TYSONS, Va. — The College Sports Commission cleared more than $227 million worth of name, image and likeness deals in the two-month period ending Aug. 31, nearly doubling the value of all the deals cleared over its first year of existence.
Much of the increase in the numbers revealed Wednesday can be attributed to a streamlined process with the commission’s NIL Go platform that players and schools use to submit deals, along with more personnel to evaluate deals. The agency now has 29 full-time employees, with 12 devoted full-time to NIL Go.
The commission was established as part of the lawsuit settlement that allows schools to pay players directly through a revenue-sharing system and for third parties to augment that through sponsorship deals.
One of the CSC’s key functions is evaluating NIL contracts between players and “associated entities” - people or companies that have relationships with the schools - to make sure the deals are for a legitimate purpose and at fair market value.
Of the $227 million in deals, $188.6 million were with associated entities. The rest, which do not go under as much scrutiny, were between players and outside sponsors, or “non-associated entities.”
The CSC said it processed an average of more than 200 deals per day, up from 94 over its first year. It said 68% of deals processed between July 1 and Aug. 31 were resolved within seven days.
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