The College Sports Commission distributed its long-awaited participation agreement to the Power Four schools this week, nearly five months after activating the NIL Go Portal and beginning to monitor student-athlete payments.
According to CBS News, the CSC hopes the Power Four schools will sign the agreement before the early signing period and transfer portal window opening. Other Division I programs that are not included in the Power Four were sent a separate agreement if they are interested in sharing revenue with student-athletes.
The participation agreement has lagged for months due to disagreements regarding the penalty structure for student-athletes or schools who circumvent CSC or submit inaccurate information.
The participation agreement, “allows the CSC to enforce agreed upon rules, prevents schools from circumventing the system to sue over enforcement decisions they didn't like and requires annual audits of all schools that spent 75 percent or more of the annual rev-share number, among other measures.”
Related: College Sports Commission Launches ‘NIL Go’ Portal to Monitor All Future NIL Deals
One of the most contentious rules included in the agreement stops schools from pursuing jury trials away from the CSC’s enforcement and appeals system. Notably, this rule does not state that schools or student-athletes cannot enter arbitration with the CSC. Instead, it enforces penalties when lawsuits are pursued, stating that schools that bring a suit will "forgo and not receive any and all revenue from its conference and not be eligible to compete in the post-season in the sport(s) involved in the investigation or decision."
Other penalties available to the CSC may include postseason bans, financial penalties for schools, restrictions in the transfer portal, and more.
The CSC stated that once all the Power Four members have signed the participation agreement, it hopes to “bring stability to a landscape where litigation — or the threat of it — has made it nearly impossible for the NCAA to enforce rules.”
