NIL

What does House settlement mean for college sports? We break it down.

Published

7 months ago

June 7, 2025

Your Sports Nation

A settlement allowing revenue sharing with NCAA athletes will transform college sports. How will this new system work? We break down what it all means.

After nearly five years of litigation, a federal judge on the night of Friday, June 6 granted final approval to a settlement of three athlete-compensation antitrust cases against the NCAA and the Power Five conferences that is now set to fundamentally change college sports.

Unless altered on appeal, the arrangement will allow — though not require — schools to directly pay their athletes for the use of their name, image and likeness (don’t call it pay for play), subject to an annual cap based on a percentage of a defined set of Power Five athletics department revenues. These payments could begin July 1.

Current and former athletes, over a 10-year period, will receive shares of $2.8 billion in damages (as will the lawyers who represented them).

For schools that opt in to paying their athletes, the NCAA’s current system of sport-by-sport athletic scholarship limits will be scrapped in favor of sport-by-sport roster limits. However, after U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken initially refused to approve the settlement because implementation of the limits starting with the 2025-26 school year would have resulted in thousands of athletes losing their spots on Division I teams, the deal was revised in a fashion that effectively could delay full implementation of the limits for several years. The elimination of the scholarship limit will result in new athletic scholarships being awarded.

In addition, while athletes will continue to be allowed to make name, image and likeness deals with entities other than their schools, there will be an effort by the power conferences (not the NCAA) to bring greater scrutiny to those arrangements, under the direction of a new entity called the College Sports Commission. Regardless of whether their school opts in to making NIL payments, any Division I athlete who has a deal, or deals, worth $600 or more will have to report those deals to (get ready for the new college-sports jargon) to system called “NIL Go.” That data will then by be evaluated to determine whether the deal has a “valid business purpose” and is within “a reasonable range of compensation,” whatever those terms are deemed to mean.

Again, the Commission will not be operated by the NCAA, but rather by the conferences, and the Commission will be charged with investigating alleged malfeasance, enforcing rules and penalizing rule-breakers.

That means there’s a lot left to be sorted out, and that’s without considering myriad other tangential, or unrelated, to the settlement.

This marks “the formal beginning of the greatest transformation in college sports history, period,” Gabe Feldman, director of the Tulane Sports Law Program and Tulane University’s associate provost for NCAA compliance, told USA TODAY Sports before the settlement was announced. “But I think the key, even after approval of the settlement, is that the changes in college sports are just starting. The settlement will likely trigger a series of additional changes, legal challenges and efforts to get Congressional intervention. This is not the end of a chapter — or, if it’s the end of a chapter, a new chapter will be beginning soon after. …

“I think there are as many unanswered questions — and probably more unanswered questions — than answered questions that will come from the settlement.”

Can the House settlement be appealed?

Wilken’s final-approval ruling can be taken to the 9^th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. It is not certain whether it will be appealed, but objecting parties have 30 days to decide. The contentiousness surrounding the roster limits could result in one or more of the objectors who were focused on that issue not only appealing, but also seeking a stay that would delay implementation of the entire settlement.

Such objectors would need the stay because, as the settlement was approved by Wilken, if there is an appeal, all of the forward-looking actions, including schools being able to pay athletes and roster limits for the 2025-26 academic season, are set to be allowed to proceed, even pending the appeal. The NCAA and the conferences would begin making damages payments, but the money would be held in escrow — not paid to athletes or lawyers — until appeals are completed. And other appeals could come from objectors who raised issues, including whether the settlement violates Title IX for reasons including the disproportionate allocation of damages among men’s and women’s athletes; the legality of one limit on pay to athletes being replaced by another one; and whether the rights of future college athletes are being unfairly handled.

What will be pay cap for schools paying players for NIL?

A final determination of what the per-school cap will be for the 2025-26 cycle has not yet been made. The NCAA, in a document summarizing rules changes approved on April 21 by the Division I Board of Directors but contingent on settlement approval, said the cap is estimated to be $20.5 million.

However, in a written declaration filed with the court on March 3 in support of final approval, plaintiffs’ economics expert Dan Rascher projected that the cap would be $23.1 million.

