Three expert witness engagements. Same question every time: what is the athlete being paid for? On August 1, that question becomes federal policy — and "fair market value" becomes the line between legitimate NIL and fraudulent NIL.
Read More
61% of college athletes cite a non-income reason as their primary motivation for NIL participation — and the most common ones are building a personal brand, gaining business experience, and exploring career paths. The NIL industry is largely building strategy around the income-motivated athlete. The data says that's the minority.
Read More
More than 10,500 college football players entered the transfer portal in a single 15-day window this January — and almost every policy response assumes NIL is the cause. New data from 1,060 portal entrants tells a more complicated story: seven of the top ten reasons athletes transfer are traditional, pre-dating both NIL and the portal itself. NIL didn't create the desire to leave — it removed the penalty for acting on it.
Read More
48% of athletes felt confident at the moment they signed their first NIL deal. Looking back, only 15% rated themselves as actually prepared. That 33-point gap — what behavioral economists call the confidence trap — is the strongest predictor of poor financial outcomes in sudden-income populations.
Read More
The House v. NCAA settlement created the most structured NIL oversight system in college sports history. Eight months in, the numbers don't add up — and new data from the NIL Research Poll shows why.
Read More