College recruiting has built on the backs of broken promises for decades. Having the ability to promise money legally with NIL was never going to change that apparently.
Last year the NCAA announced they would have a new clearinghouse process in place to approve NIL deals. Anything over $600 would be under a microscope. To the surprise of no one most of the deals in college football are over $600 and a lot of those deals are currently held up in review.
According to Ross Dellenger, Winston & Strawn, one of the law groups representing NCAA athletes, are now inquiring about the process as a whole. That is due to delays in deals that are, in some cases, taking upwards of 90 days to figure out.
Millions of NIL cash promised to football players is at risk in the clearinghouse.
A law firm is inquiring with stakeholders about delays and rejections related to the College Sports Commission’s NIL Go.
More in our weekly sports biz column for @On3 – https://t.co/iwLPdL8YIT
— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) March 5, 2026
The bigger question being asked is what exactly the criteria is for the clearinghouse to make a ruling on what’s approved and not approved. Last year Deloitte was asked to be a part of the process and the consulting group created an algorithm to track and assess different levels of compensation and the deals attached to them.
Nearly all of the deals under review fall outside of the revenue sharing umbrella amount that all schools have to spend across their athletic department. Most of the most scrutinized deals fall under the category of collectives or university corporate sponsors.
NEWS: Arkansas and Tyson Foods have struck a sweeping new partnership with a fascinating twist.
The deal places Tyson’s logo on all 19 Arkansas team jerseys — and about 90% of the money will go directly to Arkansas athletes through NIL deals.
Story: https://t.co/dBi1aVblFm pic.twitter.com/8Deqk4OOAM
— Brandon Marcello (@bmarcello) March 4, 2026
The big concern here is two fold. One, are players that were promised a certain amount of compensation actually going to be compensated? The other is if player deals are denied and they keep or refuse to give back the money, are they ineligible?
That brings us to the biggest question of all – will that even matter?
Pushing back on the inequities of NIL spending and shady deals is something I will support. Paying collegiate athletes was definitely long overdue, however it was not necessary enough to implement it would come at the detriment to the sport as a whole. Dwindling down the pool of elites in college sports to the highest bidders sucks.
Sadly, getting lawyers and the government involved to help combat greed and corruption is like getting OJ Simpson involved as a marriage counselor.
