Washington State University NIL Deals

Drive through Pullman on a Friday night and you might spot a Coug linebacker in a local pizza shop ad. For decades, a scholarship was the only payment a college athlete could get. That model is gone.

What you’re seeing is Name, Image, and Likeness — NIL for short. Under current rules — set by the NCAA, the House v. NCAA settlement, and the College Sports Commission — Washington State University athletes can finally earn money off their own identity. The legal idea behind it is the “Right of Publicity,” which simply means you own your own name and face. Instead of a paycheck for playing, athletes provide real business services — posts, appearances, endorsements — to brands and fans willing to pay for them.

For WSU, the stakes are high. Over 415 college athletic programs have been cut or consolidated since May 2024, and WSU has already taken the knife to its own track & field. President Betsy Cantwell has been blunt about what’s at stake: the school needs an additional $20 million a year in NIL and revenue sharing just to compete in the rebuilt Pac-12 that kicks off this fall. WSU NIL deals aren’t a side project anymore. They’re the front line.

The 2025 Game-Changer: The House Settlement

The single biggest NIL story isn’t a state law — it’s the House v. NCAA settlement, finalized in June 2025. It rewrote the rules.

Under House, Division I schools that opt in can pay athletes directly, with a first-year cap of about $20.5 million per school for 2025-26. The College Sports Commission, not the NCAA alone, is now the central enforcement body for settlement-related rules, including noninstitutional NIL reporting and review. SportsEpreneur

Any third-party NIL deal worth $600 or more now runs through NIL Go, a Deloitte-run clearinghouse that reviews deals for valid business purpose and fair market value. Athletes typically submit within five business days of agreeing to terms. Get a deal flagged or rejected and a player’s standing can be at risk — so most submit big deals for pre-approval before signing.

What this means for WSU: every dollar coming in through NIL now has to clear a real compliance bar. Fan support that’s transparent, documented, and traceable beats fan support that isn’t.

The Non-Revenue Squeeze: Why Olympic-Sport Cougs Need You

This isn’t just a WSU story. Across college athletics, non-revenue sports are getting hit hard. Over 415 programs have been cut or consolidated since May 2024 as schools rebalance budgets around the House settlement. The White House issued a fact sheet calling for federal action to protect non-revenue sports. Arkansas cut its tennis programs in spring 2026 and had to reinstate them 20 days later under public pressure. CBS Sports flagged non-revenue sports as the single biggest loser of the House era.

The math is brutal. Schools that opt in to House revenue sharing get a roughly $20.5 million cap to distribute — but football and men’s basketball generate the revenue, so they get the lion’s share. Everything else competes for what’s left.

At WSU specifically, that played out in June 2025. The athletic department cut every field event from its track & field program — jumps, throws, javelin, shot put, all of it. Sprint and hurdle opportunities were slashed. Three assistant coaches lost their jobs. About 43 athletes had their event futures cut without warning. WSU went distance-only.

This is the same program that produced one of WSU’s only two NCAA national championships (indoor track, 1977) and legends like Henry Rono and Gerry Lindgren. It got gutted in a single Zoom call. Meanwhile WSU is allotting about $4.5 million in benefits to football alone for 2025-26.

Track athlete Riley Pyeatt told KREM after the cuts: “We had no idea a program cut was going to happen.”

That’s the reality for non-revenue Cougs right now. The athletic department is squeezed. Football and basketball get fed first. Olympic-sport athletes are left to either build their own NIL income or risk being next on the chopping block. Traditional booster channels overwhelmingly flow to football.

RallyFuel works differently. Every D1, D2, and D3 athlete is on the platform — every sport, every roster spot, every gender. Fans can fuel a WSU rower training for Team USA, a gymnast chasing a Pac-12 title, a swimmer chasing an NCAA cut, a tennis player competing in singles and doubles, a volleyball player anchoring the front row, or a baseball walk-on building a brand. They all have a profile. They all can be fueled directly.

If you’ve watched the Olympic sports get squeezed and wished you could put real money behind a specific non-revenue Coug — this is how.

More Than a Catchphrase: What NIL Actually Means

College players can earn money now, but it usually looks less like a paycheck and more like building a small business. Every time an athlete posts a training clip, they’re growing a personal brand. That brand — not just their stats — has real value to fans and local companies.

