What You Need to Know About NIL Deals Before Playing College Sports
If you’re a high school student-athlete planning to play sports at a Division I school, you must comply with the rules around third-party Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) deals. This includes being prepared to disclose all NIL deals worth $600 or more to the College Sports Commission upon enrollment in college. Failure to comply with these rules could result in you being deemed ineligible to compete in Division I sports.
What is an NIL deal?
An NIL deal is any agreement in which you are compensated (money, products, or services) for allowing a company, brand, or person to use your
name, image, or likeness, such as posting about a brand on social media, appearing at an event or promoting a company’s products or services.
What NIL Deals are Allowed?
Any NIL deal for which you received payment since July 1, 2025 or at the start of your junior year of high school, whichever is later, must be
reported, and if the deal involves a person or company associated with the Division I college you eventually decide to attend, the deal must be
made with the purpose of using your NIL for a valid business purpose and must not exceed a reasonable range of compensation.
Deals with entities and/or individuals not associated with your eventual school; and deals with entities and/or individuals associated with your eventual school that satisfy all of the following criteria:
Deals with entities and/or individuals associated with your eventual school where:
What to Report:
You’ll be required to report any third-party NIL deal worth $600 or more with payments made from the start of your junior year of high school or since July 1, 2025—whichever was later. If you have several smaller deals with the same company or person that add up to $600 or more, you must report those too.
When to Report:
You must report your NIL deals either:
- Within 14 days after you start full-time classes at your new school, or
- Before your first game as a Division I student-athlete—whichever comes first
How to Report:
When you register and get started at your new school, you’ll get set up to enter your deals into NIL Go, the online platform the College Sports Commission uses to evaluate compliance with the rules.
Why Does it Matter?
Complying with the NIL rules is required to be eligible to play Division I college sports. Not following these rules could put your eligibility at risk. If an issue arises with an NIL deal, your school and the College Sports Commission will try to help you address it to avoid any eligibility consequences.
What Do I Need To Do Now?
Comply with the rules as outlined above and keep detailed records of all NIL deals you enter into. Once you get to college, you’ll be required to report all deals with payments dating back to the start of your junior year of high school or July 1, 2025, whichever was later, and those deals will need to be cleared in order for you to be eligible to play.
FAQ’s
No. Only deals that include payments made from the first day of a student-athlete’s junior year of high school are subject to the NIL rules and therefore need to be reported.
Reporting NIL deals is required to be eligible to play Division I college sports. Not reporting or reporting deals late can put a student-athlete’s eligibility at risk.
Complying with the NIL rules is required to be eligible to play Division I college sports. If a student-athlete was party to a deal that is not allowed under the rules, the student-athlete’s eligibility could be at risk. Student-athletes will be required to work with their school and the College Sports Commission to cancel or pay back the deal in order to avoid any eligibility consequences.
Once a student-athlete enrolls at their Division I institution, the school’s compliance staff will provide robust educational materials on how to report pertinent NIL deals into the NIL Go platform.
Range of Compensation (RoC) is a framework for determining if a student-athlete’s third-party NIL compensation is commensurate with compensation paid to similarly situated individuals with comparable NIL value. The RoC is a deal level calculation that is intended to capture a student-athlete’s unique NIL value based upon multiple factors, including but not limited to:
- The deal’s performance obligations.
- The student-athlete’s athletic performance and social media reach.
- The local market and the market reach of the student-athlete’s institution and program.
The RoC will also be informed by external benchmarks. If a student-athlete’s payment matches what’s standard for others in their similar situation, it’s considered within the RoC.
If a student-athlete was party to a deal that is not allowed under the rules, the student-athlete’s eligibility could be at risk. Student-athletes will be required to work with their school and the College Sports Commission to cancel or pay back the deal in order to avoid any eligibility consequences.
Alternatively, if an NIL deal is not cleared, within 14 days after notice of the decision, the student-athlete may appeal the decision to a neutral arbitrator.
More Questions?
Please reach out to info@collegesportscommission.org.
