NIL in the news

[Wrestleknownothing]

Everyone's favorite topic.

House Settlement

The deadline to file an appeal of the House Settlement was July 7. Seven appeals have been filed. Three are based on Title IX claims, two are based on the revenue cap, and two are based on the damages distribution.

One of the damage distribution appeals was made by wrestling's own Sebastion Rivera and Ryan Deakin. Go get em boys.

NIL Go Gone and Went After Collectives

The College Sports Commission issued guidance yesterday and what will, and will not, be approved. The took square aim at the collectives.

https://www.collegesportscommission.org/nil/

From their website:

"An entity with a business purpose of providing payments or benefits to student-athletes or institutions, rather than providing goods or services to the general public for profit, does not satisfy the valid business purpose requirement set forth in NCAA Rule 22.1.3.

The requirement is not met even if the particular deal with the student-athlete purports to provide goods or services to the general public. For example, a NIL collective that has a business purpose to pay student-athletes associated with a particular school or schools does not satisfy Rule 22.1.3 when it reaches a deal with a student-athlete to make an appearance on behalf of the collective at an event even if that event is open to the general public and the collective charges an admission fee (e.g., a golf tournament)."

Congress shoots, but do they SCORE?

From The Athletic:

"A bill designed to end ambiguity surrounding name, image and likeness (NIL), establish professional guidelines for agents and protect collegiate leagues from antitrust lawsuits received a strong endorsement from a bipartisan group of nine congressional representatives Thursday.

The Student Compensation and Opportunity through Rights and Endorsements (SCORE) Act, which was introduced in the Energy and Commerce subcommittee, prevents athletes from obtaining employee status. But in many ways, the act is the first step in establishing a bill of rights for athletes."

The article goes on to say the goal of the legislation is to make all the various state laws moot by replacing them with a single federal regulation. It seems like this would also trump the House Settlement if passed.

[MPhillips]

14 minutes ago, Wrestleknownothing said:

But in many ways, the act is the first step in establishing a bill of rights for athletes."

Thanks...

Interesting.

[Wrestleknownothing]

10 minutes ago, MPhillips said:

Thanks...

Interesting.

can't believe I misspelled Sebastian

[MPhillips]

5 minutes ago, Wrestleknownothing said:

can't believe I misspelled Sebastian

Ionel didn't see it so it doesn't count...

[ionel]

2 hours ago, Wrestleknownothing said:

can't believe I misspelled Sebastian

If only you'd pay your interns a living wage.  

 

Also you should probably go thru concussion protocol.  

Edited July 11 by ionel

[ionel]

2 hours ago, MPhillips said:

Ionel didn't see it so it doesn't count...

[Wrestleknownothing]

Hold all tickets. Today the Class Counsel took exception to the College Sports Commission's guidance with regard to collectives.

“We urge the CSC to retract the July CSC Memorandum and clarify that the valid business purpose requirement applies to NIL collectives in the same manner as any other entity,” the letter said. “If the CSC does not retract the statement, Class Counsel will have no choice but to pursue relief from the Special Master as the July CSC Memorandum is already causing injury to class members.”

[CHROMEBIRD]

Didn't want to start a whole new thread just for this, so posting here: so yesterday, I'm out running in this ridiculous heat, decide to hit up a corner store for something cold. I spot this drink that says ENERGY, ZERO SUGAR, and BLUEBERRY, and am immediately like, "yeah, that sounds good" without really paying attention to the rest of the can. Only after buying it do I notice the bigass, extremely obvious Nittany Lion and Happy Valley United on the front.

HVU sounded vaguely familiar, like maybe a PSU soccer club or somethign, and I didn't think too much of it at first. But when I got home I looked up the product and found out that it's a PSU NIL drink! HVU is PSU's NIL Collective and proceeds go towards the school's NIL slush fund. Ptoo! Ptoo! Next time, I'm either reading the can like a book or just sticking to water. Lesson painfully learned!!

