NIL Newsletter #11 | Monday, August 16, 2021
Welcome to the NIL Newsletter by Optimum Sports Consulting - providing valuable, actionable NIL resources for athletes, administrators, agencies and other sport professionals.
Welcome to the NIL Newsletter by Optimum Sports Consulting.
Through this newsletter and our additional legal and advisory resources, we aim valuable, actionable NIL resources for athletes, administrators, agencies and other sport professionals.
Every Monday and Thursday (at 8:30am ET), we will catch you up to speed with the latest news surrounding Name/Image/Likeness (NIL) in college athletics- directly to your email inbox. This newsletter is currently FREE.
Follow us @OptimumSportsConsulting on Instagram and @OptimumSportsC on Twitter for daily content. Check out past Optimum Sports Consulting Newsletters here.
Major News
Built Bar Will Pay Pay Tuition For All 36 BYU Football Walk-ons
Built Bar is offering walk-ons a privately funded scholarship in which they will receive the money directly and will have the ability to spend the money in the manner they desire.
BYU released a statement saying that all 123 football players on the team are being offered an endorsement deal with Built; scholarship athletes can earn $1,000 for being brand ambassadors.
"I love these boys, and I am overwhelmed with gratitude to be partnering with a company that is equally committed to assisting BYU football in building a culture of love and learning while enhancing the experience for all players," BYU head coach Kalani Sitake said in a statement.
Utah does not have a law restricting NIL endorsement deals for student athletes, making this arrangement possible. The NCAA has opted not to enforce strict guidelines against any such agreements, allowing individual schools to establish their own policies.
Opendorse Releases July Data
Football and men’s basketball led the way in NIL deals according to Opendorse, combining for 88.6% market share in July.
Division I deals averaged $471 per athlete (one unnamed athlete earned $210,000); Division II averaged $81; Division III deals averaged $47.
88.5% of all activity were social media promotions- the next closest were licensing NIL rights (3.9%) and creating content (2.7%).
Women’s volleyball was third in market share with 5.5%- other women’s sports garnering at least 0.2% included softball (0.8%), track and field (0.5%), tennis (0.3%), and golf (0.2%).
What’s Coming Next on NIL
August 28, 2021 | Week 1 of NCAA FBS Football
August 28, 2021 | Missouri’s state NIL policy goes into effect
September 1, 2021 | Connecticut’s state NIL policy goes into effect
November, 2021 | NCAA Board of Governors to hold constitutional convention
Legal Updates
Senator Roger Marshall (R-KS) called on the Department of Justice to investigate ESPN following Texas/Oklahoma’s move to the SEC
The first term senator cited a study that predicts the Texas/Oklahoma move will cause a $250 million reduction in annual economic activity at Kansas State University- possibly costing nearly 2,000 jobs.
"I write today to ask the DOJ investigate ESPN's role in the potential destruction of the Big 12 conference and if any anti-competitive or illegal behavior occurred relating to manipulating the conference change or ESPN's contractual television rights," part of the letter read.
Virginia Governor Ralph Northam has tied NIL legislation to his proposed budget in order to allow it to be considered this month
Northam has addressed the issue in his proposed budget, fast-tracking legislation to regulate NIL deals for athletes at Virginia schools.
In May, officials from universities and colleges across Virginia sent a letter to Northam - written by UVA athletics director Carla Williams - urging him to issue an executive order granting athletes NIL rights.
“The administration worked closely with several universities on this issue,” said Alena Yarmosky, a spokeswoman for the governor. “We feel it is important to provide consistency and allow Virginia universities to remain competitive. State NIL language also adds a layer of protection for students by reinforcing the requirements for athlete representation in the commonwealth.”
FOR ATHLETES
Examples of Success Last Week
UConn Women’s Basketball student athlete Paige Bueckers has filed a trademark application for her “Paige Buckets” nickname to be used on “athletic apparel, namely shirts, pants, jackets, footwear, hats and caps, [and] athletic uniforms.” The application was reportedly filed by Wasserman (via Darren Heitner).
Norfolk State running back Rayquan Smith became the first HBCU athlete to partner with popular athletic brand Eastbay. Smith was featured in an ad for the brand with the tagline #BeTheOne displaying his excellent footwork in on the field drills.
QB Quinn Ewers announced that he will enroll early at Ohio State due to Texas’s restrictions on high school NIL. As expected, he already has bursted onto the NIL scene with Holy Beverages.
