What does August's revenue-sharing offer date mean for high school recruits?
by:
Pete Nakos•34 minutes ago•
PeteNakos_
As athletic departments distribute their first revenue-sharing payments to players, Aug. 1 looms as a monumental day in high school recruiting. For the first time in college sports history, institutions will be able to offer written revenue-sharing contracts to recruits.
According to the NCAA, the
offers regarding NIL payment are only allowed to be sent to recruits entering their senior year of high school. The contracts are not allowed to be signed until the athletes’ applicable signing dates. Aug. 1 marks the first day recruits can receive revenue-sharing offers on paper.
But speaking with a range of sources across the Power Four in recent days, On3 has learned schools are approaching the Aug. 1 date in a multitude of ways. Some programs are sending out full contracts with compensation before the start date, but forward-dating the agreement to Aug. 1 or later.
Sources also said that other programs are sending out full templates of their contracts for agents to review without compensation, giving representatives time to redline agreements so deals can be quickly signed next month. Meanwhile, compensation can be easily discussed over the phone.
“We have offers that will not be executed until August 1,” an agent with multiple top 2026 recruits told On3. “We also have templates that have been reviewed with the intent to sign on or after the first of next month.”
Other schools are staying away from offering any form of compensation or a contract until Aug. 1.
Auburn athletic director
John Cohen recently said that the Tigers’ understanding is that any offer made to an athlete before Aug. 1 is only verbal. He also went on to say that a third-party NIL offer guaranteed to a recruit by a university would go against the $20.5 million revenue-sharing cap.
But that is not how other schools see it. As On3 previously reported, some schools are opting to pay recruits monthly before even walking on campus.
Georgia head coach
Kirby Smart highlighted at SEC spring meetings how
third-party NIL collectives are paying high school recruits.
Sources have told On3 that some top recruits are earning anywhere between $5,000 to $25,000 on a monthly basis. Some programs have made the decision not to enter the game, waiting on the sidelines until Aug. 1 to offer deals.
“There’s some really new things on the horizon that have never happened before,” Cohen said. “And I’m here to tell you, we’re going to do this the right way. We’re going to do it just like Coach (Hugh) Freeze just mentioned — we’re going to be honest, we’re going to be forthright and we’re looking very much forward to Aug. 1 and dates beyond.”
As On3
reported on Wednesday, the influx of spending in the high school market comes as third-party NIL deals in college are being held up by the recently established NIL clearinghouse. The
College Sports Commission (CSC), the newly created independent enforcement arm that is implementing the House settlement’s terms,
released guidance on Thursday around NIL collective deals going through the Deloitte-run NIL clearinghouse.
The CSC states that deals must provide evidence of using the athlete’s NIL to promote a good or service offered to the public. It states that an associated entity (NIL collective) with a business purpose of providing payments or benefits to athletes or institutions does not meet “the valid business purpose requirement.” But the CSC states that collectives can still provide compensation to athletes as long as the events meet the definition of a valid business purpose.
As NIL collectives figure out how to navigate the clearinghouse, spending in recruiting is not slowing down. That’s backed by programs offering contracts before the Aug. 1 start date. One SEC general manager speculated to On3 that another SEC school is committing $15 million to its 2026 recruiting class.
“How can they pay that?” he said.