There’s a moment every fall where you sit in your office, look at the roster you just invested in, and think: we better be right.

That feeling used to be about recruiting classes and staff hires.

Now it includes NIL commitments, revenue share allocations, and seven-figure decisions tied to 18–22 year olds (or even former pros) in a transfer portal environment.

College athletics has changed. And the margin for error has changed with it.

If you’re leading an athletic department right now, you don’t need another explainer on NIL. You’re living it.

It’s in your budget meetings. It’s in your roster conversations. It’s in donor discussions. And now, with revenue share underway, it’s embedded in your long-term financial model.

NIL isn’t theoretical anymore. It’s an allocation decision.

When this all started, most of the industry focused on what was allowed. We focused on something different: what happens when these commitments become real institutional investments?

Because that’s what they are now. Multi-million-dollar decisions tied to performance, availability, retention, and reputation.

That question — how do you protect the investment? — is why we built this practice. And it’s why we’re launching this newsletter.

A Market That Had to Be Created

Five years ago, structured NIL risk management didn’t exist.

There was no meaningful injury protection tied to NIL commitments. No performance-based coverage aligned with incentive structures. No serious modeling around transfer volatility and financial exposure.

Departments were writing larger and larger checks without tools to manage the downside.

We worked alongside our university partners to change that. We built products and advisory frameworks specifically for this space — not repurposed solutions, not generic policies, but strategies built around the realities of modern college athletics.

The market has matured since then. Others have entered. That’s healthy.

But here’s what hasn’t changed: most providers in this space are insurance professionals trying to understand athletics.

Our team came from athletics.

We’ve sat in Power Five athletic departments. We’ve been inside football offices and basketball programs. We’ve managed budgets under pressure and answered to donors when expectations weren’t met. We understand how NIL decisions intersect with wins, politics, optics, and job security.

We’re not just evaluating risk on paper. We understand what it feels like to carry it.

Where the Industry Is Headed

The shift happening right now is subtle but significant.

The conversation is moving from “How do we compete in NIL?” to “How do we allocate capital responsibly?”

Every meaningful NIL or revenue share commitment carries exposure — injury risk, performance volatility, transfer movement, reputational events, and budget uncertainty.

That doesn’t mean programs should pull back. It means they should operate with structure.

The departments that will separate over the next three to five years won’t simply be the most aggressive spenders. They’ll be the ones who combine competitive intent with disciplined risk management.

That’s where we focus.

We bring real injury probability data. We analyze transfer trends. We structure protection around performance-based investments. And we help athletic leadership build financial certainty into an environment that is anything but certain.

Not from the outside looking in. From experience.

Why This Matters for ADs and CFOs

For Athletic Directors and coaches, this is about competitive sustainability. You’re being asked to win in a system that now resembles professional sports, with public scrutiny and financial consequences to match.

For CFOs, this is about capital allocation and downside protection. NIL and revenue share dollars are no longer experimental. They are forecasted commitments with real balance sheet implications.

If significant dollars are being deployed without a defined risk framework around them, that’s not a failure — it’s a reflection of how quickly this industry moved.

But the next phase won’t reward speed alone. It will reward discipline.

If you want a clear view of your exposure —injury, performance, transfer, reputational — and how it impacts your department over the next 12 to 36 months, that’s a conversation worth having.

The decisions being made right now will shape the competitive and financial trajectory of athletic departments for years.

Let’s make sure yours are protected. Reach out to us so we can help build a plan with you. 
‍

TateGillespie
VP,Collegiate & NIL Strategy
Players Health