The NCAA’s new name, image and likeness transparency platform, NIL Assist, went live on Thursday morning, providing deidentified NIL compensation information, as well as a service provider registry and educational programming.

The app and website, created in conjunction with Teamworks, creates for the first time a public database-like platform where athletes and the public can find the average and median earnings for NIL deals, sortable by conference, sport, position and type of NIL transaction. It can show, for example, what an average SEC quarterback makes for a social media post.

In January, the Division I Council adopted new rules requiring athletes to disclose to their schools any NIL agreement exceeding $600, including terms of the deal, services rendered and payment. The schools then must share the information, stripped of names, to the NCAA at least twice per year. More than 20 states already require similar disclosures.

“We’ve heard from coaches, student-athletes, their families, they want some information about what the market is yielding, and we think if we do it publicly, that’s the best way to do it,” NCAA vice president of academic and membership affairs David Schnase said. “There are going to be some who want way more information than this is going to…

In a nod to its four West Coast newcomers, the Big Ten will hold its men’s and women’s basketball tournaments in Las Vegas one time each in the next four years, the league office announced Wednesday.

The news comes eight days after Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti announced that Indianapolis’ Lucas Oil Stadium will remain as host of the Big Ten football championship game through 2028.

Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena will host the 2027 women’s and the 2028 men’s basketball tournament. The Pac-12, the former home of new Big Ten members USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington, staged its men’s basketball tournament at T-Mobile Arena from 2017 to 2024; its women’s tournament had been held at other Las Vegas venues since 2019.

Other men’s basketball tournament future sites includes Indianapolis’ Gainbridge Fieldhouse in 2025 and ’27 and Chicago’s United Center in ’26. Gainbridge Fieldhouse also will stage the ’25 and ’26 women’s basketball tournaments, while Detroit’s Little Caesars Arena will host for the first time during the 2028 tournament.

“I’ve been really pleased in the interest from cities across, not just from the football side, but men’s and women’s basketball was just really good,” Petitti told The Athletic last week.

It’s a similar move to the…

New documents were filed in the historic House v. NCAA case on Friday, the next step in formalizing the settlement agreement that will reshape college sports. They provide additional details on the previously announced $2.8 billion in back-pay damages to be paid out over 10 years to former Division-I athletes dating back to 2016, as well as a 10-year revenue-sharing model that could distribute money directly from athletic departments to college athletes starting in 2025. The documents also detail other aspects of the settlement agreement, including the institution of roster limits and potential establishment of an oversight program for future NIL deals.

Judge Claudia Wilken still needs to approve the settlement.

The terms were agreed to in principle in May. Filed in the Northern District Court of California, the settlement is an effort to resolve multiple class-action antitrust lawsuits against the NCAA and Power 5 conferences: House v. NCAA, Hubbard v. NCAA and Carter v. NCAA.

“This is another important step in the ongoing effort to provide increased benefits to student athletes while creating a stable and sustainable model for the future of college sports,” NCAA president Charlie Baker and the P5 commissioners said in a joint statement. “While there is still much work to…

The effective scholarship limits for football and other college sports are about to go way up. And that’s about to lead to more questions for schools and how many hard financial decisions have to be made.

The power conference commissioners have decided on roster limits that will be filed this week as part of the settlement in the House vs. NCAA case, which has to be approved by the court. Scholarship limits are being eliminated as part of the settlement, replaced by a roster limit system in which each team can choose to scholarship as many or as few athletes as it wants.

The football roster limit, as reported last week, will be 105, two sources briefed on the numbers confirmed. That’s an increase from the 85-player scholarship limit that has existed for decades but below the previous roster limit, which was 120 as of the start of the season.

The limit will be effective for the 2025-26 season, along with other aspects of the settlement, including revenue sharing, expected to be around $20 million per school to each school’s athletes.

Baseball, meanwhile, is seeing its number essentially triple: 34 will be the roster/scholarship limit, up from the 11.7 scholarship limit that has existed for decades. But the roster limit had been 40 during the season, so with the freedom to…

Andy Coats loves telling his classes about it. It’s one thing to teach antitrust law. It’s quite another to tell his Oklahoma students there once was a case, one that went all the way to the Supreme Court, that involved the school they attend — and it was about football.

Then Coats, almost 90 years old and still sounding as sharp as he was half his life ago, looks at his students and makes the big reveal.

“I’m the guy who screwed up college football,” he says.

Oklahoma, where the law school building is named after Coats, officially joined the SEC with Texas on Monday. When announced three years ago, SEC expansion set off a wave of realignment that changed the complexion of college athletics.

It was about the chase for television money. And it happened because nobody is in charge: The NCAA is powerless to tell conferences what to do. The conferences and schools are free to chase all the TV dollars, and in turn the courts and lawyers are free to demand the players get their fair share, their name, image and likeness money, their unlimited transferring.

It all stems from one lawsuit, 40 years ago, when Oklahoma — joined by Georgia, long before they became conference mates — teamed up against the NCAA to challenge its stranglehold on television rights. When it ended,…

Houston Christian University filed a motion to intervene in the House v. NCAA lawsuit on Thursday, arguing that HCU’s financial interests were not adequately represented by the proposed terms of the House settlement agreed to last month.

