College Sports Commission Releases Student-Athlete Pay Data

The inaugural aggregated dataset tracks institutional revenue-sharing payments and third-party NIL deals for NCAA Division I athletes.

Updated on Nov. 1, 2026 in Financial Aid

College Sports Commission Releases Student-Athlete Pay Data

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The College Sports Commission has published its first aggregated dataset on student-athlete compensation, covering direct institutional revenue-sharing payments and cleared third-party NIL transactions for Division I athletes. The release follows the formal implementation of institutional revenue sharing under the House v. NCAA settlement framework on July 1, 2025.

Why it matters

The dataset gives the public its first consolidated view of how revenue-sharing money is moving through college athletics under the new settlement framework. It also shows how third-party NIL deals are being screened for fair market value and legitimate business purpose.

Participating Division I schools distributed USD1.77 billion through CAPS by June 2026 under a maximum cap of USD20.5 million per school for 2025-26. The data excludes grants-in-aid, tuition scholarships, cost-of-attendance stipends and Alston awards, so total athlete compensation remains unmeasured.

The players

College Sports Commission (CSC)

The organization created to oversee compensation and NIL compliance in college athletics, operating CAPS and the NIL Go clearinghouse.

Deloitte

The global professional services firm that partners with the College Sports Commission to operate the NIL Go clearinghouse.

The details

CAPS monitors and records direct institutional payouts, while NIL Go, operated by the CSC with Deloitte, reviews third-party commercial contracts valued at USD600 or more for fair market value and valid business purpose. The clearinghouse has processed over USD582 million across more than 46,000 agreements.

- July 1, 2025: Institutional revenue sharing formally took effect under the House settlement.
- June 11, 2025: NIL agreement window opened for basketball and Olympic and varsity sports.
- January 1, 2026: Football revenue-sharing and NIL reporting window began.
- April 6, 2026: Basketball reporting window closed.
- June 30, 2026: CAPS revenue-sharing data period ended.

Legal Context

The release is the first measurable output of the House v. NCAA settlement's revenue-sharing provisions, which took effect July 1, 2025. It marks the initial public test of how the settlement's compensation framework is operating in practice across Division I athletics.

Athletes and families can now reference published CAPS and NIL Go figures when assessing how revenue-sharing and third-party deals are structured. The data does not show individual athlete earnings, so readers cannot use it to compare specific players' compensation.

The takeaway

Compensation in college athletics now extends beyond scholarships, so tracking institutional payouts and NIL deals helps explain where athletic budgets are going. Readers should note that the reported totals omit several forms of athlete support.