D1 Approved and Central Michigan University Partner to Strengthen NIL Compliance and Grow Athlete Revenues

The Mid-American Conference school becomes a founding partner of the Austin-based platform, gaining real-time visibility into student-athlete NIL activity, streamlined compliance workflows, and the market intelligence to identify new NIL and revenue opportunities.

Austin, TX, Oct. 14, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- D1 Approved, an Austin-based technology company that gives college athletic departments better compliance and market intelligence for their student-athletes’ name, image and likeness (NIL) activity, today announced a partnership with Central Michigan University. CMU joins D1 Approved as a founding partner and will use the platform across its athletic department to strengthen NIL compliance, and identify new revenue opportunities for its student-athletes and programs.

Ian Mooney, CEO and Founder of D1 Approved

The D1 Approved (https://d1approved.com/) platform monitors student-athletes’ public social media activity to surface commercial content and brand relationships, flags potential issues before they become problems, and gives compliance staff a single place to review, document and report NIL activity. Layered on top is market intelligence across all D1 programs: which brands are active in college sports, how NIL activity compares by institution, conference and sport, and which local, regional and alumni-connected partners a department has yet to tap.

Since student-athletes gained the right to earn from their NIL, athletic departments have had to keep tabs on activity that happens largely outside their control, on student-athletes' own accounts and in deals with third parties. The House settlement raised the stakes, adding direct revenue sharing from schools and a requirement to report third-party deals of $600 or more. The work still falls to the same short-staffed compliance teams, each covering 350 to 600 student-athletes.

For Amy Folan, CMU’s Zyzelewski Family Vice President and Director of Athletics, whose career includes years in NCAA compliance, the decision was a practical one.

“For a school our size, staying competitive in NIL starts with data," Folan said. "We need to know where we stand against our peers, which brands are investing in college student-athletes and where our untapped partners are, locally and across our alumni base." 

"What we appreciate about D1 Approved is that they are as focused on strategy and new business as they are on minimizing our risk and keeping our student-athletes compliant," Folan added. "The platform is already saving our athletic department a lot of time and potential headaches, which frees our staff to focus on high-impact initiatives instead of day-to-day operations." 

"This partnership ensures Central Michigan is a place where student-athletes and their families know NIL is not only being handled the right way, but that we have the systems and partners in place to actively bring opportunities to them," she said. 

“Amy and her team are doing what the best athletic departments will all soon be doing: treating NIL as something you manage with real data, not something you react to,” said Ian Mooney, Founder and CEO of D1 Approved. “Central Michigan was one of the first departments to see that compliance and revenue are two sides of the same problem. If you can see what your student-athletes are actually doing in the market, you can protect their eligibility, and you can also find the brands and partners who should be working with them. That is the work we are doing together, and CMU is setting the standard for how a forward-thinking department operates.”

Beyond the platform, D1 Approved is working with CMU athletics leadership on NIL strategy, including identifying local, regional and alumni-connected businesses that fit the Chippewas’ market and can support CMU student-athletes through NIL.

CMU is one of a growing number of NCAA Division I programs working with D1 Approved, which counts athletic departments in Power 4 and Group of Six conferences among its customers and founding partners.

About D1 Approved

D1 Approved monitors NIL activity across college athletics and turns it into compliance coverage, revenue opportunities, and competitive insight — one platform to protect your program and grow it.

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