According to the settlement documents, the Power Five schools’ financial data that forms the basis for the cap generally must be provided to the plaintiffs’ lawyers by May 15 of each year. The plaintiffs have the right to “reasonably audit such data.”

The cap is set to increase annually by 4%, except in Years 4, 7 and 10, when new baselines would be established based on the defined set of Power Five athletics department revenues. However, under certain circumstances connected to the timing and value of media rights contracts, the plaintiffs’ lawyers have two options during the 10-year settlement period to have new baselines set more quickly.

One hook to all of this is that the amount of money that schools can pay to their athletes for use of the NIL will be reduced by the value of new, or incremental, athletic scholarships they award above the number of scholarships currently allowed in a given sport, up to a maximum of $2.5 million. In an example from the settlement documents, a school currently offering 9 baseball scholarships, versus the 11.7 permitted by NCAA rules, that decides to offer 15 baseball scholarships will have added an incremental total of 3.3.

So, if the initial cap is $20.5 million and a school awards $2.8 million in new scholarships, it could only make $18 million in NIL payments to athletes. This math has no impact on the NIL deals that athletes make with non-school entities, as long as those deals are approved under the Commission process.

What are the scholarship and roster limits?

There are several aspects to this. According to the principals, one of the justifications for roster limits was the lifting of the scholarship limits. But while some schools have said they will be adding scholarships — Texas and Ohio State, for example — this is not a requirement for schools. Southeastern Conference schools, at least for now, have agreed to not add to the current 85 football scholarships, a conference spokesman said at the conference’s recent spring meetings.

On the flip side, there could be current walk-ons who lose spots. The NCAA and the settlement say that athletes who are on scholarship and lose their roster spots must have their scholarships honored.

Under the settlement, schools would have the option to exempt from the limits any athlete who was on a roster in 2024-25 and who has been or would have been removed for 2025-26 because of the limits for the remainder of their college careers. It also would let schools similarly accommodate any high school senior who was “recruited to be, or was assured they would be” on a Division I school’s roster for the 2025-26 school year. These athletes are to be identified by the schools as “Designated Student-Athletes.”

However, this did not remove the roster limits from the settlement. And this did not require schools to keep all of their current athletes on their rosters — or to exceed the roster limits at any point. It just gave them the option to do so if they carried a “Designated Student-Athlete.”

The impact of roster limits could be felt in many sports, although NCAA officials have said NCAA governing groups are still working through a variety of details, including preseason practice squad sizes and how a team might be able to replace an injured player. In football, for instance, the roster limit will be 105. Walk-ons have been a huge part of the football culture at a number of schools. According to their respective fiscal-year 2024 financial reports to the NCAA, Nebraska had 180 football players, Texas A&M 143.

Meanwhile, as USA TODAY reported in May 2022 in one of a series of stories marking the 50^th anniversary-of-Title-IX series, there are schools that have been using large roster counts in some women’s sport to address athletic-opportunity requirements connected to Title IX, the federal gender equity law. Wisconsin had 151 women’s rowers, according to its FY24 NCAA financial report. The women’s rowing roster limit under the settlement is 68.

How will Title IX impact payments to men’s and women’s sports?

Georgia and Texas Tech among other schools, have said they plan to allocate large percentages of the money they pay to athletes to football players and men’s basketball players. Because this money will be coming from the schools, rather than third parties, this seems all but certain at some point to result in a Title IX lawsuit. As objectors have noted in their legal arguments, Title IX states, in part that no person “shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”

An array of objectors to the settlement, and their attorneys, vehemently raised Title IX issues about how the damages money is overwhelmingly set to go to football and men’s basketball players. Among their arguments was that such an arrangement would lead schools to have an extremely disproportionate payment structure going forward. The counter to this argument is that, in general, football and men’s basketball players have greater market value than women’s athletes, and that head coaches in football and men’s basketball, generally, are paid much more than coaches of women’s teams.

The counter to this counter, as one set of objectors argued, is that by historically “failing to invest in women’s sports, the NCAA depressed the value of women’s NILs relative to their male counterparts. The parties know this.”

