NIL Go Made Simple: How to Feel Confident in Your Deals

NIL Go Made Simple: How to Feel Confident in Your Deals

College sports are changing quickly, and one of the biggest updates to the NIL landscape is the rollout of NIL Go. This new system, launched in June 2025, is the centralized portal where all third-party NIL deals worth $600 or more must be reported. Deloitte operates NIL Go in partnership with the College Sports Commission (CSC), which was established as part of the House v. NCAA settlement (June 2025), the agreement that reshaped college athletics by allowing schools to share revenue with student-athletes. The commission’s role is to bring oversight and consistency to the fast-changing NIL landscape.

The goal of NIL Go is not to make NIL harder, but to make it safer and more transparent. By running deals through a standardized process, athletes can protect their eligibility while making sure their agreements represent real marketing activity, not disguised recruiting payments or pay-for-play. In short, the system is here to help athletes thrive in the NIL era while keeping everything above board.

What NIL Go Looks For

When you submit a deal through NIL Go, it goes through a three-step review process:

Payor Association – NIL Go checks whether the company or individual paying you is associated with your school, such as a booster, donor, or collective. That doesn’t mean the deal won’t go through, but it may require closer review.
Valid Business Purpose – Every NIL deal must be tied to a real marketing or promotional activity. This means promoting a product, service, or brand in a way that reaches the public. Deals that look more like disguised payments without real deliverables may not pass.
Fair Market Value – Compensation must make sense for the scope of work and the reach of the athlete. Deloitte uses historical NIL data and comparable examples to determine if the deal fits within a fair market range.

What Happens Next

Once the review is complete, the system will flag the deal as either “cleared,” “not cleared,” or “flagged for additional review.” If a deal is flagged, you may need to provide more information. If a deal is not cleared, there are processes in place to revise and resubmit, or even appeal through a neutral arbitrator. Importantly, most legitimate deals clear without delay, since the majority of NIL agreements represent real promotional partnerships.

Why This Matters for Athletes

This new system may feel intimidating at first, but it was built to create confidence in NIL. If your deal is genuine, tied to real work, and priced fairly, it should move through NIL Go without issues. In fact, Deloitte and the CSC have said the system is designed to keep compliant NIL opportunities moving forward efficiently.

At NextName, we understand NIL Go is new and may feel overwhelming. If you find deals on your own, you can always reach out to us for advice and recommendations. And for partnerships that come directly through the NextName platform, we’ll work with you to ensure the deals are legitimate, structured properly, and ready for smooth approval in NIL Go.