Transparency Has Boundaries: Public Accountability vs. Personal Privacy

I’ve been watching the debate over public records requests for student-athlete NIL agreements, and I keep coming back to one question: Why does the public think it’s entitled to know what a college athlete earns from a private commercial arrangement? 

I understand the curiosity. Fans want to know what their favorite quarterback is making. Reporters want to compare compensation across programs. Everyone wants to know who’s spending what in the new world of college athletics. 

Curiosity and entitlement are two very different things. And somewhere along the way, we’ve started treating student-athletes’ personal financial information as though it automatically belongs to the public simply because they attend a public university. That’s a pretty extraordinary leap. 

Let’s Talk About Public Money 

I’m a CPA. I spend a significant amount of my professional life working with public universities, athletic departments, and their affiliated organizations. I believe strongly in financial transparency, accountability, and appropriate oversight of public resources.  

If a university spends public money, there should be accountability for how that money is used. If an athletic department enters into financial commitments, those commitments should be appropriately recorded, reported, and subject to audit and oversight.  

But let’s distinguish between a university’s financial activities and a student-athlete’s private financial activities.  

If a local business pays a student-athlete $50,000 to appear in an advertising campaign, why should that agreement be subject to public inspection simply because the athlete plays football at a state university? The business isn’t spending taxpayer dollars. The athlete isn’t receiving a state appropriation. It’s a commercial transaction between private parties. 

I realize it’s bigger than an individual advertising campaign, which is where it becomes a gray area. Historically, universities have generated commercial revenue through multimedia rights, sponsorships, apparel contracts, licensing, and other partnerships. Now, some of those same marketing dollars are being directed toward athletes whose NIL rights have their own commercial value.  

Multimedia rights (MMR) companies are connecting brands with athletes. Apparel agreements are evolving to recognize individual NIL rights. Even jersey patch sponsorships may involve commercial arrangements that compensate athletes. In some cases, contracts are being renegotiated to separate the university’s commercial rights from those belonging to individual athletes. Just because a university historically received all the revenue from a particular commercial relationship doesn’t mean it owns every component of that value today.  

The marketing dollars haven’t necessarily changed. What’s changed is who is generating the value and who has the right to monetize it. 

Would we expect journalism students to disclose what they earn from a freelance writing contract? What if their professor helped arrange a paid internship or connected them with a company looking for freelance writers? Does the university’s involvement in creating that opportunity suddenly make the students’ compensation public information? Of course not. Helping create a commercial opportunity isn’t the same as owning the resulting compensation. So why do we think the rules should change because someone can throw a football or shoot a basketball? 

Should I FOIA Your Mortgage Next? 

Let’s follow this logic a little further. Suppose you attended a public university and received a Pell Grant. Taxpayer dollars helped support your education. Does that mean I should be entitled to submit a public records request for your bank statements? Your mortgage? Your children’s report cards? After all, you benefited from public funding at some point. 

Sounds ridiculous, right? That’s because it is. 

Receiving a public benefit or attending a publicly funded institution doesn’t mean you’ve surrendered every expectation of financial privacy. And the argument becomes even harder to justify when the NIL compensation in question doesn’t involve public funding at all. We need to stop conflating an individual’s relationship with a public institution with public ownership of that individual’s financial affairs. 

Accountability Doesn’t Require Publicizing Every Contract 

There is an important distinction between transparency and oversight. The NCAA and College Sports Commission have established reporting and review requirements for NIL arrangements. Those are legitimate oversight functions, and the fact that an agreement must be disclosed to a university or regulatory body for compliance purposes doesn’t automatically mean it should be disclosed to the general public. We can debate whether the current enforcement model works. But questioning the effectiveness of regulatory oversight doesn’t automatically mean we should hand that responsibility over to sportswriters, academic researchers, passionate fans, or internet trolls. 

And yes, institutional revenue sharing introduces additional complexity. When universities themselves are making payments to athletes, the public accountability considerations are different. The source of funding, nature of the transaction, applicable state laws, and the university’s financial reporting obligations all matter. But even then, there is room for meaningful financial transparency without necessarily publishing every athlete’s individual contract terms. We can report aggregate spending, audit financial activity, and evaluate compliance and institutional obligations. We don’t have to confuse accountability with unlimited access to personal compensation information. 

Some argue that including this information in NCAA financial reporting or otherwise making it publicly available would keep coaches from overspending in the name of competitive advantage. But we’ve been reporting athletics finances for decades, and that hasn’t stopped the arms race in coaching salaries, charter flights, facilities, or other expenses. Coaches already compare notes about what their peers have, often without regard for the financial realities of their own institutions. More publicly available NIL data won’t necessarily create financial discipline. It may just give coaches another benchmark to take back to their athletic directors when asking for more. 

Where Do We Draw the Line? 

I’m not arguing that athlete compensation should operate without oversight. The industry needs sound governance, reliable financial reporting, appropriate compliance controls, and accountability for institutional spending.  

I recognize public records laws vary by state, and whether a particular agreement is legally subject to disclosure isn’t determined solely by its funding source. But just because a record may be accessible under existing law doesn’t mean we’ve appropriately balanced public accountability with individual privacy. 

When taxpayer dollars are being spent, ask questions. Demand accountability. Follow the money. But if two private parties enter into an agreement using private funds, why exactly is that everybody else’s business?  

I’m well aware that this opinion may not earn me invitations from the media, academia, or even Congress. I’d certainly welcome opportunities to contribute to those conversations. But I’d rather be known for offering an independent perspective than for saying what earns me a seat at the table. 

Transparency matters. So does accountability. Just because the public has the right to follow its money doesn’t mean it has the right to follow everyone else’s.  

Of course, the conversation doesn’t stop with NIL transparency. The broader commercialization of college athletics, and what it means for universities, athletes, and the future of the industry, deserves an editorial of its own. I’ll save that for another day. In the meantime, as institutions explore new commercial structures and affiliated entities, the questions surrounding governance, financial transparency, and value creation are becoming increasingly important. If your institution is navigating these changes, James Moore’s Collegiate Athletics CPAs and Consultants can help evaluate opportunities, structure the right model, and establish the financial and governance framework to support it.