While overruling Title IX-related objections to the settlement, Wilken wrote: “To the extent that schools violate Title IX when providing benefits and compensation to student-athletes … (athletes) will have the right to file lawsuits arising out of those violations.”

The Biden Administration in January issued guidance saying NIL payments from schools were subject to Title IX scrutiny. The Trump Administration has rescinded that guidance.

What new procedures for college sports are being implemented?

While NCAA governance groups have set up changes to the association’s rules to accommodate the settlement, the NCAA’s central-office investigative and enforcement staffs are not going to be involved in the day-to-day oversight and operation of rules and procedures created by the settlement.

That work is being left to the power conferences and the new College Sports Commission, which will handle:

▶Rules-making.

▶Managing the NIL Go system, an electronic system that athletes will be required to use to report the details of their NIL deals with entities other than their schools.

▶Figuring out how to determine the legitimacy of those deals, and how to deal with appeals by athletes, who — under the settlement — can seek arbitration if they want to challenge a determination that a deal is not legitimate relative to having a “valid business purpose” and being within “a reasonable range of compensation.”

▶Forming a new regulatory and enforcement entity that will be led newly named chief executive officer Bryan Seeley. According to the announcement of his hiring on June 6, Seeley “will build out the organization’s investigative and enforcement teams and oversee all of its ongoing operations and stakeholder relationships. … Seeley and his team will also be responsible for enforcement of the new rules around revenue sharing, student-athlete third-party name image and likeness (NIL) deals, and roster limits. The Commission will investigate potential rules violations, make factual determinations, issue penalties where appropriate, and participate in the neutral arbitration process set forth in the settlement as necessary.”

Attendant to all of this will be training school administrators in all of the new procedures and systems. In addition, Seeley faces the more intangible task of attempting to create buy-in and a culture of compliance among schools, administrators and coaches who are always looking for an edge on their competitors, and, in recent years, have become increasingly hostile toward investigations and enforcement from the NCAA, at least.

While there will be a cap on schools’ total pay to athletes, the athletes’ ability to have deals with other entities still leaves plenty of room for inequities, perceived or otherwise.

What will school NIL deals with athletes look like?

They will be anything except “employment” agreements. (The issue of athletes as school employees remains pending before a federal district court in Pennsylvania, where the NCAA and schools are arguing for dismissal, and for consideration from Congress, where Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, continues to pursue a comprehensive college-sports bill.)

In general, they will grant the schools wide-ranging use of athletes’ NIL and place some significant limitations on the athletes. This is based on a court filing by an entity that was seeking to submit a friend-of-the-court (or, a amicus) brief — a commentary on the case by an interested third party.

The filing, in late March, came from lawyers for Athletes.org, Inc., an organization that described itself in the filing as an entity that “exists to educate, organize and represent college athletes as their chosen players association to ensure that their interests are protected as college athletics continues to evolve.”

Supporting exhibits that included documents described as templates of NIL agreements written by the Big Ten and Southeastern conferences and from the universities of Arizona, Kansas and Minnesota.

In response to an open-records request from USA TODAY Sports after the filing, Minnesota provided the current version of its template “Memorandum of Understanding.” Among its provisions, in an “Annex” to the MOU, it says the athlete “grants the Institution the right to use and sublicense Athlete’s NIL to promote the Institution, the Conference, and/or the NCAA and/or such entities’ respective third party partners, sponsors, affiliates and sublicensees in any way …’’

In a provision that has taken on greater significance in the wake of Nico Iamaleava’s transfer from Tennessee to UCLA, the document attributed to Arizona includes as “optional” language the terms for a buyout that could be required of an athlete — or their subsequent school, on their behalf — if they transfers during the term of the agreement. Arizona did not respond to an inquiry in late March about this document.

How are schools paying for these deals?

All kinds of strategies are being pursued. Tennessee said it will be charging its football-ticket customers a “talent fee.” Virginia Tech is set to raise its student athletic fee for the 2025-26 school year by nearly $300. (It also hosted a concert in May by Metallica, whose song, “Enter Sandman,” long has been the Hokies’ pre-football-game entry soundtrack).

