Before the 2025 Kentucky football season kicked off, there was a major structural shake-up behind the scenes.
The University of Kentucky announced an extension with JMI Sports through 2040 that was valued at approximately $465 million. As a part of the deal, JMI would take over all of Kentucky’s NIL Collective efforts.
That part of the deal was met with skepticism. After the House settlement was ratified, it required all NIL deals to pass through the NIL Go clearinghouse. In theory, bringing them in-house made sense if everyone played by those rules. Nobody is playing by those rules.