This week, something significant occurred in Frisco, Texas, and it had nothing to do with a single play on the field. After four days of annual spring meetings at its North Texas headquarters, the Big 12 Conference became the first Power Four conference to have all sixteen of its member schools sign participation agreements with the College Sports Commission. The College Sports Commission is a regulatory body that was established to bring some order to the name, image, and likeness landscape that has changed college athletics since the House v. NCAA settlement last summer. On paper, this milestone sounds bureaucratic, but in reality, it matters much more.
Less than a year ago, the College Sports Commission was established with the specific goals of policing NIL payments, enforcing the new regulations resulting from the House settlement, and stopping the kind of unrestrained spending and recruiting irregularities that had become publicly apparent across Power Four programs. Its main tool is an eleven-page participation agreement, which requires schools to sign it in order to give up their right to sue the CSC, cooperate with all investigations, accept any penalties the agency imposes, and even disregard their own state laws if they conflict with CSC enforcement policy. It’s a big request. It was first requested that all 68 Power Four schools sign it by December of last year. Commissioner Brett Yormark stated, “The Big 12 wants rules and enforcements, and we want to be a leader in that area,” following the meetings. The Big 12 is the only conference that managed to complete it months later. In an environment where conference commissioners typically use cautious, qualified language, Yormark’s directness stands out.
He didn’t say much when questioned about the other Power Four conferences. “I am unable to represent the other conferences. They haven’t signed the participation agreement, despite the fact that they all claim to want regulations and enforcement. In official settings, that’s about as pointed as commissioners can get.
Through its NIL Go clearinghouse, the CSC, which is still less than a year old, has completed over 26,000 NIL transactions totaling approximately $242 million. Agreements worth over $100 million have been turned down or are still being reviewed. It’s interesting to note that the Big Ten and SEC, two conferences that have not yet fully ratified the agreement their schools are reportedly using anyhow, account for more than 75% of all deals submitted. It’s still unclear if the CSC has sufficient power to impose regulations on programs whose conferences haven’t formally acknowledged its authority, or if that dynamic actually poses any accountability issues.
As all of this is happening, it seems like the Big 12 has calculated something that the SEC and Big Ten haven’t yet fully considered. On the record, Yormark admitted that the CSC is still in its infancy and is still figuring out what works and what doesn’t. However, the Big 12’s unanimous board approval—sixteen presidents and chancellors signing together—indicates a shared conviction that a framework, no matter how flawed, is preferable to the alternative. Richard Linton, president of Kansas State, attested to the unanimous vote. Achieving that level of institutional alignment is difficult and should not be taken for granted.
Even on its own, the larger picture of college athletics is intricate. The idea of a salary cap is being floated by a bipartisan Senate bill co-sponsored by Ted Cruz and Maria Cantwell, which has drawn criticism from coaches and athletic directors who doubt Congress can sort out the mess created by decades of amateur athletics and billion-dollar TV deals. A 24-team College Football Playoff is unanimously preferred by Big 12 coaches. Rules for transfer portals are still up for debate. The NIL market is still growing more quickly than any one organization can keep an eye on it. The CSC is an unreliable, novel, and unsupported attempt at a solution. The Big 12 just provided it with the much-needed support of an entire conference.
Nobody can say with certainty whether the SEC, Big Ten, and ACC will eventually follow. Before making a full commitment, the holdouts might be closely observing to see if the CSC fulfills its enforcement commitments. It’s also possible that some people like the ambiguity that exists now. In any case, the Big 12 moved. The remaining collegiate sports are still in the process of making a decision.
