Welcome back! This blog posts pick up from the last and touches on the permissible types of compensation allowed under the House Settlement Agreement.
The new $20.5M in revenue share can take many different forms. At the outset, I must say that student-athletes having qualified, attorney representation is now more important than ever. As explained below, the types of agreements student-athletes can negotiate can now be complex by involving licensing of intellectual property rights (NIL rights), very lucrative, and have a lot at stake—commentators are already talking about schools implementing forfeiture (student-athletes losing the right to receive payments) and buy-out clauses (a student-athlete will have to pay the school to transfer). Thus, I highly recommend hiring a qualified attorney for these agreements. The Settlement Agreement now enables the Power 5 schools & Notre Dame to provide:
"for NIL, institutional brand promotion, or otherwise"
Schools can now make direct payments to and do their own NIL deals with student-athletes, including to promote the school or football program. Now, these deals are subject to an important restriction: they cannot include compensation for use of the student-athlete’s NIL for a broadcast of collegiate athletic games or competitive athletic events.
According to the Settlement Agreement, this includes “vehicles, travel expenses, etc.” — meaning there’s flexibility for many different types of benefits that schools can provide to student-athletes.
Alston awards are education-related awards, including academic achievement awards (GPA and graduation bonuses), study abroad stipends, and academic incentive payments.
Check back in for the next blog post on the brand new College sports Commissions and the new rules governing NIL compensation!
Jordan Duval is a Sports and Litigation Attorney based in New York City and a former Division 1 athlete who played football for the University of South Florida (USF—go Bulls!).
This blog post and information included herein represents my personal opinions and not the opinions of my employer, Proskauer Rose LLP. This document and information herein is for informational purposes only and is not and does not contain legal advice, and you should consult an attorney when engaging in contract interpretation or negotiation, interpretation of the law, and any other similar activity. The information provided herein is only a general overview and is not meant to fully explain each topic or legal concept discussed, let alone replace legal advice from an attorney. Last updated July 2025.
