🏅 Top Ten NIL Stories of 2024 (So Far)

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10. NIL Tournaments Could Change Postseason

Earlier this year we heard whiffs that an NIL-driven college basketball tournament could be taking place in Las Vegas as soon as next season. Then, we got confirmation: Sin City will host eight teams for a tournament, each making $1M in NIL just for showing up. Then, the tournament’s winner will get paid an additional $1M. 

Now, that’s a cool story… but top ten worthy? Probably not – unless you read between the lines. If NIL-driven tournaments continue to gain traction, then legitimate challengers could emerge to challenge the traditional post-season playoff formats, like March Madness. These tournaments could lure top-flight teams by offering NIL payouts.

Imagine a world where teams pick between a chance to win March Madness, or a chance to win millions of dollars. That reality may be coming sooner than we think. (More)

9. Collectives are Becoming Marketing Agencies

Because schools were not allowed to pay their athletes directly, NIL collectives took on the role of financial middlemen. NIL money is given to the collective, which in turn distributes it to athletes – usually coordinating with the school itself.

Well, with recent changes allowing schools to pay athletes, collectives are prepping themselves to shift. A middleman may not be quite so important anymore, but raising NIL money is absolutely crucial… and these collectives know how to market players in order to raise money.

That’s why many of them are expecting to become full-time marketing agencies, perhaps even absorbed by the school itself. That way, they can continue to do what they do best – bring in NIL money – in coordination with the athletic departments’ bigger goals. (More)

8. The Shilo Sanders Lawsuit Saga

Things got weird this year when news broke that Colorado’s Shilo Sanders was facing a nearly $12 million assault charge stemming from an incident in high school. The strangest part of the story, however, was what happened next: the should-be millionaire declared bankruptcy.

 That’s surprising because of what we thought Shilo was worth. Sanders topped NIL valuation charts alongside his brother for most of the year. Nearly overnight, Sanders was forced to downplay his NIL brand – which had been built on fashion and flashy jewelry – for fear of the legal ramifications.

 This story is far from over, and will likely continue for the months to come. Whether his NIL brand takes a hit from the controversy is yet to be seen. (More)

7. Big Investments are Coming to College Sports

One thing that’s changed this year: We can’t keep pretending college sports isn’t a money-making machine. NIL showed us how many companies want to invest in college sports, and even more investment is likely coming soon.

Instead of it coming through the athletes (NIL) however, the schools and conferences are opening themselves up to investment. In an effort to diversify their revenue streams, universities are allowing corporate sponsorships on their fields and jerseys. Conferences are in discussions to sell their naming rights. Private equity firms are even interested in getting a slice of the pie.

College sports are a big business, even though they’ve been acting otherwise for quite some time. This may be the year that college sports finally go corporate. (More)

6. Tennessee, Virginia, and Others Sue the NCAA

After the NCAA opened an NIL recruitment investigation against the University of Tennessee early this year, all hell broke loose. Tennessee was fed up with the governing body – so fed up, in fact, that the state’s Attorney General decided to sue the NCAA for restricting athletes’ ability to properly utilize their name, image, and likeness. 

It didn’t stop there. Eventually, Virginia also joined the lawsuit, followed by New York, Florida, and D.C. later in the year. They are all united by the idea that student-athletes should be able to talk about NIL during their recruitment, which gives them the best opportunity to make money.

In February, a preliminary injunction was granted that bars the NCAA from enforcing its previous NIL recruitment rules. That event opened the floodgates for many more legal challenges to the NCAA’s power, which only grew in importance as the year went on. This may not be the most crucial legal issue in NIL this year, but its aftereffects were massive. (More)

5. College Football 25 is Coming

After years of being absent, EA Sports finally found a way to bring a college football video game back to the market. All it took was millions of dollars in NIL compensation.

The game initially went away because players couldn’t be compensated for their name, image, and likeness. Now that they can, the company sent out NIL offers to every college football player in the country. Those offers included $600 each and a free copy of the game.

College Football 25 is set to release later this month, with over 14K NIL opt-ins to date. Oh, and apparently NIL recruiting is built into the dynasty game mode. Not too bad for a ten-year hiatus. (More)

4. The TikTok Ban

About 90% of all NIL deals are structured through social media endorsements – for a company that wants to strike a deal, an athlete’s online following is usually their greatest selling point. In many ways, social media like Instagram and TikTok remain the lifeblood of the NIL industry. 

That’s why the content-creating athletes became worried when the Biden Administration announced that TikTok would be banned from the U.S. unless it divested from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance. Without TikTok, tons of athletes would lose access to a massive portion of their following and, as a result, potential NIL earnings. 

Now, this isn’t a done deal yet. TikTok and ByteDance are challenging the ruling in court, with court dates set for September. The company may still be able to find a stateside investor, too. But if all fails… NIL dealmaking will lose one of its largest platforms. (More)

3. Caitlin Clark Takes the NIL World by Storm 

March Madness is always a big deal, but when you’ve got a superstar like Caitlin Clark in the mix, it becomes a national sensation. Clark’s record-breaking season caught just about everyone’s eyes – including us. That caused us here at NIL Wire to ponder… is Caitlin Clark’s NIL valuation, which at the time was just below $1M, actually too low?

Turns out, we were right. A few days after we published our special edition on Clark, On3 adjusted her NIL valuation to over $3 million. Almost overnight, Clark shot up to the fourth highest NIL valuation in the country, trailing only Bronny James Jr., Shedeur Sanders, and Livvy Dunne.

Clark was arguably the most important college athlete in the country this year. The only thing more fun to watch than her NIL valuation was her on-court heroics for Iowa. (More)

2. The Transfer Portal was Unleashed

When the state of West Virginia complained about the NCAA’s transfer rules, the NCAA fought back… initially. When the Department of Justice joined the lawsuit, however, it became clear everything was going to change. A few months later, the NCAA officially dropped its transfer rules, allowing college athletes to change schools without penalty or a year-long waiting period.

The argument was framed in free market terms: Why does the NCAA get to restrict the potential earnings of a college athlete? By forcing students to stay at one school or forcing them to sit out for a year, the NCAA was restricting their right to make money off of their name, image, and likeness by actually playing. 

What came next was a glimpse into the future of player movement: an unregulated college transfer portal period that resembled… well, free agency. (More)

1. The House Settlement Proposal

This… well, this is what we’re going to be talking about for a long time to come. The House settlement proposal isn’t finalized yet, but when it is, it will immediately become one of the most important events in college sports history. 

Here’s the background: An antitrust lawsuit called House v. NCAA was being litigated in California. In the spring, reports came out that the two parties were discussing a settlement. This settlement would pay out billions of dollars to student-athletes, and completely change how college sports operate.

Now, we seem closer than ever to finalizing that settlement. Schools will be allowed to share their revenue with their student-athletes up to $22 million a year. Meanwhile, they’ll also be paying millions of dollars in back damages over the next decade. 

The House settlement isn’t just the most important story of the year… it’s the beginning of a new era of college athletics. All there’s left to do is buckle up. (More)