NCAA launching disclosure database NIL Assist with Teamworks

The NCAA is launching a new disclosure and voluntary agent database on Thursday.

Working with NIL service provider Teamworks, the NIL Assist platform connects athletes with service providers, tracks disclosures of NIL activities and provides access to evolving trends across the landscape.

The move comes after the long-form settlement of the House v. NCAA suit was filed last week. The mobile-friendly, web-based platform NIL Assist will include a “rate your experience” tool so athletes can share reviews of service providers.

“Before I even started in my new role at the NCAA, one of the first things I heard from student-
athletes and their families was that the NIL landscape was confusing and challenging to navigate,” NCAA president Charlie Baker said in a statement. “It was a priority for me from day one to find ways to help student-athletes pursue and capitalize on NIL opportunities with confidence, and a little over a year later, the launch of this platform will help them do exactly that.”

Plenty of elements were revealed when the long-form settlement was filed last week with Judge Claudia Wilken in the Northern District of California court, but details about enforcement were scarce.

The most striking takeaway from the long-form settlement was how aggressively the NCAA continues to try to prohibit donor-driven collectives from providing athletes with compensation packages that are not tied to endorsement deals.

In the three years since the NIL Era dawned, collectives have filled a void to routinely give athletes dollars strictly for recruiting and retention efforts.

As part of the settlement, athletes will be required to report deals of more than $600 with third-party collectives to a newly created clearinghouse. The NCAA is also creating a public database as it tries to get a handle on what it calls “fair market value.”

What is the House v. NCAA settlement?

The broad strokes of the 10-year settlement include athlete revenue sharing, new roster limits for every sport and arbitration to enforce disputes. The expectation is lawyers will pick arbitrators before the final hearing of the suit.

Wilken must still certify the historic settlement in the coming months – or more likely early next year – which legal experts caution is not a foregone conclusion. In the interim, Wilken could balk at elements in the settlement, which would send both sides back to the negotiating table, and athletes will be given a 90-day period to opt out of the settlement.

The settlement terms are historic: Some $2.75 billion in damages will be paid to thousands of college athletes who competed from June 2016 to today over a 10-year period. The average damages award for a football or men’s basketball player at a Power Five conference school will be approximately $135,000.

And beginning a year from now, schools, at their discretion, will be able to share $21-22 million annually with athletes. The figure equates to 22% of the average Power Five school’s revenue. It will rise 4% each year.

The total value of new payments and benefits to college athletes is expected to exceed $20 billion over the next 10 years, making it one of the largest antitrust class-action settlements in history, plaintiffs’ attorneys contend.

“College athletes will finally be able to share in the billions of dollars their compelling stories and dynamic performances have generated for their schools, conferences, and the NCAA,” the settlement said. “This is nothing short of a seismic change to college sports following more than four years of hard-fought victories in this case.”