Edited July 13 by CHROMEBIRD

[CHROMEBIRD]

Something to keep an eye on: the NCAA and power conferences have actively lobbied Congress to codify a federal NIL framework, which brings us to the SCORE Act (HR 4312). The proposed legislation would:

• Prohibit schools from charging mandatory student fees to subsidize athletics programs and NIL (e.g., Cleveland State's $90/yr "save wrestling" tuition fee, Clemson's $150 athletics fee, portions of Fresno State's $495 instructional activities fee; but not "talent fees" and similar add-ons that are tacked onto season ticket sales)
• Require agents to register and carry a license, and caps their compensation at 5% of the athlete's NIL contract
• Require schools to cover all medical expenses for athletic injuries for at least 3 years after they graduate or leave school, and provide academic, career counseling, and financial assistance if they decide to return to college
• Keep the FBS 16 sport minimum (with at least 8 women's sports), applicable to any program with a coach that earns more than $250k/yr
• Block athletes from being classified as employees of the university based on their participation in sports
• Go back to the one-time transfer rule; multiple transfers still be allowed but the athlete would have to sit the season out
• Grant the NCAA, conferences, and programs an antitrust exemption, as long as they comply with the SCORE framework, mitigating further lawsuits based on anticompetitive practices

So, a mix of good and questionable rules. The bill is still making its way through committee (current draft is here, for the legislative masochists) so who knows how it might be amended or modified, but I think expectations for now are that it'll pass the House and be a cointoss in the Senate. 

[AgaveMaria]

How long before TacoBoy, Pope Trump gets involved and really screws it up?

[ionel]

40 minutes ago, AgaveMaria said:

How long before TacoBoy, Pope Trump gets involved and really screws it up?

Isn't it already screwd up? 

[CHROMEBIRD]

The bill isn't really drawn around partisan lines and isn't a high profile piece of legislation (in the sense that it sparks engagement or sensationalism), so I wouldn't expect Trump to be interested enough to chime in either way. It has support and opposition on both sides, and narrowly made it out of subcommittee by one vote. The bill would essentially have a 60 vote hurdle in the Senate, if it makes it that far. OTOH, there's probably broad agreement and urgency in Congress for a standardized national framework, so there's that. 

The minimum sport requirement and antitrust waiver will probably help keep wrestling around. It'll still suck to be a non-P4 D1 program, but that's been well-hashed and rehashed in all the House Settlement discussions.

[Jason Bryant]

For those interested, I put some of the more notable NIL things (dropped programs, Title IX lawsuits, etc.) in a section in my (mostly) Daily Wrestling Newsletter. It’s free, sign up at: https://mattalkonline.substack.com

For those unfamiliar, I scour the web for news from around the world, linking to them and saving wrestling junkies hours of time searching for news (but likely taking up more time by reading)

[fishbane]

Recently saw the PSU football season ticket prices.  I was surprised to see a "mandatory contribution" for almost all season ticket prices that represents 20-50% of the total price. Is this standard practice in college football? 

My instinct is to think this is either a tactic to get fans to pay a higher price by making 20-50% of the purchase price tax deductible or it's an attempt to artificially move gameday ticket revenue to donations.  It is my understanding that under the house settlement ticket revenue is included in the revenue share, but not donations.

  

 

[CHROMEBIRD]

My feeling is that pretty much all P4+ programs are doing that now in some form. Some programs just add on the additional fee; others bundle it into the price of seats, parking, wifi, etc. or spread it into higher concession prices. It's also a good idea to read the fine print because sometimes those donations are annual contributions that re-up each year. 

A guy I sorta know says his school has the regular season ticket prices and a variable per-seat fee, then another donation that gives you access to select-a-seat. There are different donation levels that (in combination with your prior season purchase history) adds up to "points" you can use to buy specific seats in a section. Then during a specific time window, fans pick their seats based on their total points, with higher point holders selecting first. He says it makes buying season tix a real hassle because they used to get the same seats every year and knew the people in their section. The whole process sounds like a nightmare tbh.

[CHROMEBIRD]

Also, check out USC's pricing model from last season. It's pretty crazy to see since they have Big Ten money (but also a Big Ten schedule and Big Wallet alumni). 

The sad thing is that with these sort of numbers, USC could probably bring back wrestling if they wanted to. The budget would be a drop in the bucket. But, market forces and running the department like a business and such.