The things they sell to brands and supporters fall into three buckets:

• Name: A Pullman pizza shop names a sandwich after a Coug linebacker.
• Image: A Spokane startup uses a WSU rower‘s photo on its homepage.
• Likeness: A Tri-Cities car ad features a clip mimicking a Coug guard’s signature move.

You don’t need to be a five-star to land deals. Plenty of role players land smaller deals through niche social followings — softball, volleyball, soccer, cross country, rowing. NIL works across rosters, not just the football two-deep.

Washington State Law: SB 5913 and What It Actually Does

Unlike many other states, Washington never passed a sweeping NIL statute. An early proposal (SB 5942) died in committee in 2022. For years, WSU operated under NCAA interim policy and its own school rules instead of state law.

The current relevant law is Senate Bill 5913, passed in 2024. It cleared out state ethics restrictions that had previously blocked public-university staff from helping athletes with NIL. Now coaches and compliance officers at WSU can legally make introductions, advise on specific deals, and use university resources to support athlete branding — not just give general education.

For a complete breakdown of what SB 5913 allows and where the lines are drawn, see our full guide to Washington NIL laws.

The short version: WSU staff can now actively help athletes engage with NIL. That makes it easier for athletes to build their brands, but it also means there’s more responsibility on the fans funding those deals to make sure the money lands cleanly.

Fueling Specific WSU Athletes, Risk-Free

If you want to put dollars behind a specific WSU player — a freshman pitcher who’s about to break out, a transfer linebacker you watched in the spring game, a rower training for Team USA — RallyFuel makes it direct. Three steps:

1. Pick your athlete. Every D1, D2, and D3 athlete is on RallyFuel — every sport. Search Washington State, find the player, open their card.
2. Fuel their NIL. Choose $25, $50, $100, or a custom amount. The majority goes directly to the athlete (platform fees are disclosed at checkout). Your Fuel becomes a real NIL Agreement if the athlete stays at WSU.
3. Get refunded if they leave. If the athlete selects a different school during the Conditional Period, you get every dollar back automatically.

Real Cougs are already on the platform. Senior offensive lineman Brock Dieu (Queen Creek, AZ) has fans actively fueling his profile. Linebacker DJ Warner, a Phoenix transfer who committed to WSU, is live. Senior OL Jonny Lester (Spokane, WA) and sophomore LB Jack Ellison (Olympia, WA) round out a growing roster of Cougs already taking part. This isn’t a future product. It’s running right now.

That refund piece matters. Roster movement is the biggest concern fans have about putting money behind specific players in the transfer-portal era. RallyFuel uses what’s formally called a Conditional NIL Engagement Right (CNER): your Fuel becomes a real NIL Agreement only if conditions are met. If they’re not, refunds are processed automatically through the original payment method.

Important things to know: Fuel purchases are not charitable donations. RallyFuel is not a guarantor that any athlete will accept an NIL Agreement, and purchasing Fuel does not guarantee athletic performance, playing time, or any specific outcome. The platform connects fans and athletes — it doesn’t make decisions for either side.

Find Your Sport

Jump straight to the roster you care about:

• WSU Football — Brock Dieu, DJ Warner, Jonny Lester, Jack Ellison, and the rest of Kirby Moore’s first roster
• WSU Baseball — Diamond Cougs heading into the new Pac-12 era
• WSU Men’s Basketball — Beasley Coliseum’s next era
• WSU Women’s Basketball — A consistent national presence
• WSU Gymnastics — One of WSU’s most competitive Olympic sports
• WSU Men’s Indoor Track & Field — Carrying the distance tradition forward
• WSU Women’s Indoor Track & Field — Champions in the making
• WSU Swimming & Diving — Pool Cougs chasing conference cuts
• WSU Tennis — Singles, doubles, and Pac-12 contention
• WSU Volleyball — Bohler-bound and fast
• WSU Rowing — The Olympic pipeline that doesn’t make the headlines

Browse all WSU athletes on RallyFuel →

Built for the Post-House Compliance Era

NIL deals that aren’t compliant don’t pay out — they get flagged, blocked, or worse, cost athletes their standing. That’s the new reality after the House settlement. Every deal over $600 has to survive review at NIL Go, the Deloitte-run clearinghouse, and any payor that looks like a disguised pay-for-play scheme will get caught.

