Nearly a century after the founding of the NCAA, the college sports landscape is undergoing a profound transformation, one that increasingly demands input beyond the governing body. In response, a handful of nonprofit organizations have asserted themselves as crucial stakeholders in the reform conversation, competing for limited resources while navigating a system dominated by powerful financial interests.

Here are six notable organizations seeking to shape the future of intercollegiate athletics.

Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics

As the elder statesman of college sports reform, the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics (KCIA) was established in 1989 in response to a series of high-profile scandals that plagued college athletics throughout that decade.

The Knight Commission is not an independent entity but rather a project of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the philanthropic powerhouse with over $2.5 billion in assets. (In 2014, the foundation filed to trademark “Knight Commission”; it lapsed without being renewed in February 2024.)

Starting in the 2020 fiscal year, the foundation began detailing its spending on “direct charitable activities” related to the commission’s work in its annual tax returns. In line with this, it reported expenditures of $1.44 million in FY2022 and $1.36 million in 2023—its two most recent fiscal years.

Knight Commission CEO Amy Perko told Sportico in an email that the disclosures in the Knight Foundation’s tax returns provide a “high-level summary of the commission’s activities but are not inclusive of all projects in a particular year.”

In 2023, its spending went towards two national meetings, hosting forums at the NCAA Convention and the National Association of Collegiate Athletics Directors (NACDA) annual meeting, and paying financial services firm CliftonLarsonAllen to analyze future FBS and Power 5 athletic department spending.

Since 2013, one of the commission’s primary initiatives has been maintaining an annual database of college athletic department financial information, based on annual disclosures schools report to the U.S. Department of Education. Four years ago, KCIA entered into a collaborative partnership with Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Communications to jointly manage the database, which now reflects the names of both institutions.

“The Knight Commission operates very much in the tradition of other educational nonprofits,” Perko said. “Our services are free to the public—we don’t charge for attending our meetings and seminars or limit access to our reports, letters, white papers, financial analyses and the like.” 

Perko’s compensation as the commission’s CEO is not disclosed in the foundation’s tax returns. However, the filings do show annual donations made by the Knight Foundation to other charitable organizations in recognition of the work of the Knight Commission’s co-chairs.

For example, in 2020, the foundation donated $25,000 to Kent State to honor the leadership of KCIA co-chair Carol Cartwright, the former president of Kent State. Last year, the foundation contributed $50,000 each to Chicago Cred, a gun violence reduction charity, and the National Association of System Heads, in honor of former co-chairs Arne Duncan and Nancy Zimpher.

Despite its financial independence, the commission has faced criticism from some athlete advocates and NCAA critics, who argue it is overly connected to and deferential toward the college sports power structure. In response, Perko has highlighted KCIA’s history of “leading transformational change” and its consistent pressure on the NCAA to enhance conditions for athletes.

National College Players Association

The National College Players Association (NCPA) was founded in 2001 by former UCLA football player Ramogi Huma after the settlement of the White v. NCAA case, which sought to expand the NCAA’s cap on athletic scholarships to include additional costs of attendance beyond room and board. Dissatisfied with the outcome of the case, Huma launched the organization with teammates Ryan Rock and Ali Azziz to advocate for college athletes’ rights.

In 2003, Huma testified for California’s “Student Athletes Bill of Rights,” which sought to lift NCAA restrictions on scholarships, health insurance and athlete earnings. Although the bill did not pass, it set a precedent for future legislative successes.

By 2014, Huma shifted focus to labor organizing, spearheading Northwestern University football players’ unsuccessful unionization attempt under the banner of a separate group called the College Athlete Players Association. The failure of that effort led Huma to reprioritize legislation, culminating in the NCPA’s pivotal role in California’s 2019 passage of the nation’s first college athlete NIL law.

Throughout its nearly quarter-century history, the NCPA has operated on a shoestring budget, which is almost entirely supported through fundraising efforts organized by the United Steelworkers Union.

“Without the steelworkers, I would never have been able to keep this group going,” Huma told Sportico in an interview last year. “We definitely don’t have the funds we hoped we could have. That has always been our situation. … We have applied for grants, but found that by and large over the years, foundations have been slow to catch up to public sentiment.”

Huma pointed out that potential donors outside the college sports world have often viewed his constituency as made of “spoiled athletes,” while professional athletes with wealth are already being bombarded with solicitations for causes.

“They’re asked for a lot as soon as they go pro,” he explained. “The challenge for us is that we don’t want to be just another group pulling at their coattails, asking them to do something they’re not interested in. Many pro athletes already have causes, foundations, and countless people asking for their time and resources. Because we understand what that feels like, we make sure to approach them with care and respect.”