[Wrestleknownothing]

On 7/11/2025 at 8:00 PM, Wrestleknownothing said:

Hold all tickets. Today the Class Counsel took exception to the College Sports Commission's guidance with regard to collectives.

“We urge the CSC to retract the July CSC Memorandum and clarify that the valid business purpose requirement applies to NIL collectives in the same manner as any other entity,” the letter said. “If the CSC does not retract the statement, Class Counsel will have no choice but to pursue relief from the Special Master as the July CSC Memorandum is already causing injury to class members.”

Apparently the CSC has reached an agreement with the Class Counsel to treat the collectives the same way they treat other businesses when evaluating NIL deals.

[fishbane]

23 hours ago, CHROMEBIRD said:

Also, check out USC's pricing model from last season. It's pretty crazy to see since they have Big Ten money (but also a Big Ten schedule and Big Wallet alumni). 

The sad thing is that with these sort of numbers, USC could probably bring back wrestling if they wanted to. The budget would be a drop in the bucket. But, market forces and running the department like a business and such.

That is wild.  You could be paying 30x the ticket price in gifts at the highest tiers. On the other hand it looks like there are more no contribution tickets available at USC.  I checked a few other teams (Wisconsin, Ohio State, JMU) and they all seem to have a similar thing to PSU, but not as crazy as USC. 

The whole system is bizarre.  It's like Comcast is selling the tickets, but instead of junk fees it's junk gifts because they are non-profits.  In a lot of cases it is literally the government doing this nonsense. At least USC is a private corporation.

My understanding is that the house settlement allows teams to share up to $20.5 million with student athletes.  This was calculated by 22% of the average revenue of the teams in the Power 5.  I think ticket sales, but not donations are used in the revenue calculation. That makes some sense when you are getting one time gifts for a new wrestling room/stadium/whatever, but if tickets are sold at below market rates and 75% of the stadium is forced to donate 20-3,000% of the ticket price it fundamentally changes the meaning of the calculation.  How many of those people would donate the same amount of money without the ticket?

Small market teams might have a larger incentive to hide this income to limit the spending of the big market teams.  In the end if doesn't really matter because the rich teams are all spending more than that through NIL as it stands.  They are simultaneously hiding ticket revenue in donations and hiding player salaries in NIL payments.  It must be such a mess to coordinate vs just running a traditional professional sports team.

[Wrestleknownothing]

Revenue categories for calculating the 22% are:

1. ticket sales,
2. input revenue from participation in away games,
3. media rights revenues,
4. NCAA distributions and grants;
5. non-media conference distributions;
6. direct revenues from participation in football bowl game,
7. conference distribution of non-media and non-football bowls and football bowl revenues;
8. and athletics department revenues from sponsorships, royalties, licensing agreements, advertisements and sponsorships.

@fishbane, I think you are probably right, the gift is meant to help pay for the 22% while not being included in future percentage calculations. The 22% will already have been calculated before this gift. It is then kept at the level for three years with a 4% elevator. After three years it is recalculated. 

I am assuming these gifts are not considered royalties.

[CHROMEBIRD]

Yeah, that USC graphic also has some hidden fees, for example season parking is complimentary for the top 3 tiers, but the middle tiers (4-6) pay an additional $1,000-3,000 if they want to park their car. Tiers 7-9 aren't offered parking. California is supposed to have an "all in" pricing law now but that's just the seat + "required contribution" price; stuff like requiring a certain membership donor level just to qualify to buy season tickets, parking (since it's technically optional), etc. are still separate. 

I guess buying expensive season tickets might be a flex to some people, but even the pricing at lesser P4 programs seem a little out of step reality. That's a lot of money for 7 or so football games. 

I think the reason why the pricing is split between the seating and contribution is because of the revenue calculation as y'all say. The salary/spending cap is based on generated revenue. The contributions are basically fundraising and are to keep the athletic dept's lights on.

[fishbane]

$1000 for parking for 7 dates is insane.  