Tip of the Week: As you return to class, make sure you are still doing your due diligence with NIL opportunities.
It is not easy being a student athlete, especially once school starts and you have to balance schoolwork and your sport. For some, this will be your first time on campus with your classmates (aka not Zoom University). You might be approached with things like autographing a classmate’s jersey or wanting to collaborate with a friend on their latest apparel start-up. Those might sound small, but you still have to do your due diligence (research and analysis) about any opportunity before committing to them. You might live in a state that has specific reporting policies, or your school might have a specific chain of command. You might also have professional representation that will want to look over anything before you sign. The point is- a new environment can not change how you approach NIL opportunities that are presented to you. Take your time and make sure to follow all the necessary procedures just like you would in the offseason when you are back home.
FOR COLLEGE ADMINS
Notes for the Week
In an interview with The Undefeated, Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren said, “There’s a line of reasoning that this will allow people to stay in college longer because they’ll be able to still be compensated for their name, image and likeness… Maybe they don’t feel the pressure of leaving to go the professional route. There’s a thought process that this may allow that student-athlete to stay in college longer.”
Oklahoma State AD Chad Weiberg on international athletes not being able to profit off their NIL: “I think that is something that really appears that it just fell through the cracks. I don’t know that anybody - when that was being discussed at the congressional level, even - was really aware it was going to have that consequence.” OSU Athletics has 50 international athletes across all sports.
Arkansas AD Hunter Yurachek on NIL in recruiting: “We feel like we may have lost a recruit in a particular sport that will go unnamed because a school promised upfront that recruit a NIL agreement, which is illegal by kind of the basic NIL rules. Right now, we have 50 different rules because each state gets to kind of operate under their own premise. And so we need some, whether it’s NCAA or federal legislation, so that we’re all kind of operating from the same playbook as far as NIL goes moving forward.””
Not NIL but… The Pac-12, Big Ten and ACC are engaging in high-level discussions about an alliance, sources tell The Athletic. Talks have centered around not just a scheduling alliance in football but in broader cooperation- all three commissioners have been in talks for weeks.
Tip of the Week: BYU’s Built Bar deal might have states/schools rethink their NIL policies.
BYU’s monumental deal with Built Bar this week represented a major shift in the NIL landscape. For years, NIL legislation experts/drafters predicted that brand deals could not be endorsed by schools and used as a recruiting inducement. But BYU’s public promotion of their football team’s deal with Built, in the state of Utah with no NIL law, might be the biggest change in thinking to date. NILU’s Grant Frerking: “It changes the game… say goodbye to folks believing they only have 85 scholarships to give out. There is now an additional 40 players with the ability to have their school paid for through the help of the private sector and the desire to make a program the most attractive sell to a recruit.” In states without NIL laws or ones that do not explicitly mention schools using NIL as a recruiting mechanism/endorsement, athletic departments have to strongly consider how close they want to be to BYU. With vast donor networks and tons of existing partnerships with brands/vendors, deals like Built can be made everyday if that is the new frontier.
FOR AGENCIES
Takeaways and Successes Last Week
On Tuesday, Overtime announced a headline deal with USC Trojans football player and Space Jam: A New Legacy star Ceyair Wright. He becomes the first athlete to sign with its all-new college athlete creator studio, a million-dollar venture that aims to help student-athletes maximize their NIL rights by growing their individual brands.
Pittsburgh QB Kenny Pickett is the latest NCAA athlete to sign with car company. He will drive a GMC Sierra throughout the year in exchange for social media promotion.
Tip of the Week: Social media might be a popular NIL activity, but the money is more spread out than you think.
Opendorse’s July data release gives important insight into how brands are partnering with student athletes in NIL opportunities. While social media promotions accounted for 88.5% of total activity, just 46% of the money came from those same engagements. Licensing NIL rights, autographs, appearances, and content creation accounted for 51% of the total money given to student athletes. Brands will continue to analyze how these deals pay off over the next few months, so it’ll be vital to monitor which deals last and which ones fizzle out. Social media posts aren’t always as authentic as actual ads and appearances. Hosting camps is likely to grow as well- NIL starting in July made it tough to implement summer camps as FBS preseason loomed in August. Expect the market to continue to diversify as brands evolve and student athletes have more time to cultivate their NIL goals in the offseason.