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College sports now has two rulebooks, and most athletes don’t know which one applies to them. The House v. NCAA antitrust settlement didn’t just change what athletes can earn. It created an entirely new college athletics enforcement body called the College Sports Commission, and that body is already reviewing deals, tracking payments, and building a compliance record for every participating school. The CSC is not the NCAA. It doesn’t replace the NCAA, and often that’s exactly where the confusion starts for recruits, parents, and coaches trying to make sense of a system that changed fast.
Understanding which governing framework applies to your situation isn’t optional anymore. Whether you’re a student-athlete fielding your first NIL inquiry or a family trying to evaluate a school’s revenue-sharing offer, the rules governing those conversations are different than they were even two years ago.
NCSA by IMG Academy helps athletes understand which rules apply at each stage of the recruiting process and how to stay on the right side of both frameworks at once. This article covers what the College Sports Commission is, what it enforces, and what you need to do before you sign anything.
“With so many changes in college sports, it’s more important than ever to have an expert guiding you through every step of the recruiting process,” said NCSA by IMG Academy recruiting expert John Ludlam.
What the College Sports Commission is and where it came from
A settlement created the need for a new body
The CSC was not created by Congress, a state law, or a federal agency. It was built in 2025 as a direct response to the House v. NCAA antitrust settlement, which restructured how student-athletes at Division I schools can be compensated.
The Power Five conferences –the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, and SEC — formed the CSC because the NCAA’s existing enforcement structure was designed for an era of strict amateurism, not for a system that includes direct athlete pay.
Its authority is contractual, not statutory. Schools that sign participation agreements voluntarily submit to CSC oversight, which means the CSC’s power flows from conference rules, NCAA bylaws, and individual school agreements rather than from any government mandate. That is why the CSC can act independently of the NCAA without technically replacing it.
Who runs it and what its scope covers
As of 2026, Bryan Seeley serves as CEO and oversees operations and stakeholder relationships. John Bramlette handles day-to-day operations along with legal and compliance functions tied to revenue sharing, NIL agreements, and roster limits.
The College Sports Commission’s jurisdiction is deliberately narrow: it covers institutional revenue sharing, third-party NIL agreements, and sport-specific roster limits tied to the settlement. It does not regulate every rule in college athletics.
Its enforcement powers include the ability to investigate suspected violations, issue determinations, impose penalties after giving schools or athletes notice and an opportunity to respond, and administer neutral arbitration for contested decisions.
How the CSC and the NCAA divide the rulebook
What the NCAA still controls
The biggest point of confusion for recruits and families is this: the NCAA did not hand its entire enforcement function to the CSC. Every rule in college athletics that was not created as part of the House settlement remains under NCAA jurisdiction. Academic eligibility, transfer portal rules, amateurism rules outside the settlement, and recruiting conduct rules for coaches are all still NCAA territory.
“With all of these complexities, it’s important to remember: Academics and other key NCAA eligibility rules still apply,” added Ludlam. “They do not change because of the College Sports Commission.”
Athletes and schools must remain compliant with both frameworks simultaneously, because violations of NCAA rules still carry NCAA consequences regardless of anything the College Sports Commission does or doesn’t do.
How does the College Sports Commission affect recruits?
The CSC takes over the moment a House settlement rule is at issue. Any question involving institutional revenue sharing, a third-party NIL deal worth $600 or more, or sport-specific roster compliance falls under CSC authority.
Think of it as a clear dividing line: settlement rules belong to the College Sports Commission; everything else belongs to the NCAA.
Consider a recruit who lands a $2,000 brand deal while also violating a recruiting contact rule with a coach. That athlete could be facing scrutiny from both bodies at the same time, under entirely separate processes, with no guarantee that one outcome affects the other. Knowing which enforcement body owns which issue is the foundation for any compliance conversation. As of 2026, this seems rare – there have been investigations by the College Sports Commission into programs accused of NIL cap invasion, while NCAA investigations have targeted things like participation in sports betting.
NIL Go, explained for athletes and families
What NIL Go is and how it works
NIL Go is the CSC’s dedicated platform for reviewing and recording third-party NIL agreements, serving as the commission’s primary name, image and likeness oversight tool.
Any deal worth $600 or more must be submitted through NIL Go within five business days of signing.
Athletes create an account at NILGo.com using their school email address, sport, NCAA ID, and social media handles. After the institution verifies the account, the athlete enters deal details, uploads the agreement or equivalent documentation, and personally certifies and submits the information. A representative can help with data entry, but the athlete must complete the final submission and is responsible for its accuracy.
The College Sports Commission then reviews the deal against two primary standards: whether it has a legitimate business purpose and whether the compensation is within a reasonable range of the athlete’s market value.
Deals connected to boosters, alumni groups, or collectives face additional scrutiny because the commission looks for arrangements that function as disguised pay-for-play. A straightforward commercial deal, such as a local business paying an athlete for social media posts with a documented promotional purpose, is generally not a problem as long as it’s reported on time with the required documentation.
What “valid business purpose” means in practice
Valid business purpose means the company or person paying the athlete has a real promotional or commercial reason for the deal, not just a desire to funnel money to an athlete because of their sport.
The transaction must use the athlete’s name, image, or likeness to promote or endorse a good or service offered to the public for profit. A nonprofit-funded deal can qualify when the athlete’s activity primarily supports a genuine charitable mission, but that’s the exception, not the rule.
Reasonable market value means the amount paid reflects what the athlete’s platform, social reach, local market, and program prominence would command in a typical commercial setting. The CSC considers factors including follower counts, performance metrics, the athlete’s deliverables under the contract, and the market reach of both the athlete and their institution.
