Oregon State’s NIL management deal with Blueprint Sports is officially dead

Oregon State athletics’ NIL management deal with Blueprint Sports has been terminated, the university confirmed to The Oregonian/OregonLive on Monday.

The controversial deal — the terms of which faced scrutiny from media and fans amid the resignation of Brent Blaylock, the former OSU deputy athletic director who negotiated it — was mutually agreed to be terminated effective Dec. 8.

“Blueprint will retain the $280,000 management fee that OSU paid for the 2025-2026 contract year, but OSU will not make any additional payments to the company,” a university spokesperson said in a written statement to The Oregonian/OregonLive. “Within 30 days of termination, Blueprint will transfer to OSU all net proceeds stemming from NIL activity under the contract, including 100% of net revenues from memberships and/or subscriptions. Those proceeds will be placed in OSU Athletics’ revenue sharing account to benefit Beaver student-athletes.”

Effective with the termination, Dam Nation — acquired by Blueprint as part of the deal — will no longer serve as OSU’s NIL collective and won’t have any official affiliation with the school, OSU said. But all donations made to Dam Nation under Blueprint’s control are required to be surrendered back to OSU by Blueprint under the terms of the contract.

After news of the Blueprint deal being wound down, Dam Nation co-founder and former Oregon State athletics general manager Kyle Bjornstad re-filed the LLC’s annual report on Nov. 5 in order to prevent its administrative dissolution, he said. His plans going forward with the name are as of yet unclear.

“The LLC’s annual report, which all Oregon LLCs must file, was due in September,” Bjornstad told The Oregonian/OregonLive. “Because the transfer of the ‘Dam Nation Collective’ name was not — and has not been — completed, I filed the annual report to prevent administrative dissolution of the LLC. While my LLC still has the ‘Dam Nation Collective’ name, it is not involved in providing NIL opportunities to Oregon State student-athletes.”

OSU athletics said fans can continue to support individual OSU athletes through the Woodshop Exchange, and Oregon State Athletics through gifts to Our Beaver Nation.

“Moving forward, we will continue to pursue revenue sharing and NIL efforts within the department and through the OSU Foundation and Beaver Sports Properties,” OSU’s statement reads. “More details – including a possible new option for fans interested in membership subscriptions – will be forthcoming in the next few months.”

Whatever OSU ends up deciding in terms of NIL-related memberships for everyday fans, NIL will make up a smaller piece of the pie when it comes to compensating student-athletes. OSU athletic director Scott Barnes said in an October Q&A with The Oregonian/OregonLive that revenue sharing — for which OSU can raise up to a $20.5 million cap as determined by the House settlement — is the far bigger pot to draw from.

The Beavers are unlikely to come close to the cap, however. Their revenue sharing budget is not publicly known. This is not unique to OSU, as most schools including the biggest spenders like Oregon do not disclose their revenue share and NIL budgets.

OSU is set to bring in former Alabama assistant director of player personnel Eron Hodges to manage NIL deals and recruiting specifically for football. His exact title and responsibilities have not been made public, nor have OSU’s specific plans for allocating athlete payments toward other sports.