NIL could change significantly next season after the House settlement. There will be a new enforcement regime and mechanisms to approve future NIL deals. Some people are skeptical, some think it can work.
Skeptics say cash to players for commercial endorsements often far exceeds the service's actual value.
www.espn.com
Per this ESPN article:
Starting this summer, schools will be allowed to pay players directly as part of an industry-shifting antitrust settlement of three federal lawsuits collectively known as the House settlement.
The deal, which still needs to receive final approval from a federal judge, would set a limit on how much each school could give to its athletes on an annual basis -- starting at roughly $20.5 million next year.
To help keep wealthier teams from using boosters or NIL collectives to gain an advantage by exceeding the cap, the NCAA's power conferences are creating a clearinghouse, separate from the NCAA, to approve future NIL deals between players and boosters. The House settlement states that athletes have to report any NIL deal they sign with a third party that is worth more than $600 and that any such deal has to be for a "valid business purpose."
Acceptable deals, deemed "real NIL," can range from a national advertising campaign for, say USC women's basketball star JuJu Watkins, to a three-figure appearance fee at a local car dealer for a lesser known athlete.
The power conferences have contracted with auditing giant Deloitte to review booster NIL deals and decide whether each is a legitimate endorsement contract or a veiled attempt to circumvent the salary cap.
Deloitte plans to use data from past endorsement deals signed by college and professional athletes along with other information to pinpoint whether each deal exceeds an athlete's fair market value.
The power conferences are also creating a new organization tasked to enforce the salary cap and "fair market value" rules. This new entity will be separate from the NCAA's enforcement arm. Several of the college sports leaders involved in creating the new entity say it's an attempt to fully reset the crime-and-punishment process of college sports that has long been criticized for its lack of efficiency, transparency and equal treatment among offenders. It could be in place as soon as July 1.
A group of 10 power conference athletic directors have been meeting regularly during the past six months to design the new organization but have not publicly shared any details about what kinds of punishments a school or its athletes might face if they break the rules or how they intend to solve the same problems that roiled the NCAA's enforcement team.
The settlement will give them some new tools -- most notably a binding arbitration process that could speed up resolutions, provide the new enforcement group with greater power to compel coaches and schools to turn over evidence and make it more difficult to challenge punishments in court.