Setting aside the implications for the revenue share calculation. I don't really think anyone should be able to deduct any portion of the price of a sports ticket on their taxes.  It is pretty clear that is what's happening with PSU pricing.  The worst ticket in the stadium and the best only have a price difference of less than $70/season.  The contribution is different by >$600.

On 7/18/2025 at 3:24 PM, CHROMEBIRD said:

SCORE Act (HR 4312). The proposed legislation would:

• Prohibit schools from charging mandatory student fees to subsidize athletics programs and NIL (e.g., Cleveland State's $90/yr "save wrestling" tuition fee, Clemson's $150 athletics fee, portions of Fresno State's $495 instructional activities fee; but not "talent fees" and similar add-ons that are tacked onto season ticket sales) 

One reason I looked at JMU when looking up season ticket prices is because their sports teams are most heavily subsidized by mandatory student fees.  I thought perhaps it might be a little different there.  Students at JMU pay mandatory fees of over $5000/year.  About half of the fee goes to funding athletic programs.  There are already state laws in VA that JMU are violating due to the size of the fee.

The two FBS schools that most heavily rely on their own students to fund football are VA public universities in the Sun Belt that dropped wrestling to focus on football.  JMU and ODU.  The Clemson/CSU/Fresno fees are a deal by comparison.

[CHROMEBIRD]

Wow! Have all the Sun Belt schools opted-in to revenue sharing? ESPN was saying that Fresno State would have to break up the mandatory athletic fee, which I assume is something they already do for internal accounting purposes, and eliminate or reallocate the line items that go towards D1 sports. Sounds like it'll be a pretty big hit to those schools either way, though if the legislation passes.

There used to be an 80/20 deduction rule where ticket buyers could deduct 80% of the "athletic contribution fees" on their taxes, but that went away under the first Trump administration. I think the only way they can still be tax-deductible is if there's no direct benefit to the buyer (i.e., doesn't give you priority access to preferential seating). 

I guess the upside, if it can even be called that, of the mandatory fees at massive D1 schools is that in theory the cost should be diluted across 50k+ or whatever students, but I get the feeling that it just furthers the Big Football/Big Basketball arms race and causes programs to spend more.

[fishbane]

1 hour ago, CHROMEBIRD said:

Wow! Have all the Sun Belt schools opted-in to revenue sharing? ESPN was saying that Fresno State would have to break up the mandatory athletic fee, which I assume is something they already do for internal accounting purposes, and eliminate or reallocate the line items that go towards D1 sports. Sounds like it'll be a pretty big hit to those schools either way, though if the legislation passes.

There used to be an 80/20 deduction rule where ticket buyers could deduct 80% of the "athletic contribution fees" on their taxes, but that went away under the first Trump administration. I think the only way they can still be tax-deductible is if there's no direct benefit to the buyer (i.e., doesn't give you priority access to preferential seating). 

I guess the upside, if it can even be called that, of the mandatory fees at massive D1 schools is that in theory the cost should be diluted across 50k+ or whatever students, but I get the feeling that it just furthers the Big Football/Big Basketball arms race and causes programs to spend more.

All Sun Belt teams have opted into or rather not opted out of revenue sharing.  The VA law limits mandatory student fees to 55% of the athletic budget.  JMU was way above that.  I think they got on some schedule to come into compliance after joining the Sun Belt Conference.  Not sure if that has happened, but if SCORE is a total prohibition then I'm sure they are nowhere near compliance.

Large fees to subsidize intercollegiate athletics is more of a Virginia thing than a Sun Belt conference thing.  Even some schools without FBS programs do it.  Below is a table from of the fee breakdown at VA public schools from a couple years ago.  The amount of athletic spending from student fees at UVA and VT are subject to a lower limit of something like 20 or 25%. 

You're right I was wrong about the deductibility of the mandatory contribution.  I suppose the only benefit to not just charging the ticket price would be to juke the the numbers for the revenue share.  Of the schools I looked at Wisconsin was unique in that they referred to it as a recommended contribution.  I wonder how likely you are to get tickets if you opt out of that recommendation and it the slightly different language would make it deductible. 

[ionel]

https://www.kcci.com/article/iowa-state-athletic-department-budget-gap-147-million-2031/65513078