In an attempt to stay tapped into all things NIL, I’ve sorted through and gathered some interesting NIL-centered news items today. The title of each section will redirect you to the initial article, as I did not translate all of the columns into this page. Just the best cliff notes.
I will continue adding more news as the week unfolds! Please feel free to link any informative or interesting NIL articles in this thread!
1. Why Clemson, South Carolina denied request to make athletes’ revenue-sharing deals public (GreenvilleNews)
The Greenville News sent records requests for Clemson quarterback Cade Klubnik and South Carolina quarterback LaNorris Sellers’ contracts. Meaning money given to the star quarterbacks via revenue sharing will not be made public. The request for South Carolina kicker/punter Mason Love was also denied.
Records requests are common practices for media outlets to obtain official records. For public universities, that often means documents such as coaching contracts, non-conference game contracts, budget reports and more.
Clemson, in its response to The Greenville News, cited revenue-share contracts as educational records through the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. The public disclosure of that information would “constitute unreasonable invasion of personal privacy”. Per South Carolina Code of Laws for its denial.
“It is the University’s position that any existing, responsive record is protected under the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). (20 U.S.C. §1232g; 34 CFR Part 99) and/or exempt per SC Code of Laws §30-4-40(a)(2)(information of a personal nature),” Clemson said.
South Carolina also cited FERPA. “The documents requested are considered scholastic records and are protected from FOIA disclosure under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. Therefore, there are no records responsive to (the) request,” the University’s FOIA office wrote via email.
2. Mark Harlan details Utah’s strategy for $20.5M athlete revenue share changes (KSL)
In a town hall meeting ahead of the university’s Fan Fest on Saturday, Harlan and Jason Greco, executive senior associate athletics director for governance and brand strategy, provided context and answers about how the university will handle its share of the House Settlement and its ensuing changes, which went into effect on July 1st.
“It’s a big change for us, and we have to behave,” Harlan said. “We have to hold each other accountable.”
For example, Utah reported a $17 million deficit for the 2024 fiscal year. Mostly due to an issue while a member of the Pac-12 and then Big 12 transition costs. But had a $1.8 million profit in the 2023 fiscal year and a $3.8 million profit in the 2022 fiscal year.
Even then, that’s a significant increase to the athletic department’s budget, but Harlan said “break even is the goal” with the change.
“We’ve been building reserves and we’re proud of that,” Harlan said. “So we’ve got some time to work through that. But I would say any athletic director looking at his or her program right now is thinking it’s gonna take me a little bit to be back at the profitable side … but I’m really excited about what we’re doing to get there pretty quickly.”
Harlan said the football team last season was operating with about $8 million, but “we have significantly increased that for this year’s team.”
