The College Sports Commission has approved name, image and likeness deals totaling $7.5 million for 18 Nebraska football players who were initially denied by the CSC early this year.
According to Mitch Sherman of The Athletic, Nebraska restructured and then resubmitted the deals, funded through Playfly, the school’s multimedia rights partner, after an arbitrator in May upheld the CSC decision.
"The Nebraska case was notable in that it represented the first major challenge — though surely not the last — of a ruling by the CSC, which was created by the power conferences in the wake of the 2025 House v. NCAA settlement to police payments to college athletes," Sherman wrote Wednesday after Nebraska athletics director Troy Dannen announced the reversal.
The CSC initially rejected the deals because it categorized Playfly as an “associated entity” of the school, similar to an NIL collective, Sherman reported, adding the deals were restructured to avoid the CSC definition of “warehousing,” a type of payment prohibited by the House settlement.
"In the warehousing concept, a company purchases the NIL rights of an athlete without issuing specific deliverables," Sherman wrote. "Full payments to the 18 impacted athletes will be made, according to Dannen, after the newly specified responsibilities are met."
“We don’t have a backlog,” Dannen said.
According to Sherman, many athletic departments are turning to third-party NIL deals to exceed the $20.5 million cap on revenue that the House settlement, as currently structured, allows schools to share directly with their athletes.
"Nebraska and others used marketing partners such as Playfly and contracted apparel companies to fund payments above the cap," Sherman wrote. "The result of the Nebraska case may lead to other restructured deals that prevent arbitration hearings and court battles."
