Eighteen Nebraska athletes pursuing arbitration against the College Sports Commission over denied NIL deals are using joint counsel through Husch Blackwell—a cost-sharing structure that reduces individual legal exposure but creates unified negotiating leverage. this arrangement trades representation flexibility for collective bargaining power, a model likely to spread as athlete disputes with collegiate governing bodies accelerate. The structure matters: combined legal fees split across 18 plaintiffs reduce per-athlete cost by approximately 80-90% versus individual counsel, while maintaining pressure on CSC's arbitration defense. This marks the first major test of whether consolidated athlete representation can extract NIL concessions from governance bodies—a precedent that could reshape how athlete collectives structure legal challenges to NCAA and CSC policies.