Minnesota is seeking a potential naming rights deal for its venerable basketball arena, currently known as Williams Arena. Virginia and other schools are re-visiting donation levels that will be required for season-ticket purchasing rights. Oklahoma’s athletics department has said it is laying off 5% of its full-time employees. Florida athletics director Scott Stricklin recently told longtime journalist Pat Dooley’s “Another Dooley Noted Podcast” that he asked all Gators coaches to cut their budgets by 5%.

Meanwhile, schools from power conferences also will be counting on conference revenue shares increasing even as the conferences and the NCAA pay the settlement damages over time and the SEC also repays the $350 million it borrowed and distributed to members in 2021 to help them through the COVID-19 pandemic.

What about college athletes who opt out of settlement?

There are several hundred athletes who have opted out of the settlement and some, at present, are pursuing separate damages claims, though not all under the same lawsuit.

This may not turn out to be a class action, but there are some recognizable names making cases that they individually are owed money. Among them:

Men’s basketball players: Kris Jenkins, Frank Mason III, Franz Wagner, Moritz Wagner, Hunter Dickinson, Duncan Robinson, Jamal Shead, Jaime Jaquez.

Football players: Jake Browning, Cam Rising, Alex Hornibrook, Dax Milne, Drew Lock, Bryce Love, Cade McNamara, Donovan Peoples-Jones, Jake Fromm, Nakobe Dean, Will Levis, Trace McSorley.

Women’s basketball players: Kathleen Doyle, Kathryn Westbeld, Sophie Cunningham.

Baseball players: Griffin Conine, Jordan Beck, Matt McLain, Shea Langeliers.

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Rodriguez Names Trickett Director of Player Evaluation

Published

38 minutes ago

January 9, 2026

Your Sports Nation

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia University football coach Rich Rodriguez announced that Chance Trickett has been hired as the director of player evaluation on the Mountaineer coaching staff.

“Chance has built an outstanding resume of scouting, evaluating and recruiting experience at the FBS, Power Four and NFL levels,” Rodriguez said “His wide-spread experience and knowledge in these areas, along with being a West Virginia football legacy, will make an immediate impact in our program.”

Throughout his career, Trickett has experience leading player evaluation, roster construction and long-term talent strategy at the college and NFL levels. He has proven his ability to build multi-year roster plans, aligning evaluation with financial strategy, integrating and leveraging analytics and networks to identify top prospects and cultural long-term fits. He has a strong network across high school, college, financial and agency circles with a track record of identifying undervalued talent and maximizing roster efficiency.

Trickett joins the WVU football staff after spending almost 10 years as a college area scout in the Los Angeles Rams organization. He served one year as the director of football recruiting at Louisiana Tech and was at Florida State for two years as a recruiting assistant.

While with the Rams, he led comprehensive player evaluations integrating film, analytics, verified measurables and psychological/cognitive components to support draft board construction and roster strategy decisions. He also produced in-depth positional value assessments and roster impact reports for multi-year draft planning and contract strategy. He developed internal valuation reports and roster strategy that models and mirrors current NIL/college market structures. He also integrated advanced scouting technology to enhance accuracy in player projection and long-term roster planning.

Trickett was awarded the BART List Award for scouting excellence in 2025 and given the “inside the league” scout/agent organization’s Best Draft Award in 2024.

A native of Morgantown, he earned his bachelor’s degree from Florida State in 2011.

Trickett, and his wife, Ashley, have two children, Tristan and Matthew.

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$665K QB faces scrutiny after decision to stay in college football

Published

2 hours ago

January 9, 2026

Your Sports Nation

The decision to head to the NFL instead of returning to college can be a complicated choice. Massive NIL payouts, potential NFL landing spots, and the solidity of a returning team are several factors that go into the stay-or-go calculus.

But with the 2026 NFL Draft QB class looking a bit thin already, some are second-guessing one QB’s plan to return to school.

Ole Miss QB Trinidad Chambliss is in the middle of requesting another year of college eligibility from the NCAA. Chambliss is claiming that he missed the 2022 season due to respiratory health issues and is thus seeking one more year to play. His NIL value is likely to end up at several times the $665,000 estimate from On3sports.

