In May 2025, as part of a settlement of litigation involving college football, a new entity was created called the College Sports Commission (“CSC” or “Commission”). See news media reports here and here. Among many other purposes, the CSC will monitor and approve name, image, and likeness (“NIL”) agreements for college athletes. As the term implies, NIL rights are the rights owned by an individual to their name, image, and likeness. Generally speaking, a person has a right to prohibit others from using their name, image, and likeness and to be paid for such use. NIL rights can be valuable as, for example, many cinema stars and professional athletes allow use of their names, images, and likenesses in exchange for millions of dollars in payments.

NIL rights have been a major issue in college sports since colleges and universities receive billions of dollars for the rights to broadcast games and competitions. The athletes “do all the work” but, until recently, received none of the money.

That changed. College athletes have been able to monetize their NIL rights for several years now. However, the process of providing NIL rights for athletes has been chaotic, and there have been cases where NIL rights agreements have been less than fair for the athletes involved.

Consequently, one of the most important tasks of the CSC is to evaluate the fairness of NIL agreements. In this regard, the CSC has published a list of 12 factors that will be used by the Commission to evaluate the fairness of NIL agreements. “Fairness” is basically defined as whether the compensation provided in the agreement to the athlete is reasonable and aligns with compensation paid in similar deals. The Commission is empowered to approve or reject NIL agreements. In summary, the 12 factors are as follows:

• Marketability and social media reach of the athlete
• Athletic performance and public profile
• Type and scope of “deliverables” — “deliverables” are a marketing term covering obligations of the celebrity/athlete with respect to types and number of appearances (such as in-person, over-the-phone, social media, etc.), and other types of permitted NIL use (such as cardboard cutouts, etc.); in general, higher payments are warranted for more deliverables
• Market channels (such as geographic area or the internet) and demand
• Length of deal
• Renewal or extension terms
• Any exclusivity
• Market comparables — which is to say, what are other similarly-situated athletes getting paid?
• Booster and donor involvement
• Timing
• Quality and completeness of documentation
• Other issues that might be considered “red flags”

Note that if there is a disagreement about whether an NIL rights agreement is fair, arbitration is provided as a dispute resolution. Since, with respect to college athletes, any NIL rights deal involves three parties (the athlete, the party desiring to pay for the NIL rights, and the college/university), any of the three may start an arbitration. However, if a deal is disapproved by the Commission, re-negotiation is an alternative to filing an arbitration.

Contact the NIL Rights and Esports Attorneys at Revision Legal

For more information, contact the experienced NIL and Esports Lawyers at Revision Legal. You can contact us through the form on this page or call (855) 473-8474.