Athletes should never sign an NIL deal without understanding these two requirements, because a deal that fails either test can be flagged, reviewed, and penalized after the fact, even if it was signed in good faith. The CSC periodically releases reports showing the number of deals approved and those held up by the commission – as of October 2026, the large majority of deals were approved.
Revenue sharing and roster limits: what schools can actually pay
The $20 million cap and how CAPS tracks it
Participating Division I schools can now pay athletes directly through athlete revenue sharing oversight mechanisms, on top of scholarships, third-party NIL income, and other permitted benefits. The annual pool is capped at 22% of the average athletics revenue of Power Five schools, which amounts to roughly $20 million per school in the first year.
Schools track and report all institutional payments through the College Athlete Payment System (CAPS), which is a separate reporting tool from NIL Go. Payment agreements must be entered into CAPS within five business days of the final signature, and schools must submit an annual CAPS attestation by September 1 each year covering the preceding July 1 through June 30 period.
CAPS monitors total allocations, remaining cap space, and individual athlete payment records. Certain institutional NIL payments and benefits that would otherwise be impermissible count against the school’s annual benefits cap, while qualifying third-party NIL payments generally do not. That has real implications for how schools structure their compensation offers, and recruits should ask about it when evaluating a school’s financial package.
Roster limits and what they mean for scholarship athletes
Under the CSC framework, schools must submit sport-specific rosters by Commission-set deadlines and stay within defined limits per sport. The framework permits full or partial scholarships for every athlete on a roster, which is a meaningful shift from the historical scholarship-limit model that defined college sports for decades.
However, teams cannot exceed their sport’s roster cap regardless of scholarship type. A few examples: men’s basketball is capped at 15 athletes, women’s soccer at 28, football at 105, and baseball at 34.
Roster limits now affect not just walk-on spots but overall team composition decisions that schools make throughout signing periods. A recruit’s place on a roster carries compliance implications, not just athletic ones.
Schools that are close to their roster cap have less flexibility to add late signees or accommodate transfer additions, which means a recruit’s timing and communication with a program matter more than ever. Understanding the roster limit for your sport before you commit gives you better information for evaluating whether a program can realistically keep you on scholarship.
Read more: How NIL is changing recruiting strategy
What this means for your recruiting journey right now
Practical steps before signing any NIL deal
Athletes already receiving recruiting interest need to treat NIL compliance as part of their recruiting preparation, not an afterthought. Before signing any deal, confirm the offer has a clear commercial purpose tied to your name, image, or likeness.
Document the services expected of you, whether that’s social media posts, appearances, or endorsements, and make sure those obligations are spelled out in writing. Ensure the paying entity is not connected to a booster or collective in a way that could trigger additional scrutiny under the CSC’s review standards.
Once you’re enrolled at a participating school, the five-business-day NIL Go reporting window is firm. Late or missing submissions can create institutional violations that reflect on the school and can also affect your own standing with the commission.
Starting with clean documentation habits – even from small or in-kind deals – before you arrive on campus is far easier than trying to reconstruct deal terms after the fact, advises IMG Academy lead NIL educator Alec Snider. The athlete is ultimately responsible for the accuracy of every submission, regardless of who helped prepare it.
Navigating two rulebooks with the right support
The overlapping rules student-athletes must navigate now involve the NCAA, the College Sports Commission, their school’s compliance office, state law, and in some cases conference-level rules, all at the same time. That complexity is real, and it doesn’t slow down just because signing day is approaching.
NCSA by IMG Academy helps athletes cut through that complexity, matching them with college programs that fit their athletic goals and academic profile across every division and association from Division I to NAIA, while keeping them current on which governing framework applies to their specific situation.
You can also access additional NIL resources through IMG Academy+ Essentials – available through NCSA by IMG Academy paid memberships.
Staying informed throughout the recruiting process, not just at the moment of commitment, is what separates athletes who are proactive from those who are reactive when a compliance question comes up.
It’s also important to know what questions to ask college coaches throughout the recruiting process about navigating these rules and the support provided by the school.
Start here by creating a free profile.
The bottom line on the College Sports Commission
The College Sports Commission is a new, independent NIL enforcement commission that handles the rules created by the House v. NCAA settlement: specifically, institutional revenue sharing tracked through CAPS, third-party NIL agreements reviewed through NIL Go, and sport-specific roster limits. The NCAA handles everything else. These two frameworks run in parallel, and both are active right now for any athlete at a participating Division I school.
Athletes who understand this distinction are far better positioned than those who assume nothing has changed. The rules are newer than most recruiting timelines, which means recruits who start learning them early have a real advantage over those who encounter them for the first time at signing.
Whether you’re sorting through your first NIL deal offer or trying to understand how a school’s revenue-sharing pool affects your college recruiting journey, clarity on the College Sports Commission’s role is the starting point for every conversation that follows. Get that foundation in place early in your recruiting process, and the rest of the process becomes significantly easier to manage.
Questions? Schedule a call with one of our recruiting experts to help.
Frequently asked questions
What does the College Sports Commission do?
The College Sports Commission (CSC) oversees and enforces Division I rules related to revenue sharing, third-party NIL deals and roster limits. It also reviews certain NIL deals through the NIL Go platform to determine whether they meet applicable requirements.
Do high school NIL deals go through NIL Go?
Not while the athlete is still in high school. Prospects planning to compete in Division I must later report qualifying NIL deals of $600 or more through NIL Go after enrolling in college. Generally, this includes payments received beginning July 1, 2025, or the first day of the athlete’s junior year, whichever is later.
What happens if an NIL deal is denied?
If a deal is “Not Cleared” by NIL Go, the athlete can typically revise and resubmit the deal, cancel it and return payments, or appeal the decision. Moving forward with a non-cleared deal without resolving the issue could result in eligibility consequences.
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