atmosphere of NIL in the college football landscape as the NCAA has made landmark decisions ahead of the impending House settlement, some feel good stories exist.

There have been several stories of players signing multi-million-dollar deals and buying luxury items for themselves. There are several stories of players using their NIL deals to better the lives of those around them.

Alabama Crimson Tide freshman quarterback Keelon Russell joined the latter group with his first big NIL purchase.

Rather than making a splashy purchase for himself, the five-star recruit bought his mom a new luxury Mercedes-Benz car that he and his mom shared on social media.

Under normal circumstances, the Kansas State basketball season wasn’t all that bad. The Wildcats finished under .500 for the first time since 2021-22. It was the first losing record during coach Jerome Tang’s tenure. It led to ESPN giving the Wildcats a D grade for the season.

But it wasn’t solely because of performance. The Wildcats were among the most scrutinized programs in the country because the amount of money spent in NIL.

“The NIL era has altered the way a team’s potential is analyzed,” the ESPN article read. “The more a team spends, well, the more their fans expect. That’s what happened with Kansas State this past season.”

Big money was spent on transfers Coleman Hawkins, Dug McDaniel and Achor Achor. They were expected to build on the progress made by Tang.

“Coleman Hawkins, a transfer from Illinois, reportedly made $2 million after he picked the Wildcats over a list of other elite programs — and he wasn’t the only highly compensated transfer whom Jerome Tang added,” the ESPN article stated. “But the team missed the mark. Tang and Michigan transfer Dug McDaniel weren’t on the same page, and Samford transfer Achor Achor left the team for personal reasons after playing just seven games.”

Kansas State was among six teams in the Big 12 given D grades, joining Kansas, Arizona State, Utah, Cincinnati and Baylor. Colorado received the only F.

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