This article updated to reflect the update information from the CSC
On September 4, 2025, the College Sports Commission released its first NIL Deal Flow Report. However, the next day on September 5th the College Sports Commission released updated data as the CSC was made aware of a clerical reporting error in the data provided. Per the report, 28,342 college athletes and 1,227 institutions have registered and been approved to use the NIL Go platform as of August 31, 2025. Since the launch of NIL Go, a total of 8,359 deals are in the NIL Go system with total value of $79.8 million in NIL deals in the system. However, only 6,090 NIL deals have been cleared with a total value of $35.42 million in deals cleared. 332 deals have not been cleared. 75 deals have been resubmitted. 0 deals are in arbitration. Per the report, the most common clearance issues are a delay in providing or confirming required information, contradictory deal terms or mistakes in entering deal terms, and the deal not satisfying the valid business purpose requirement.
This report comes after recent news that NIL deal approval via NIL Go has been extremely slow resulting in loss NIL opportunities. At the start of the college football season, it was reported that college athletes have been waiting for weeks for NIL deals to be approved. In some cases, athletes have been able to delay the start of their NIL deal until their deal gets approved by the CSC. However, in some cases athletes are missing opportunities. For example, an athlete who has a deal that involves attending a specific event may miss the deal because it is not approved before the event takes place. Hence the lag in NIL Go’s deal vetting processes presents an issue for NIL opportunities where time is of the essence.
Per On 3’s Ross Dellenger, 25 NIL Collectives stated that 120 of their submitted NIL deals were denied by the CSC. 192 deals from NIL Collectives remain in review and more than $11 million in deals have not been approved. It appears that many deals from NIL Collectives are receiving a bit of scrutiny and are slow to be approved, in many cases putting the athletes at a disadvantage.
College and high school athletes have been granted the right to profit from their name, image, and likeness! Yayyyyyy!!! College and high school athletes can now enter NIL Deals. This is an exciting opportunity for college and high school athletes. However, there are certain topics that college and high school athletes and their parents need to know before entering any NIL Deal. Download by free NIL Contract Checklist for 5 contract terms to know! For more on college athletes' name, image, and likeness rights follow me on X @esquire_coach and on Instagram and TikTok @the_esquirecoach. To receive updates from The Esquire Coach Blog directly to your email please subscribe below.