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When do student-athletes have to report their third-party NIL deals?

Updated over a week ago

All Division 1 student-athletes must use NIL Go to report third-party NIL deals with compensation that equals or exceeds $600 or more in the aggregate. This must be done on NIL Go within five business days of execution of the NIL contract or otherwise agreement to the contract or payment terms. The College Sports Commission strongly encourages student-athletes to refrain from accepting payment until they have reported and cleared their deal in NIL Go.

Student-athletes who have deals that were executed prior to June 7, 2025, only need to report deals that have payments that continue after June 30, 2025. They have until July 1, 2025 to report these on NIL Go.

What if the payment is in the form or royalties or commission rather than a fixed amount?

If the deal documentation does not specify a fixed amount of compensation and instead allows for the student-athlete to be paid an unknown future sum or sums based on commission or royalties, the deal should be reported within five business days of the compensation provided to the student-athlete reaching $600 or above. The deal submission should include the royalty or commission rate for the deal compensation. Student-athletes are able to report deals to NIL Go before deal compensation reaches the $600 reporting threshold.

Example: Student-athlete signs a third-party NIL contract on July 1, which provides for them to be paid a portion of t-shirt sales on a monthly basis. On July 30, student-athlete receives a royalty payment of $100. On August 30, student-athlete receives a royalty payment of $400. On September 30, student-athlete receives a royalty payment of $200, taking the total compensation received from the payor to $700. The student-athlete must now report the deal in NIL Go within five business days.

The deal only needs to be entered once, provided that the terms of the deal (e.g. the royalty rate) do not change.

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