Our mission is to revolutionize opportunities in leadership for athletes.

ROLA is a research platform for college and professional athletics. We study how athletes build businesses, and we turn what we learn into opportunities for the athletes and programs that take part.

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Featured research

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51%

of athletes with meaningful NIL income faced an unexpected tax situation

The ROLA Report · Athlete Development

The tax situation your athletes are walking into unprepared

The IRS treats NIL as a high-risk enforcement category. Most athletes find out what they owe in April. Here is what that means for the programs they play for.

8 min read

58%

of NIL deals failed to deliver what was promised

NIL Infrastructure

Your program has NIL activity. It does not have NIL infrastructure.

9 min read

146%

year-over-year growth in volleyball NIL deal value

Competitive Edge

84 percent of NIL money goes to two sports. The programs that solve this first will own recruiting.

7 min read

15.3%

self-employment tax rate on NIL income

Athlete Development

LLC or not: the business entity decision your athletes are making without guidance

7 min read

$15M

in NIL deals declined by the College Sports Commission since July 2025

Regulatory

NIL Go is rejecting deals. Here is what your compliance office needs to understand.

7 min read

$20.5M

per-school annual revenue sharing cap, rising 4% a year

Regulatory

The $20.5 million question: what the House settlement left to your program

7 min read

77th

Florida's NIL spending rank the year it won the national title

Competitive Edge

The recruiting question has changed. Most programs are still answering the old one.

9 min read

Our research themes

NIL InfrastructureWhat programs need beyond deal volume Regulation and ComplianceThe CSC, NIL Go and the House settlement Athlete Business DevelopmentEntities, taxes, contracts and IP Recruiting and Competitive EdgeWhere infrastructure beats spending Foundations and PhilanthropyAthlete camps, foundations and grants

Who we work with

Athletic departments and universities

Research partnerships

Your athletes take part in ROLA research and a free workshop. Your department receives the findings about its own roster.

Request a research partnership

Collectives, agencies and pro organizations

Workshop licensing

Bring the double bottom line curriculum to the athletes you represent, delivered by our team or co-branded with yours.

Talk to us about licensing

Researchers, journalists and industry

The ROLA Report

Sourced data on athlete business, compliance and recruiting. Every figure is published with its source and sample size.

Read the research

Workshops

The double bottom line: earn more, keep more, give more.

Our workshops teach athletes how NIL income can fund a camp, clinic or foundation in their community, with the tax and grant benefits that come with it. Free to athletes through every research partnership.