Alabama Crimson Tide among schools to not disclose NIL data

WHEN ALABAMA'S NICK Saban and Texas A&M's Jimbo Fisher traded barbs this year over payments to college football players through name, image and likeness deals, Saban called for transparency, and Fisher said his team was an open book.

"I have nothing to hide. I have nothing to hide. And our program has nothing to hide," Fisher said at a May 19 news conference. "Be interesting if everyone could say that."

Saban, who had accused Texas A&M of having "bought every player" during recruiting, advocated for transparency on May 31: "I'm all for players making as much as they can make," he said. "I also think we've got to have some uniform transparent way to do that."

ESPN sought to take the coaches and other universities up on the notion that NIL information should be more transparent, asking a sampling of 23 universities -- 20 from Power 5 conferences -- to release their NIL-related documents or data. Across the board, schools provided few to no records. In the case of Saban's Alabama, the university declined to release any information. And at Fisher's A&M? The university said it would provide hundreds of records, but still hasn't; records that officials did release omitted financial terms, athletes' names and sports; and though A&M did end up releasing a per-sport breakdown, it came months later after ESPN made a subsequent request.

No uniform NIL transparency or deal-disclosure rules exist, meaning the only way to get any kind of picture of what's happening in the marketplace is by cobbling together incomplete and unverifiable figures from public statements from athletes, the companies they endorse, and others. Some of that information, though, revolves around an athlete's marketplace value as opposed to what they're actually earning. Even NCAA officials, who have at times been denied access to school records, told ESPN they've found instances in which numbers shared publicly are exaggerated or inaccurate.

As such, it's nearly impossible to identify trends and outliers that might point to inequities in the way schools are promoting or supporting their athletes across sports, gender and race; whether athletes are treated fairly if a school has a competing interest with a company or donor; or whether schools are ensuring athlete deals abide by state and NCAA NIL rules and aren't exploitative. For athletes and recruits, some information -- even anonymous, aggregate figures that give an overview of the market -- could help them assess whether their own NIL offers are fair.