Big 12 becomes first Power Four conference to sign CSC participation agreement

The Big 12 became the first Power conference to have all its participating schools agree to sign the College Sports Commission’s participation agreement during its annual Spring meetings in Frisco, Texas, according to Yahoo! Sports’ Ross Dellenger and ESPN’s Pete Thamel.

Big 12 presidents and chancellors from all 16 member schools reportedly signed the participation agreement that legally binds them to following the College Sports Commission’s rules and regulations as passed as part of last Summer’s House v. NCAA settlement. The agreement requires participating schools to waive their right to sue or assist in lawsuits waged by others against the CSC’s enforcement of its NIL clearinghouse, and maintains that each school will ignore its own respective state laws if they clash with the CSC’s enforcement policies. It also forces compliance with all CSC investigations and unflinching acceptance of any penalties enforced upon them by the organization.

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The CSC participation agreement was expected to provide a unifying support system to effectively enforce rules compliance among all member schools. It also looked to prevent the various nefarious recruiting tactics and overspending that has plagued the Power Four ranks over the past year.

Of course, those rules and regulations are only enforceable if all 68 Power Four programs actually agree to participate. And 11 months since the passage of the House settlement, the Big 12 is now the first and only Power conference to actually have full participation.

Greg Sankey responds to ‘frustrations’ about College Sports Commission, defends NIL Go

As SEC presidents, athletics directors and coaches converged on Miramar Beach, Fla., this week, frustrations about the NIL enforcement were expected to be on the agenda. The NIL Go clearinghouse, overseen by the College Sports Commission, is to review third-party NIL deals worth more than $2,000.

When asked about the process on Tuesday, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey defended the system. He also said there was “innovation” through the House settlement’s first year and, so far, NIL Go is doing what it was intended to do.

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“There’s like, ‘What are we doing?’ complaints,” Sankey said Tuesday. “We need the system to say no, which it has hundreds upon hundreds of times. We had an arbitration outcome, where the system was defended.

“So, as I said yesterday, we’ve gone through a year of innovation. We’re learning from that year of innovation. There is a system in place.”

Since its launch, NIL Go has cleared more than $232 million in deals, as of the CSC’s most recent update. In that time, over 75% of submitted deals have come from the Big Ten and SEC, On3’s Pete Nakos confirmed.

Of the total submitted to the clearinghouse, more than $100 million worth of agreements have been rejected or are under review. With regard to the time it takes for a response, Greg Sankey said both sides have to be part of the communication process.

— On3’s Nick Schultz contributed to this report.