ESPN broadcaster Chase Daniel second-guessed Chambliss’s decision to return to school. “Trinidad Chambliss should absolutely think abotu entering the draft after the way he’s played in the #CFBPlayoff,” Daniel Tweeted. “Light QB draft,” he also noted.

The 2026 NFL Draft class is highlighted by Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza and, should he enter, Oregon’s Dante Moore. Many are projecting both of those quarterbacks at or near the top of the Draft. But after Mendoza and Moore, things get increasingly cloudy.

Alabama’s Ty Simpson has indicated his plan to enter the Draft. Other veteran QBs like Carson Beck and Cade Klubnik figure to be in the picture. But it’s entirely plausible that NFL teams could view Chambliss as the No. 3 or No. 4 QB prospect in the 2026 NFL Draft class.

Chambliss rose to prominence seemingly from nowhere in 2025. He sat for two years at Division II Ferris State and then played mostly as a reserve in 2023. In 2024, though, he passed for 2,901 yards and 26 scores while rushing for 1,019 yards and 25 scores on the ground while leading Ferris State to the national title.

He began 2025 as the backup for Ole Miss’s Austin Simmons. But an ankle injury in Week 2 gave Chambliss a chance to play and he didn’t relinquish the job. Chambliss wound up passing for 3,937 yards and 22 touchdowns against just three interceptions. He ran for an additional 527 yards and eight touchdowns.

Of course, an adverse NCAA ruling might leave Chambliss with no real choice but to go pro. He has inked a tentative NIL deal with Ole Miss based on the premise that he will be given eligibility. That deal has been indicated as likely worth several million dollars. But Daniel thinks even better NFL money could be in Chambliss’s future… if he seeks it.

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Lane Kiffin due $500,000 payout from LSU after Ole Miss College Football Playoff run

Published

2 hours ago

January 9, 2026

Your Sports Nation

Thursday night, Ole Miss’ run in the College Football Playoff came to an end. The Rebels fell to Miami in the final seconds of the Fiesta Bowl.

With the loss, Lane Kiffin will officially receive a $500,000 payout from LSU within 30 days of the end of Ole Miss’ campaign. That was the amount he was due from Ole Miss, per the terms of his contract, and LSU said it would honor it in his deal with the Tigers. The school included “ancillary benefits” in Kiffin’s agreement after his high-profile departure from Ole Miss.

Ole Miss’ advancement in the College Football Playoff bracket increased Kiffin’s payout, which LSU is due to pay 30 days after the Rebels’ postseason run ends. It would have gone up even more if Ole Miss won the title. Here is how the structure is written out in his deal at LSU.

Ole Miss first-round game participation: $150,000
Ole Miss quarterfinal appearance: $250,000
Ole Miss semifinal appearance: $500,000
Ole Miss CFP national championship appearance: $750,000
Ole Miss CFP national championship win: $1 million

With Thursday’s loss, Ole Miss’ season ended in the College Football Playoff semifinal. As a result, Kiffin is due $500,000. If the Rebels pulled off a win, that figure would have grown to $750,000.

“Coach will be entitled to receive a payment in an amount equal to the amount Coach would have been entitled to receive had he remained Head Coach at Coach’s immediate prior employer and coached the prior employer’s football team through the 2025-26 CFP,” Lane Kiffin’s contract at LSU reads. “… If applicable, the payment under this section may be paid from affiliated foundation funds and shall be paid within 30 days following the prior employer’s team being eliminated from the 2025-26 CFP.”

Miami holds on to beat Ole Miss in Fiesta Bowl

Ole Miss trailed Miami 17-13 at halftime of the College Football Playoff semifinal at the Fiesta Bowl, but mounted a charge in the fourth quarter. The Rebels were able to capitalize on multiple Hurricanes miscues and took their first lead of the game, 19-17, with seven minutes to play.

Miami responded with a touchdown from Malachi Toney, but Ole Miss punched back. After a pass interference penalty extended the drive, Trinidad Chambliss hit Dae’Quan Wright for a touchdown and got the two-point conversion to make it a 27-24 Rebels lead with 3:13 to go.