The NCPA brought in $294,694 in revenue in 2023, according to its most recent tax return, which represents a nearly three-fold increase from the prior year. Huma, who is based in California, received a salary of $65,782, and the organization paid out $43,150 in other compensation and wages. After spending $54,000 on “advocacy organizing training assistance,” $9,010 on travel, $4,298 on legal fees, and $1,737 on direct lobbying expenditures, it ended the fiscal year with net assets of $66,153.

The Drake Group and Drake Group Education Fund 

In 1999, Jon Ericson, then the provost of Drake University, gathered athletics-skeptical professors in Des Moines, Iowa, for what became the inaugural meeting of The Drake Group. This loosely organized “national activist organization” focused on the ways in which universities’ athletic ambitions were undermining their educational integrity, particularly regarding the academic performance and coursework of football and basketball players.

“For the 14 years we banged our heads against the wall trying to get the NCAA to reform,” said Donna Lopiano, who joined the Drake Group’s advisory board in 2011 and served as president from 2023 to 2024. “When we realized we weren’t making progress with that, we thought, let’s see if we can work with Congress.”

Over time, the organization evolved from a single-minded focus on academic integrity to addressing broader issues in college sports reform.

In 2013, as its scope expanded, the Drake Group formally organized, incorporating in Connecticut—where one of its leaders, University of New Haven professor Allen Sack, was based—and applied for IRS tax-exempt status as a 501(c)(4) general welfare organization. Those entities, unlike 501(c)(3) organizations, are permitted by the IRS to engage in unlimited lobbying.

Despite this formalization, the organization has never exceeded $50,000 in annual revenue, the threshold requiring a public tax return. By Lopiano’s count, the group has never brought in more than $20,000 in a given year, relying instead on the time and efforts of its board members.

“We wanted to be small and nimble, without bureaucracies or fundraising,” said Lopiano, who runs a college sports consulting practice.

In 2022, the Drake Group voted to create a 501(c)(3) entity to serve as its “dedicated education arm” and handle fundraising and management for its annual college sports symposium in Washington, D.C., which Lopiano said costs about $70,000 to put on.

Julie Sommer, the inaugural president of The Drake Group Education Fund, said the organization has yet to apply for 501(c)(3) status, choosing instead to operate for the time being under the fiscal sponsorship of Players Philanthropy Fund. Sommer declined to share current financial details other than to say it has experienced steady growth.

“Fundraising for college sports reform is not for the faint of heart—nor the easily distracted,” Sommer said in an email. “So much is happening so quickly that it’s hard to fully grasp the nuances and implications of an issue, and by the time you do, the next one is already here.”

College Football Players Association

Jason Stahl, a former lecturer and faculty coordinator at the University of Minnesota, founded the College Football Players Association (CFBPA ) in July 2021 and currently serves as its executive director. The organization was granted IRS recognition as a 501(c)(7) social club charity in May 2024.

“We aim to be the main social organization for college football players and the main union for college football players should they be deemed employees in the future,” the CFBPA wrote in its application for tax-exempt status.

The CFBPA was born out of Stahl’s personal experiences raising concerns about the treatment of University of Minnesota football players under head coach P.J. Fleck. Stahl left the university in the summer of 2020 and started writing a Substack newsletter focused on problems within college sports.

In a February 2021 post, he expressed his ambition to lead “the first Football Player Association.” Despite lacking a background in college athletics or labor organizing, Stahl argued that traditional approaches and leaders had failed to effectuate change.

“We have endless nonprofits, endless academics, endless lawyers,” he told The Athletic in a 2021 profile. “What do we have to show for it in the 21st century? I can’t point to a single major victory.”

In July 2022, Stahl garnered national attention by organizing a covert locker room meeting with Penn State football players, an initiative he envisioned as the first step toward unionizing teams across the Big Ten. However, the plan reportedly fell apart when a Penn State assistant coach unexpectedly walked in. In CFBPA’s IRS application, Stahl included a link to a Sports Illustrated article about the effort to explain why the “complicated organizational effort” ultimately failed.

Despite this setback, Stahl had established himself as a prominent national voice for college athletes. In March 2023, he was one of six witnesses who testified at a House Committee on Energy and Commerce hearing on college athletes’ NIL rights. Just this week, CFBPA vice president Justin Falcinelli, a former offensive lineman at Clemson, appeared before the same committee for its latest NIL hearing.

According to its 2023 tax return, the CFBPA generated $105,000 in revenue from contributions, gifts and grants, including a $40,000 donation from an anonymous contributor. Stahl earned a salary of $22,500 for the year.

