ProPublica Story on NILs from April 2025

The world of college athletics is moving so quickly, this story is bound to be overtaken by events. Still, it is a vivid snapshot of just how broken the NCAA regime regulating Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) deals was right from the start. As Stacy St. Clair of the Chicago Tribune, and Jodi S. Cohen of ProPublica report here, although schools are supposed to regulate their students’ NILs. Instead, the reporting shows, schools left it up to the students to report on their NIL activities. Most students chose not to do so, at least at the University of Illinois, in violation of state law. University of Illinois athletes reported only $1.2 million in NIL deals over a three-year period. By contrast, players for the Ohio State University football team reported $20 million in NIL deals in a single year. 

The law that the University of Illinois players are allegedly violating carries no penalties. The University of Illinois will not punish students who do not report because, although they do not use these words, it’s a race to the bottom. Schools are doing whatever they can to attract student athletes. Now, there are ways to throw money at them, and the schools are not interested in racking up interceptions, at least not in this context. But maybe it’s just a race, and not a race to the bottom. Citing statistics indicating that 70% of NIL deals go unreported nationwide, the University of Illinois opined, “Blind adherence to an untenable process does not appear to be the expectation of the state, the NCAA, or our industry.” 

The data that ProPublica was able to access through FOIA requests produces an interesting gender gap. While male athletes earned over $1 million through NILs, female athletes earned only $160,000. And yet, female athletes reported NILs totaling nearly $60,000 while the men reported on $44,500 in payments. 

Throughout the article, I was wondering what harm there is if the payments are not reported. That becomes clearer when the article introduces a new character to the narrative: the University of Illinois collective, called Icon. We have discussed collectives before here. Collectives are groups of alumni that, before the recent settlement, were the preferred way for student athletes to get paid, as the universities could not pay them directly. According to ProPublica, Icon is bringing in more than ten times the money it is paying out to athletes. Where the surplus is going is a mystery, as Icon’s principle declined to talk to reporters and the university’s athletics department pleads ignorance, sounding a bit like Bill Barr declaring that there was “no collusion.”

But the University is taking action. They got the legislature to exempt information relating to NILs from FOIA requests.