The Hurricanes didn’t go down easily, though. Carson Beck ran in the go-ahead touchdown with 18 seconds left to make it a 31-27 Miami lead, giving Ole Miss one more shot. But Chambliss’ final Hail Mary fell short, sealing the Hurricanes’ victory and sending the program to the national title game.

However, Miami won’t have to go far for the championship game. The game will be at Hard Rock Stadium Jan. 19. The Hurricanes now wait to find out if they will play Oregon or Indiana.

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The Transfer Portal Era and Pursuit of NIL Money Is Messy. Are There Solutions?

Published

3 hours ago

January 9, 2026

Your Sports Nation

A quarterback reportedly reneging on a lucrative deal to hit the transfer portal, only to return to his original school. Another starting QB, this one in the College Football Playoff, awaiting approval from the NCAA to play next season, an expensive NIL deal apparently hanging in the balance. A defensive star, sued by his former school after transferring, filing a lawsuit of his own.

“It gets crazier and crazier. It really, really does,” said Sam Ehrlich, a Boise State legal studies professor who tracks litigation against the NCAA. He said he might have to add a new section for litigation against the NCAA stemming just from transfer portal issues.

“I think a guy signing a contract and then immediately deciding he wants to go to another school, that’s a kind of a new thing,” he said. “Not new kind of historically when you think about all the contract jumping that was going on in the ’60s and ’70s with the NBA. But it’s a new thing for college sports, that’s for sure.”

Washington quarterback Demond Williams Jr. said late Thursday he will return to school for the 2026 season rather than enter the transfer portal, avoiding a potentially messy dispute amid reports the Huskers were prepared to pursue legal options to enforce Williams’ name, image and likeness contract.

Edge rusher Damon Wilson is looking to transfer after one season at Missouri, having been sued for damages by Georgia over his decision to leave the Bulldogs. He has countersued.

Then there is Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss, who reportedly has a new NIL deal signed but is awaiting an NCAA waiver allowing him to play another season as he and the Rebels played Thursday night’s Collge Football Playoff semifinal against Miami. On the Hurricanes roster: Defensive back Xavier Lucas, whose transfer from Wisconsin led to a lawsuit against the Hurricanes last year with the Badgers claiming he was improperly lured by NIL money. Lucas has played all season for Miami. The case is pending.

Court rulings have favored athletes of late, winning them not just millions in compensation but the ability to play immediately after transferring rather than have to sit out a year as once was the case. They can also discuss specific NIL compensation with schools and boosters before enrolling and current court battles include players seeking to play longer without lower-college seasons counting against their eligibility and ability to land NIL money while doing it.

Ehrlich compared the situation to the labor upheaval professional leagues went through before finally settling on collective bargaining, which has been looked at as a potential solution by some in college sports over the past year. Athletes.org, a players association for college athletes, recently offered a 38-page proposal of what a labor deal could look like.

“I think NCAA is concerned, and rightfully so, that anything they try to do to tamp down this on their end is going to get shut down,” Ehrlich said. “Which is why really the only two solutions at this point are an act of Congress, which feels like an act of God at this point, or potentially collective bargaining, which has its own major, major challenges and roadblocks.”

The NCAA has been lobbying for years for limited antitrust protection to keep some kind of control over the new landscape — and to avoid more crippling lawsuits — but bills have gone nowhere in Congress.

Collective bargaining is complicated and universities have long balked at the idea that their athletes are employees in some way. Schools would become responsible for paying wages, benefits, and workers’ compensation. And while private institutions fall under the National Labor Relations Board, public universities must follow labor laws that vary from state to state; virtually every state in the South has “right to work” laws that present challenges for unions.

Ehrlich noted the short careers for college athletes and wondered whether a union for collective bargaining is even possible.

A harder look at contracts

To sports attorney Mit Winter, employment contracts may be the simplest solution.

“This isn’t something that’s novel to college sports,” said Winter, a former college basketball player who is now a sports attorney with Kennyhertz Perry. “Employment contracts are a huge part of college sports, it’s just novel for the athletes.”

Employment contracts for players could be written like those for coaches, he suggested, which would offer buyouts and prevent players from using the portal as a revolving door.