The motion, if granted, could signify the first of many objections from smaller universities that felt they did not have a sufficient voice in a potentially historic reshaping of college sports.

HCU’s motion to intervene stems from dissension that arose in the weeks before the proposed settlement, with smaller Division I schools and conferences arguing a lack of input in the settlement negotiations and disproportionate financial responsibility. The House settlement terms, which have yet to be submitted to the judge for preliminary approval, include a future revenue-sharing model directly from schools to athletes as well as $2.75 billion in back-pay damages the NCAA will owe to former Division I athletes who were previously barred from earning name, image and likeness (NIL) compensation. An overwhelming portion of those damages are expected to be distributed to former power-conference athletes, according to sources briefed on the settlement.

“We’re in a position where we believe this raises some issues of fiduciary responsibility,” HCU…

NCAA officials presented at least two expanded basketball tournament models to Division I conference commissioners Wednesday, a person briefed on the presentation said, laying the groundwork for what a 72- or 76-team tournament could look like.

NCAA senior vice president for basketball Dan Gavitt and vice president for women’s basketball Lynn Holzman introduced the models at the commissioners’ annual summer meeting.

One model expands the current 68-team field by four and the other by eight. Both feature additional at-large bids and at least one more First Four game site. The expanded tournament would start at the earliest for the 2025-26 season, according to multiple Division I commissioners.

Yahoo first reported about the presentation.

Talks about the NCAA Tournament size and structure grew louder this spring, drawing blowback from traditionalists. The Athletic reported in March that a 72- or 76-team tournament looked like the likeliest outcome for expansion from 68. A college administrator briefed on expansion conversations told The Athletic in March that “there is little to no appetite” for a bracket featuring an even larger field.

“The NCAA has to be proactive,” the source said. “Expansion — modest expansion — may be the only way to keep the tournament we…

Countless stadiums, arenas, golf tournaments and bowl games have sponsors in their titles. The world’s most prestigious soccer league was named the Barclays Premier League until 2016. Private equity firms currently hold ownership stakes in more than 60 North American sports franchises, according to Pitchbook, as well as many of the top soccer clubs in Europe.

But when news broke Thursday that the Big 12 is entertaining both a potential title sponsorship deal with insurance giant Allstate and a $1 billion private equity partnership, you could almost hear the collective reaction: “How dare they?!”

GO DEEPER

Big 12 discussing PE investment, sale of naming rights to Allstate

Kirk Wakefield, a Baylor University marketing professor, had a much different reaction to the possible title sponsorship.

“You wonder why people haven’t done that already,” said Wakefield, who runs a research firm that studies sponsorship impacts for sports leagues and brands. “It’s such an obvious opportunity.”

USC sports business professor David Carter looks at the plight of the Big 12, which lags hundreds of millions a year in revenue behind the Big Ten and SEC, and sees private equity as a matter of Darwinian survival. To win national championships, Big 12 schools need to be able to spend like…

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article misstated the year NBC, TNT Sports could join Fox as broadcast partners for Big East basketball games. The deals, if completed, are expected to start before the 2025-26 season.

Big East men’s and women’s college basketball is on the verge of adding new television partners as NBC Sports and TNT Sports are expected to join Fox Sports in presenting games beginning in the 2025-26 season, sources briefed on the negotiations told The Athletic.

While Fox Sports will remain the top partner, both NBC, which will feature most of its games on Peacock, and TNT Sports, which operates the streaming service Max, are anticipated to add a large number of games.

The financial terms of the expected new agreements are not yet known. The agreement is not yet formalized and the other incumbent, CBS Sports — which does a smaller package of games — is still holding discussions.

NBC Sports, TNT Sports, Fox Sports and the Big East declined to comment.

The potential moves by NBC Sports and TNT Sports continue their buying sprees, that are centered around the competition over the rights to the NBA. NBC is joining ESPN and Amazon Prime Video in completing legal paperwork to make it partners with the NBA on 11-year deals.

GO DEEPER

What to expect in…

The U.S. Department of Justice reached a settlement with the NCAA that will permanently bar the organization from restricting athletes’ transfer eligibility, it was announced Thursday.

The settlement resolves a federal antitrust lawsuit filed by a coalition of states last December challenging the NCAA’s requirement that athletes who transfer more than once must sit out a year of competition. U.S. District Court Judge John Preston Bailey in West Virginia issued a preliminary injunction at the time that banned the NCAA from enforcing its Transfer Eligibility Rule. The DOJ joined the suit in January.

A consent decree announced Thursday makes that policy change permanent, allowing athletes to transfer an unlimited number of times without penalty. It also requires the NCAA to restore a year of eligibility for current athletes who missed a year of competition since 2019-20 due to the old policy.

GO DEEPER

How college football’s era of unlimited free transfers works

“Free from anticompetitive rules that unfairly limit their mobility, Division I college athletes will now be able to choose the institutions that best meet their academic, personal and professional development needs,” Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter of the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division said…