Arbitrator allows Georgia players to receive NIL deals and regulator says process worked

WASHINGTON — The College Sports Commission portrayed an arbitrator's decision involving name, image and likeness payments to two Georgia athletes as one that “reinforces the integrity of the neutral arbitration process” that is part of the NIL-era rulebook for college sports.

The CSC released details of the decision Monday, which contained small victories for both sides. The arbitrator approved the deals after the CSC re-reviewed them and determined they fit its range-of-compensation model that had been updated after the commission initially rejected the deal and Georgia brought the case to arbitration.

But the arbitrator declined to delve further into the scope of the CSC's authority or to award the school the attorneys fees it spent bringing the case.

The CSC said it would not make a habit of re-reviewing deals, but because this case involved a key adjustment that came after the arbitration began, it went back and looked at it again.

Georgia's athletic department released a statement saying that while it was a positive outcome for the athletes, “we remain concerned about how it was reached.”

“The CSC approved the agreements only after arbitration had already begun and left important underlying issues unresolved,” the statement said. “UGA requested fees because institutions and student-athletes should not have to bear legal and arbitration costs to obtain an outcome the CSC ultimately agreed was appropriate.”

A news release from CSC said the handling of the matter “affirms that the process functions as intended.”

The decision comes four weeks after an arbitrator ruled in favor of the CSC in a case involving Nebraska football players. A key part of that ruling involved the arbitrator's decision that Nebraska's multimedia-rights partner could be considered an “associated entity" — deals from which are subject to CSC scrutiny.