“The contracts that schools are entering into with athletes now, they can be enforced, but they cannot keep an athlete out of school because they’re not signing employment contracts where the school is getting the right to have the athlete play football for their school or basketball or whatever sport it is,” Winter said. “They’re just acquiring the right to be able to use the athlete’s NIL rights in various ways. So, a NIL agreement is not going to stop an athlete from transferring or going to play whatever sport it is that he or she plays at another school.”

There are challenges here, too, of course: Should all college athletes be treated as employees or just those in revenue-producing sports? Can all injured athletes seek workers’ compensation and insurance protection? Could states start taxing athlete NIL earnings?

“What’s going on in college athletics now is trying to create this new novel system where the athletes are basically treated like employees, look like employees, but we don’t want to call them employees,” Winter said. “We want to call them something else and say they’re not being paid for athletic services. They’re being paid for use of their NIL. So, then it creates new legal issues that have to be hashed out and addressed, which results in a bumpy and chaotic system when you’re trying to kind of create it from scratch.”

Employment contracts would not necessarily allow for uniform rules with an athlete able to go to transfer when terms have been met. Collective bargaining could include those guidelines.

“If the goal is to keep someone at a school for a certain defined period of time, it’s got to be employment contracts,” Winter said.

Photos You Should See – December 2025

TOPSHOT - This aerial view shows people carrying images of the Virgin of Guadalupe during the pilgrimage to the Basilica of Guadalupe through Paso de Cortes, near Amecameca, Mexico on December 9, 2025. (Photo by Alfredo ESTRELLA / AFP via Getty Images)

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NIL contracts with Bison athletes a comprehensive, binding document – InForum

Published

4 hours ago

January 9, 2026

Your Sports Nation

FARGO — North Dakota State athletic director Matt Larsen says “never in a million years” did he foresee his position getting into legal agreements like Name, Image and Likeness contracts with student-athletes. Well, a million years suddenly became 2026.

Another step in the different world of college football is alive and well with the Bison, whose players are required to sign either one of two contracts with the athletic department: a student-athlete participation and publicity agreement that allows the university to use the student-athlete for marketing and promotional purposes and a more comprehensive NIL license agreement that is tied to funds players receive directly from the Green and Gold Fund, the collective that pays student-athletes from the athletic department.

Almost 80% of NDSU football players are part of the latter.

Contracts like NDSU’s are most likely the standard in college football these days.

“I don’t know about every school but I think if you’re doing any sort of in-house institutional NIL, these are the types of things you need to do,” Larsen said. “There are probably varying degrees to how extensive they are. We just felt like we wanted to do it right on the front end.”

NDSU’s NIL license agreement is nine pages of legal language. For instance, there are stipulations that do not allow the athlete to enter into a third-party agreement with a competitor of an athletic department or university sponsor (which is nothing new), such as Under Armour, Scheels, Gate City Bank or Sanford Health, among others.

They are not allowed to represent industries related to alcohol, tobacco, anabolic steroids, gambling or sexually-oriented businesses.

Not all football players are paid and not all are paid the same, with preference given to starters or veterans who contribute the most on the field. The contract specifies the student-athlete have a degree of confidentiality with the exception of the student-athlete’s authorized representative, immediate family members, tax adviser or legal counsel.

The contracts between student-athletes and the university are not subject to open records, mainly because of student privacy rights like the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).

“It’s a completely new world,” Larsen said. “It’s not something I ever thought I would do yet here we are.”

Larsen didn’t want to get into how enforceable the contracts are, although it’s a general assumption that a multi-million dollar agreement with a Power Four athlete is vastly different from a contract with an FCS player.

042225.S.FF.SunderlandOffice9.jpg — North Dakota State athletic director Matt Larsen explains the details of the renovated Sunderland Family Football Office Complex, located inside the Fargodome, on April 21, 2025, during a press conference and ribbon cutting that unveiled the space.

It’s doubtful a school like NDSU would legally go after a player making $10,000 in NIL as opposed to the University of Washington suggesting this week it may take legal action against quarterback Demond Williams Jr., who signed a million-dollar NIL contract last week with the school but said he was entering the transfer portal this week.

All 425 NDSU student-athletes sign the participation and publicity contract, which grants NDSU to use them for promotional purposes. There is no revenue exchanged with the parties.

