The rollout of the new NIL Go clearinghouse — the NCAA’s attempt to reign in pay-for-play NIL contracts — is not going smoothly. Uncertainty about rules and regulations led to the College Sports Commission to send out a memo Thursday to athletic directors of Division I schools to clarify what NIL contracts will be allowed by NIL Go. Utah State and its NIL collective, the Blue A Collective, have been no exception to being caught up in the confusion and an uncertain future for the collectives.

In the CSC memo, obtained and released this morning by Yahoo Sports, it is noted that more than 12,000 athletes and 1,500 agents have been registered into the online system. It also stated that more than 1,500 NIL deals have been approved, some of which are valued at more than $1 million. But the main point of the memo came later.

The majority of the CSC memo clarifies one of the three criteria used to judge if NIL contracts will be approved or denied: whether the deal as a “valid business purpose.” This requirement of a valid business purpose for NIL deals specifically targeted NIL collectives, which sprung up around the country in recent years as a means toward paying athletes. The collectives have required minimal effort on the part of the athletes to earn what payments that amounted to a de facto salary. Under the rules established by the House Settlement, all new NIL deals must establish a valid business reason to pay the amount agreed upon between an athlete and a collective or business.