IDS reporters win 2026 Investigative Reporting on Intercollegiate Athletics prize
Indiana Daily Student reporters Mia Hilkowitz, Nathan Shriberg, Savannah Slone, and Kasey Watkins won first place in the 2026 Drake Group Education Fund Student Journalism Prize for Investigative Reporting on Intercollegiate Athletics for their article “Could Big Ten schools use NIL deals to circumvent salary cap?”
In collaboration with the Arnolt Center for Investigative Journalism to obtain NIL disclosures and facilitate the expert interviews quoted in the story, the story highlights concern over transparency, enforcement, and disparities in athlete compensation across schools.
In their investigation, they found that while the House v. NCAA settlement allows Big Ten schools to directly pay athletes up to a $20.5 million cap for 2025‑26, inconsistencies and redactions in schools’ NIL disclosures make it difficult to track how much athletes are actually paid. In the trial, many schools provided incomplete or heavily redacted data, omitting details such as athlete names, sports, or deal types.
The Arnolt Center interns who contributed to the story include Mia Hilkowitz, Jacob Spudich, Ava Westendorf, Peyton Smith, Brian Gring, and Grace Bundy.
The judge panel for the awards included sports journalists and authors from The Associated Press, The New York Times, The Columbus Dispatch, and NBCSport.com. The Drake Group Education Fund annually recognizes the print, video, or multimedia work of a graduate or undergraduate college student journalist or team of student journalists for investigative reporting on intercollegiate athletics.