In Reportedly Relaxed Third-Party NIL Ruling, Ohio State Ready To ‘Plug and Play’

LAS VEGAS — On the same day that Ohio State head coach Ryan Day said he’d like there to be more clarity on third-party NIL deals so that his football program would know how to operate within the rules, he may have gotten it.

Less than 30 minutes after Day finished up his 45-minute interview session at Big Ten Media Days Tuesday, Yahoo’s Ross Dellenger released a report that the attorneys from the House settlement and the power conferences have worked out a deal to relax the rules on collectives and third-party NIL deals that were being shot down via the NIL clearinghouse.

Previously, the College Sports Commission had viewed many deals from collectives as invalid because they served no valid business purpose. Now, however, the definition of “valid business purposes” is being relaxed.

“As part of the agreement, the College Sports Commission is expected to treat collectives or any ‘school-associated entity’ in a similar fashion as other businesses when determining the legitimacy of third-party NIL deals submitted to the CSC’s NIL Go clearinghouse,” Dellenger wrote.

All deals will still need to go through the clearinghouse, but the direction on what to deny has been changed.

Or rather, it has been clarified.

Ohio State athletics director Ross Bjork wasn’t surprised by the report, telling Buckeye Huddle that this is the reason the OSU collectives were folded into the university’s own “Buckeye Sports Group” marketing arm in the first place.

“That’s why we created Buckeye Sports Group,” Bjork said. “Buckeye Sports Group can operate just like a collective. We have people that were helping us with the collectives. They’re involved, advisory, they have business connections, we’re plug and play.”

Day, meanwhile, speaking before this report came out, emphasized the need for clarity, but also the need for discipline.

“I think what we’re all looking for clarity on is how the third-party NIL deals will be regulated and how they’ll be handled and enforced moving forward,” he said. “And how those who don’t disclose deals will be enforced and penalized.”

This is not the first time Day and Bjork — and former OSU AD Gene Smith — have played it slow as they waited for the rules to be solidified. When NIL payments were initially allowed and collectives were created, Ohio State stood back a bit to evaluate how rules were — or weren’t — enforced.

“We’ve sort of been in this situation before,” Day said. “We want to make sure we’re doing right by Ohio State, but also being aggressive. I think we’re well positioned. I think we’re ready to move. But I think for us, we’d like to get a little bit more clarity on how these things are going to be handled.”

With that clarity comes the ability to perhaps counter some of Ohio State’s recent recruiting losses. The Buckeyes will have nearly five months until signing day to make a mark. But they also didn’t want to make promises they couldn’t keep.

“I’ve heard the conversation about a soft cap and some of the different deals and how collectives are going to get looked at in terms of the deals that are made,” Day said. “What we don’t want to do at Ohio State is make agreements or talk to people about certain deals and have to claw those things back because they don’t get cleared. I don’t think that’s the right look for us at Ohio State. I think some folks are being more aggressive than others. That’s their decision. We’re always going to be aggressive but we also want to make sure we’re doing things the right way.”

Doing things “the right way” for one team implies that there were different approaches and different interpretations of those rules depending on the school. But from Ohio State’s perspective, sitting back and watching other programs see the rules in a much different light — and perhaps breaking them — has been somewhat frustrating.

“Yeah, look, every AD and every coach knows exactly what’s happening around the world,” Bjork said. “And if we were allowing that to happen, then that’s on us. Because we all said we wanted accountability, we all said we wanted rules, and if we’ve taken advantage of this sort of interim period, knowingly breaking the rules, again, that’s on us. But that’s where college athletics, we have to have a reset. And if we ever want durability, if we ever want the system to sustain itself, then now’s the time to do it.”

As far as Ryan Day is concerned, this will probably be received as good news.

“I’m excited to find out what the rules are so that I can play by them and then find out if they’re actually going to be enforced,” he said. “The gray is what drives me insane.”

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