Nebraska football players to receive $7.5M from NIL deals that were once denied by CSC

Athletic director Troy Dannen said the deals have been resubmitted and were approved by. the College Sports Commission. David Becker / GettyJuly 29, 2026 Updated 3:55 pm EDTCHICAGO — The College Sports Commission has approved name, image and likeness deals totaling $7.5 million for 18 Nebraska football players that were initially denied by the CSC early this year, athletic director Troy Dannen said Wednesday.Nebraska restructured and then resubmitted the deals, funded through Playfly, the school’s multimedia rights partner, after an arbitrator in May upheld the CSC decision.The CSC is a year-old body created by the power conferences to oversee NIL deals and revenue sharing, and the case was the first major test of the enforcement process.

The CSC initially rejected the deals because it categorized Playfly as an “associated entity” of the school, similar to an NIL collective. The deals were restructured to avoid the CSC definition of “warehousing,” a type of payment prohibited by the 2025 House vs. NCAA settlement.In the warehousing concept, a company purchases the NIL rights of an athlete without issuing specific deliverables. Full payments to the 18 impacted athletes will be made, according to Dannen, after the newly specified responsibilities are met.“We don’t have a backlog,” Dannen said.