College Sports Commission Aims to Level the Playing Field, ACC Daily: May 20, 2025

Dellenger's report explains that officials from the ACC, SEC, Big 10 and Big 12 are working together to create the College Sports Commission (CSC), a document aimed at preventing schools from circumventing the upcoming ruling of the House v. NCAA settlement.

At the beginning of May, the state of Tennessee put into law Senate Bill No. 536 which takes aim at any proposed salary cap for collegiate athletes. It allows for state universities, Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Memphis, etc., to potentially break House settlement rules under the cover of antitrust scrutiny.

The CSC looks to stop other states from following suit by uniting institutions under a consolidated set of rules and regulations as well as offering harsh punishment to schools that do not wish to join. According to Dellenger, institutions that do not sign up will be expelled from the conference and even blackballed from playing any member institutions in regular season competition.

CSC members would also waive the right to sue the commission, and would therefore be subject to following its rules.

While it is certainly an uphill battle, and there is still much to work out in terms of details, this looks to one of the best available paths to a solution. The ACC is far behind the eight ball in terms of NIL payments with just a single member school ranking inside the top-10 for collective spending.

According to NIL-NCAA.com, Clemson's collectives are worth an estimated $15.2 million and are ranked ninth in the nation. The next biggest spender from the ACC is Virginia with collective funding of just over $12.7 million in 2024.

The top eight spots on the list are dominated by the Big 10 and SEC with schools like LSU, Ohio State and Texas all spending over $20 million.

If the CSC were able to at least lessen the ability of schools with more valuable collectives to dominate the recruiting and transfer portal landscape, the ACC could very quickly return to its spot as a premier conference in college football.

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