RallyFuel was built for this. Every transaction on the platform is documented, tied to a specific athlete, and structured to clear fair-market-value review. There’s no opaque back-channel money — every Fuel is a verifiable, audit-ready transaction processed through licensed third-party payment providers.

The legal framework is built by Heitner Legal, led by Darren Heitner, one of the most recognized NIL attorneys in the country. That’s not a logo on a footer — it’s the actual legal infrastructure behind every deal on the platform. Schools, collectives, and athletes get audit-ready reporting they can hand to a compliance office.

For WSU fans, that means the money you put behind a Coug athlete is doing what it’s supposed to do: funding the athlete under a documented framework that’s built to clear review.

Staying Within the Lines: Disclosure Rules

Once an athlete signs a real deal, they can’t pocket the cash quietly. Student-athletes will be required to disclose to their schools information related to NIL agreement exceeding $600 in value, no later than 30 days after entering or signing the NIL agreement. Post-House, Division I athletes typically report through NIL Go within five business days. NCAA

WSU has compliance staff who review deals — but parents often misunderstand what those people do. They check that contracts follow NCAA rules and state law. They aren’t the athlete’s personal lawyer or financial advisor, and they legally can’t act as one.

That’s exactly the gap RallyFuel fills. Deals on the platform come with documentation, fair-market-value structure, and the Heitner Legal framework already wrapped around them — so when an athlete or a compliance officer goes to disclose, the paperwork is already there.

Taxes: What Athletes and Families Should Know

NIL money usually comes on a 1099-NEC, not a W-2 — so nothing is withheld. Washington has no state income tax, but federal income tax and self-employment tax still apply, so most advisors tell families to set aside roughly 25-30% of cash and product value to avoid an IRS surprise.

This isn’t legal or financial advice, and complicated deals are worth a real conversation with a CPA. But the rule of thumb gets most families through their first NIL year without trouble.

High School Athletes, International Students, and the Olympic Pipeline

The picture changes for younger athletes and international students. In Washington, the WIAA lets high school athletes earn from NIL, but they can’t wear their school uniform or use team logos in personal ads, can’t use school facilities for content, and can’t accept facilitation from coaches or staff. Slip up and a teenager can lose their amateur status before college even starts.

International students face a different roadblock — federal immigration law. F-1 visa rules generally bar off-campus work, so an overseas Coug usually can’t film a Pullman commercial. The common workarounds are passive income (like video game licensing) or filming content back home during school breaks.

And then there’s the Olympic angle. WSU has long been a feeder into Team USA in rowing and track, and several current Cougs are aiming at the 2026 Winter Olympics and beyond. NIL income lets Olympic-track athletes stay in college longer, train harder, and skip the financial cliff that historically pushed pre-Olympians out of school.

Fuel a Coug Today

Backing a specific WSU athlete — football, soccer, baseball, rowing, gymnastics, track, swimming, tennis, volleyball, anything — doesn’t have to come with risk. Pick a Coug, fuel their NIL starting at $25, and get every dollar back if they leave — through a platform with a legal framework built by Heitner Legal and audit-ready reporting baked in.

Fuel a WSU athlete on RallyFuel →

Fuel purchases are not charitable donations. RallyFuel is not a guarantor that any athlete will accept an NIL Agreement, and purchasing Fuel does not guarantee athletic performance, playing time, or any specific outcome. Refunds are issued automatically if conditions aren’t met during the Conditional Period.

Q&A

Q: What is NIL, and how do WSU athletes earn from it? A: NIL stands for Name, Image, and Likeness. It lets athletes get paid for using their own identity, based on the legal “Right of Publicity.” Instead of getting paid by the school for playing, they provide business services — endorsements, social posts, appearances. A Pullman pizza shop might name a sandwich after a Coug linebacker. A Spokane startup might license a WSU rower’s photo. For a deeper look at how NIL works, see our full NIL explainer.

Q: Is NIL legal in Washington state? A: Yes. Washington never passed a broad NIL statute — earlier attempts (SB 5942) failed. The current law on the books is SB 5913 (2024), which lets public-university staff openly help athletes with NIL deals. Most rules come from NCAA policy, the House v. NCAA settlement, and the College Sports Commission. See our full Washington NIL laws guide for the complete breakdown.

Q: What happened with the House settlement? A: Finalized in June 2025, House v. NCAA lets opted-in Division I schools pay athletes directly — capped around $20.5 million per school for 2025-26. It also created the College Sports Commission and NIL Go (a Deloitte clearinghouse) to review all third-party deals over $600. It’s the biggest structural change to college sports compensation in decades.