Stahl declined an interview request, citing his busy schedule.

The CFBPA’s website lists two partner organizations: the Institute for College Football Research and Education, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in Maryland, and CFBPA Action, a 501(c)(4) lobbying arm whose tax-exempt status is still pending.

Athletes.org

Former INFLCR founder/CEO Jim Cavale launched Athletes.org in August 2023, just weeks after resigning from the company he sold to Teamworks in 2020.

Athletes.org promotes itself as an intercollegiate players association that “enables college athletes to have a say in crucial matters affecting their future,” which, crucially, includes group licensing deals.

A copy of the group licensing program agreement posted on AO’s website shows that the organization would retain 25% of the royalties paid to its members as part of any group licensing deal it structures. 

AO counts over 3,000 members, who are able to join for free. In April 2024, Athletes.org signed the entire University of Alabama at Birmingham football roster, its first whole-team commitment. In January, ahead of the College Football Playoff title game in Atlanta, AO hosted around 50 current and former college athletes for its first “players-only meeting.”

The organization applied for IRS tax-exempt recognition in the summer of 2023, but still does not appear to have received it. Through a spokesperson, Athletes.org declined to answer questions for this article.

As Sportico previously reported, Athletes.org disclosed to the IRS a written sponsorship agreement in place with the for-profit Athletes Innovations Inc., a Delaware LLC owned by Cavale that was formed in April 2023. That same month, Athletes Innovations raised $100,000, according to an SEC filing.

Cavale’s industry ties—which include his continued stockholdings in Teamworks, a company that does business with numerous athletic departments—has raised conflict-of-interest concerns, which Cavale sought to address in an interview with Sportico last year. At the time, he insisted he had no ownership control or other active relationship in his former company’s business.

Athletes.org is registered as a domestic nonprofit corporation with the Alabama Secretary of State, where Cavale is based. According to its bylaws, “no part of the net earnings of (Athletes.org) shall inure to the benefit of any private person, director of officer of the foundation.” The organization’s other corporate directors are sports attorney Mit Winter and Chris Nalley, who previously served as INFLCR’s chief technology officer.

Not listed as a director is Athletes.org’s co-founder and CEO, Brandon Copeland, a former Penn and NFL linebacker. In January, Athletes.org announced that another former college football player, Jamil Northcutt, had joined AO in a leadership role. Northcutt briefly served as the NCAA’s assistant director for football development from 2017 to 2018 before working as an executive with the NFL and MLS. He now runs Strategic Transition Advisors, a New Jersey-based sports and entertainment consulting firm that counts several D-I schools and the NCAA among its clients.

Cavale, in his individual capacity, still owns the trademark to Athletes.org, which was filed for in January 2023 and issued this past November. Athletes.org, meanwhile, holds the trademark to the phrase, “The Athletes Organization.” 

Until or unless Athletes.org secures its 501(c)(3) status, its financial details will largely remain unclear. However, one expenditure is publicly available. In July, Athletes.org hired the lobbying firm Ice Miller Strategies, as disclosed in filings with the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate. The organization paid the firm $50,000 for its lobbying services in 2024.

United College Athletes Association

Former Washington State and Cal track athlete Andrew Cooper, a leader of the #WeAreUnited athlete protest movement that emerged amid the COVID-19 pandemic, launched an advocacy group called United College Athletes Association in 2022.

That effort “ultimately went nowhere,” Cooper said, “but many lessons were learned.”

With those in mind, Cooper and former Oregon State women’s basketball player Mikayla Pivec launched a new organization with the same name late last year, filing its IRS application in December.

In January, the newly formed UCAA organized a letter-writing campaign involving 120 current women’s college basketball players from the Big Ten and SEC. The players collectively requested meetings with the commissioners of both leagues to discuss ways they could have a greater influence on decisions affecting their sport. (The commissioners, Tony Petitti and Greg Sankey, declined their request.)

So far, Cooper said that only he and Pivec have spent money out of their own pockets but plans to build UCAA through contributions—a “high priority” for this coming summer. 

“We wanted to prove we can successfully educate athletes and unite their voices within a representation structure before we started fundraising, so we knew what worked and didn’t work,” Cooper said.

When asked how he distinguishes his group from others, Cooper explained, “We are proud to be an athlete-led, independent nonprofit.”

He added that, beyond charitable fundraising, the UCAA would explore partnerships, as long as they align with their philanthropic mission.

However, one form of revenue is firmly off the table.

“We will not engage in group licensing,” Cooper stated, “because, as a nonprofit, we are not pursuing any for-profit ventures.”