← Back to the libraryCollege and NIL

What is NIL Go, and how are college NIL deals approved?

By McKinley Malbrough III, J.D., MS-HRM · Certified WNBA player agent · Former certified NBA agent

Published October 17, 2026. Last updated October 17, 2026.

What is NIL Go?

It is the reporting and review system the College Sports Commission (CSC) runs for third-party NIL deals, with support from Deloitte, according to a Raines Legal Group FAQ. The CSC is the body created after the House settlement to enforce the revenue-sharing cap and review outside deals, as explained in the revenue sharing guide.

Division I athletes must report third-party deals with a total value of $600 or more, per Raines Legal Group. The threshold applies in the aggregate with a particular payer, so splitting a payment into smaller pieces does not necessarily avoid reporting, per Raines Legal Group.

When does a deal have to be reported?

Within days of signing. The CSC's January 2026 letter put the reporting window at five days from execution, per Bradley, and another law-firm summary counts five business days, per Raines Legal Group. The safe course is to report on the day the deal is signed.

A contract with a school's multimedia rights partner counts as an NIL contract and must be reported, even if the partner plans to find sponsors later, per Bradley. The same letter said an agreement must be disclosed whatever label it carries.

How does the review work?

Deals with an associated entity get the full review. That means an associated entity, a payer tied to a specific school, such as a booster or a collective. Per Business of College Sports, deals with one are reviewed for a valid business purpose and a reasonable range of compensation. Those deals face two tests:

• Valid business purpose. The payer must have a real commercial reason to use the athlete's NIL. Vague duties tied to large payments are the CSC's concern, per Raines Legal Group.
• Range of compensation. The pay must fall within a reasonable range tied to fair market value. Factors that commonly affect what a business will pay include geography, audience, sport, deliverables, exclusivity and the scope of rights licensed, per Raines Legal Group.

A deal with an associated entity must also include direct activation of the athlete's NIL rights, per Bradley. Paying for rights with no plan to use them is what the CSC calls warehousing, and per Forbes and Business of College Sports it fails the business purpose test.

The rules loosened in July 2026. Deals worth $600 to $15,000 are no longer checked for range of compensation until an athlete reaches $50,000 in associated deals in an academic year, per Business of College Sports.

How many deals has NIL Go approved and rejected?

The most recent count runs through August 31, 2026: 46,478 deals cleared, worth $582.49 million, and 2,296 deals not cleared, worth $156.93 million, per Yahoo Sports. Dates matter because the totals grow every month.

The July row comes from Business of College Sports and the August row from Yahoo Sports. By the August totals, about one decided deal in 20 was not cleared (2,296 of 48,774).

The pace is picking up: the commission cleared $227.25 million in July and August alone, its highest two-month total, per NIL Newsstand. Nearly 70% of deals were resolved within a week of NIL Go receiving all required information, per Yahoo Sports. A Forbes report listed three reasons deals were turned down: no valid business purpose, no direct activation of the athlete's NIL, and pay out of line with similar athletes.

How does the review treat a typical deal?

It depends on who pays. Take an athlete with a $9,000 deal from a local business that has no tie to the school. The athlete reports it, and because the payer is not an associated entity, the deal does not get the business purpose or pay range review.

Now take the same $9,000 from a collective. The deal gets the business purpose test and a check that the athlete has real duties to perform. Since July 2026 it skips the pay range test until the athlete's associated deals reach $50,000 in an academic year. The money is identical, and the review is not. That is why the payer matters as much as the amount.

The CSC also said in January 2026 that investigations into unreported third-party agreements were already underway and certain institutions should expect contact, per Bradley. An unreported deal is a separate problem from a rejected one.

What happens when a deal is rejected?

A deal that is not cleared can be revised, cancelled with any money returned, or appealed to a neutral arbitrator, and an athlete who goes ahead with it anyway risks penalties, including loss of eligibility, as the commission set out in July 2025, per CBS Sports. Two 2026 arbitration results show how appeals go, per Business of College Sports. In May 2026 an arbitrator upheld the CSC's rejection of $7.5 million in deals between 18 athletes at one school and a sports marketing company, because the rights were warehoused. In June 2026 an arbitrator sided with two athletes at one school whose deals had been blocked on range of compensation. The CSC then revised its pay model with new data and the deals were approved.

The lesson is that the review is not a one-way door. Agents notice that disputes over a deal tend to come down to what is written about the work the athlete will do.

What should athletes and families do?

• Put specific deliverables in writing: posts, appearances, dates and who uses the athlete's NIL.
• Keep proof that each deliverable happened.
• Report every payer in total, not deal by deal.
• Treat the income as taxable, using the NIL tax guide.
• For high school athletes, remember that NIL Go covers Division I athletes, while high school NIL runs on state rules, covered in the high school NIL guide.

Whether one deal clears depends on its terms, and the school's compliance office is the place to ask before signing.