Q: How does WSU’s Pac-12 membership affect its NIL situation? A: WSU is a founding member of the rebuilt Pac-12 that launches in fall 2026. The new conference has very different economics from the old Power-Five Pac-12 — smaller media deals, fewer schools, more pressure on each program to fundraise its own NIL pool. That’s why President Cantwell has talked about needing $20 million in additional NIL and revenue-share funding just to stay competitive. Follow Pac-12 athletes and NIL momentum across the conference on the RallyFuel Pac-12 page.

Q: How many non-revenue sports have been cut nationally because of the House settlement? A: More than 415 college athletic programs have been cut or consolidated since May 2024 as schools rebalance budgets under the new revenue-sharing model. CBS Sports identified non-revenue sports as the single biggest loser of the House era, and the White House issued a fact sheet calling for federal action to protect them. Arkansas cut its tennis programs in spring 2026 and had to reinstate them 20 days later under public backlash. The pressure isn’t easing.

Q: How are WSU’s non-revenue sports being affected? A: Hard. In June 2025, WSU cut all field events from its track & field program — jumps, throws, javelin, shot put — and limited sprints and hurdles, citing post-House financial pressure. Three assistant coaches lost their jobs. About 43 athletes had their event futures cut. Meanwhile WSU is allotting roughly $4.5 million in benefits to football alone for 2025-26. Non-revenue programs are squeezed, and Olympic-sport athletes increasingly need to build their own NIL income to stay competitive — or risk being next.

Q: How can I directly support a specific WSU athlete? A: Use RallyFuel. Pick a specific WSU athlete from any sport, fuel their NIL starting at $25, and get a full refund if they select a different school during the Conditional Period. Every transaction is documented for compliance, and the legal framework is built by Heitner Legal — the nation’s leading NIL law firm. Browse rosters by sport: football, baseball, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, gymnastics, swimming, tennis, volleyball, rowing, and more.

Q: What’s different about RallyFuel? A: Four things. First, you back a specific athlete, not a general fund. Second, the majority of your contribution goes directly to that athlete (platform fees are disclosed at checkout). Third, if the athlete leaves WSU during the Conditional Period, you’re refunded automatically. Fourth — and this is the one fans miss — every deal is structured to clear NIL Go review and comes with audit-ready reporting through the Heitner Legal compliance framework.

Q: Why is compliance such a big deal now? A: Because deals that don’t survive review don’t pay. Post-House, every third-party NIL deal over $600 goes through NIL Go, the Deloitte clearinghouse, and any deal that looks like disguised pay-for-play gets flagged. Money that gets flagged doesn’t reach the athlete and can put their standing at risk. RallyFuel’s compliance framework, built by Heitner Legal, structures deals to clear review from the start.

Q: What about WSU’s Olympic-sport athletes specifically? A: Some of WSU’s strongest NIL opportunities are outside the revenue sports. Washington State has a long Olympic legacy in rowing, cycling, and track, and those athletes often have niche followings that translate to real deals — but they almost never see the booster money that flows to football. NIL also keeps Olympic-track athletes financially stable through the 2026 Winter Games and beyond. RallyFuel covers every roster, every sport.

Q: How do transfers affect my Fuel? A: That’s the whole point of the Conditional NIL Engagement Right. If the athlete you fueled selects a different school during the Conditional Period, refunds are processed automatically to your original payment method — no claims, no paperwork. You can keep an eye on transfer activity through the RallyFuel Transfer Tracker.

Q: What should athletes know about taxes? A: NIL income usually comes on a 1099-NEC, so taxes aren’t withheld. Washington has no state income tax, but federal income tax and self-employment tax still apply — most advisors suggest setting aside 25-30% of gross earnings. For larger or more complicated deals, talk to a CPA.

Q: Can high school athletes do NIL deals in Washington? A: Yes, but with strict limits under WIAA Rule 18.25. They can earn from NIL, but cannot use school uniforms, logos, mascots, or team names in content; cannot use school facilities (unless renting); and cannot accept facilitation from coaches or staff. NIL linked to a specific enrollment decision is treated as an “undue influence” eligibility violation. RallyFuel maintains a dedicated high school NIL resource hub for families navigating the rules.