UGA athletic director Josh Brooks on ‘biggest problem’ in NIL oversight

But at UGA’s spring athletic association board of directors meeting at the Ritz-Carlton Reynolds in Lake Oconee, Brooks said the bigger issue is ensuring universal participation in the CSC process, which requires schools to submit potential NIL deals for approval.

Brooks said there is “intel” that financial deals are being made with players outside of the SEC and Big Ten that are not being vetted through the CSC’s “NIL Go” platform, which is managed by the Deloitte global services network.

Iowa State athletic director Jamie Pollard stirred the pot earlier this week by suggesting it could be time for the SEC and Big Ten to follow through on long-standing speculation they could break away from the NCAA

“The four (Power 4) commissioners spent a lot of money creating the CSC,” Pollard said on Monday in Des Moines at a booster event.

“Then to have two of the conferences not want to adhere to it is perplexing to me, because then, why did we spend the money?

“If you didn’t want rules, then why did you create this entity? That’s what’s frustrating to me. The same people that say they want rules only want rules if they don’t apply to them.”

Brooks said there is indeed a need for “understanding what are the true deals, and how we’re evaluating range of compensation, and what is a fair market deal and what is an associated entity, those pieces.”

But the “bigger deal,” Brooks said, is ensuring that schools are even taking part in the vetting of deals to begin with.

“My biggest problem with the CSC is we don’t have a true mechanism to ensure that everyone is reporting deals. That’s my frustration,” Brooks said. “We’ve had other conferences taking shots at the SEC and Big Ten, saying that we’re trying to manipulate or work around the cap, so they are basically complaining about how we’re filing our taxes.

“My problem is the ones that aren’t filing taxes. My problem is the schools that, we have pretty good intel on, that are not reporting deals.”

Brooks said that until collegiate sports takes the first step to forming a mechanism that ensures everyone is reporting deals, “it’s a moot point to argue about what’s getting approved and not getting approved” on the NIL front.

“If we can’t hold people accountable,” Brooks said, “that’s the first thing.”

The CSC has come under fire from many of the same leaders that championed its creation and from legal experts, noting the slower nature of deals being approved.

Yahoo Sports reported the CSC in March and April processed 5,531 agreements worth $75.85 million dollars, but in the same two-month span, 442 deals worth $26.87 million were flagged and not cleared.

Since its inception and through reported numbers in April, the CSC announced 45% of deals submitted to its NIL Go platform were ruled on within 24 hours, but there has been a “significant increase” in third-party deals since January that have slowed the process.

UGA president Jere Morehead told Yahoo Sports earlier this month that, “the House settlement has been nothing short of a disaster” with its failure to bring clarity to college sports.

“All the assurances from conference lawyers about this settlement solving any of our key issues have not materialized because of the loopholes around so-called third-party NIL deals.”

Morehead followed up on his comments on Thursday, saying “there has to (be) transparency” in NIL dealings, providing a hypothetical scenario as an example.

“The media is reporting that someone is getting $5 million to be a quarterback at a particular institution,” Morehead said. “Then the CSC has to be immediately investigating that matter and determine what sort of deal took place.

“We just don’t believe that’s happening across the board.”

The CSC, along with issues surrounding the College Football Playoff field size, eligibility rules and transfer portal dealings, are expected to be among the topics discussed and contested at the SEC spring meetings, which start next Tuesday in Destin, Florida.