Both contracts didn’t come about overnight. NDSU met with multiple lawyers, including an external Title IX attorney and the North Dakota University System assistant attorney general, over the summer in creating the agreements.

Football players get paid between two and four times a year depending on their situation with the payments of NIL funds to NDSU athletes being done through a company called Teamworks LLC, an operating system that distributes funds. The company advertises that its platform helps with tax obligations and offers tools for savings and business accounts.

Larsen calls it a general manager tool. More than that, Larsen has become more than a director of his athletic department. Add general manager to that title, too.

“A lot of our terms are all pretty standard,” he said.

Standard, in 2026.

Jeff Kolpack, the son of a reporter and an English teacher, and the brother of a reporter, worked at the Jamestown Sun, Bismarck Tribune and since 1990 The Forum, where he’s covered North Dakota State athletics since 1995. He has covered all 10 of NDSU’s Division I FCS national football titles and has written four books: “Horns Up,” “North Dakota Tough,” “Covid Kids” and “They Caught Them Sleeping: How Dot Reinvented the Pretzel.” He is also the radio host of “The Golf Show with Jeff Kolpack” April through August.

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Washington quarterback Demond Williams Jr reverses transfer decision

Published

5 hours ago

January 9, 2026

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Demond Williams Jr., a college football player who ignited controversy by entering the transfer portal just days after signing a lucrative name, image and likeness deal with Washington, announced late Thursday that he will remain with the Huskies. The abrupt reversal comes amid reports that the university was weighing its legal options to enforce the contract.

Williams, 19, signed an NIL deal on Jan. 2 to remain as Washington’s quarterback for the 2026 season, a contract reportedly valued at around $4 million. Days later — on the same day as the memorial service for Washington women’s soccer player Mia Hamant, who died in November after a long battle with kidney cancer — Williams announced his intention to enter the transfer portal.

Demond Williams Jr. of the Washington Huskies arrives for the game against the Oregon Ducks at Husky Stadium on Nov. 29, 2025 in Seattle, Washington. (Blake Dahlin/ISI Photos/ISI Photos)

The decision, and the timing of Williams’ announcement, was met with both shock and backlash.

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The fallout of that announcement led Williams’ agent, Doug Hendrickson, to drop the quarterback, citing “philosophical differences.” Williams then retained Florida-based attorney Darren Heitner amid reports that the university was exploring legal action to enforce the contract.

But in a shocking reversal, Williams released a statement Thursday confirming that he would be staying with Washington.

“After thoughtful reflection with my family, I am excited to announce that I will continue my football journey at the University of Washington. I am deeply grateful to my coaches, teammates, and everyone in the program for fostering an environment where I can thrive both as an athlete and as an individual,” his statement posted to social media read.

“I am fully committed and focused on contributing to what we are building.”

Demond Williams Jr. of the Washington Huskies celebrates a touchdown against the Oregon Ducks during the second half at Husky Stadium on Nov. 29, 2025 in Seattle, Washington. (Steph Chambers/Getty Images)

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Williams also apologized that his initial announcement “coincided with the celebration of life for Mia Hamant, a beloved member of our University community. I never intended to call attention away from such an important moment.”

In his statement, head coach Jedd Fisch acknowledged the strain caused by the situation and said the program would work with Williams to repair relationships and rebuild trust within the Husky community.

“Over the last few days, Demond and I have engaged in very honest and heartfelt conversations about his present and future. We both agree that the University of Washington is the best place for him to continue his academic, athletic, and social development,” he said in a statement provided by the university.

Demond Williams Jr. of the Washington Huskies passes against the Oregon Ducks during the first half at Husky Stadium on Nov. 29, 2025 in Seattle, Washington. (Steph Chambers/Getty Images)

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“I appreciate Demond’s statement. I support him, and we will work together to begin the process of repairing relationships and regaining the trust of the Husky community.”

Williams is a dual-threat quarterback who threw for 3,065 yards with 25 touchdowns and eight interceptions, while also rushing for 611 yards and six scores during his sophomore season at Washington.

Fox News Digital’s Scott Thompson contributed to this report.

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