NIL Newsletter #12 | Thursday, August 19, 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.
This Thursday’s Newsletter Includes:
Recapping NIL news this week
Exclusive Interview with Sports Attorney Darren Heitner
ICYMI: Alabama’s Braswell signs co-licensing deal
Recapping NIL This Week
OSC recaps Opendorse’s “NIL Matters” Webinar
Did you happen to miss this week’s Opendorse webinar featuring Opendorse Ready Program Director Chris Kutz, Opendorse CEO Blake Lawrence, Associate AD Shane Drahota (MSU-DII), and student athlete Caleb Eagans (ETBU-DIII)? Optimum Sports Consulting has the full 2-page recap to get you up to date. Head HERE to read it for free.
Georgia QB Daniels makes back-to-back splashes in the NIL world
JT Daniels made headlines this week after signing a six-month exclusive NIL trading card deal that pays him $100 per signature.
ESM, which is repping him, says with 50% royalties on signed & unsigned cards, it could reach 7 figures (per Darren Rovell). Daniels plans to share up to 50% of his earnings with his Georgia teammates.
Daniels also signed a deal with Zaxby’s to serve as a Brand Ambassador for the 2021-22 season. The deal requires Daniels to do appearances at corporate and philanthropic events, appear in ads, and share social media content (per Darren Heitner).
Daniels’ #5 Georgia Bulldogs open their season against #3 Clemson on September 4th in Charlotte. Tigers’ quarterback D.J. Uiagalelei, who was Daniels’ high school rival in California, coincidentally has an endorsement deal with chicken-rival Bojangles.
Interview: Sports Attorney Darren Heitner Talks NIL with Optimum Sports Consulting
The leading NIL Attorney took some time to discuss BYU FB’s latest NIL deal, the July Opendorse financial report, NCAA reconfiguration and more in this exclusive interview with OSC.
Interviewed by Austin Meo (@AMeo31)
1. BYU's deal with Built Bar seems to be a drastic shift from what experts thought NIL would look like even 6 months ago. Will this deal be a catalyst for school pseudo-sponsored endorsements? Should state NIL laws that ban this practice be amended?
I can certainly envision schools becoming more involved in the procurement process for NIL deals in those states that do not explicitly prevent such activity. My opinion is that all states with NIL laws should reevaluate those laws when their respective legislatures are in session in order to make reasonable modifications based on what we have seen play out thus far. That was always the intention, at least in the State of Florida.
2. What is the timeline for high school NIL? Is Quinn Ewers an outlier, or do you expect more high school athletes to continue with this practice until they can make money before college?
Quinn Ewers is certainly an outlier, but there will be others who are similarly situated and forced into making a tough decision as to whether they should leave high school early, assuming they qualify to enroll in college at an earlier age. Also, Texas is one of three states (along with Mississippi and Illinois) that expressly prohibit high school athletes from engaging in NIL activities, separate any apart from whatever a high school athletic association's bylaws may state. That is certainly a provision I would reconsider if I were in the Texas legislature.
3. What do you make out of the July financial report by Opendorse? What surprised you and what do you think will change in August and beyond?
Nothing was all that surprising when you consider the underlying data that created the report. When a company literally offers every single athlete on the platform the opportunity to accept a deal, the compensation for that deal is low, and many athletes accept the offer, you will be left with a depressed median. Overall, I'm quite pleased by the amount of opportunities a wide array of athletes have received in the infancy of NIL.
4. With the NCAA's constitutional convention fast approaching, what do you think will happen to the NCAA's governing structure? Does the OU/Texas move to the SEC or the possible alliance between the ACC/PAC-12/Big Ten give you a lean?
One thing I have learned over time is that it is futile to speculate as to practically anything that concerns the NCAA.
5. What aspect of NIL isn't being talked about right now, but you think will be big in the future?
Group licensing isn't being talked about enough. Panini struck a deal with OneTeam and I am very interested to follow how that plays out concurrently with how well OneTeam does to sign up athletes across the country to its Group Licensing Agreements. On a smaller scale, Brandr is signing up schools like UNC, Ohio State, and Alabama to try to group the athletes at those institutions for group licensing opportunities. What that will look like and whether the star athletes will be willing to earn the same compensation as their peers is something to follow.
6. If you were a compliance director at a D1 school right now, what would worry you the most about the current NIL landscape?
Not doing enough to throw all my support behind my athletes benefiting from smart opportunities. This is the time to champion my athletes and their rights, not depress them in any way.
Special thanks to Darren Heitner for taking the time to discuss the latest developments in NIL with us. You can follow him on Twitter, check out his website, and read his Sports Agent Blog.
ICYMI: Alabama LB Chris Braswell Has Signed a Co-Licensed NIL Deal with the Crimson Tide
Chris Braswell, a redshirt freshman linebacker at Alabama, signed a deal with third party BreakingT to produce a cobranded shirt (per Ross Dellenger). The shirt closely resembles the Tide’s home football jersey, with Alabama’s scripted “A” in the front and Braswell’s name in block letters on the back, along with his number 41 featured on both sides.
The deal runs through Braswell’s college career, but he can end the contract at any point, according to Ethan Weinstein, an athlete services representative at Dreamfield in Florida.
While some schools have been against co-branding since the start of NIL, others have embraced it. Ohio State, Alabama and North Carolina became three of the first programs to partner with a third party, in this case The Brandr Group, a brand management and licensing agency.
Buddy Boeheim, son of Syracuse Men’s Basketball Coach Jim Boeheim, became the first athlete to do an NIL partnership deal with their university last month. His BUDDY BUCKETS apparel features Syracuse’s trademarked “S” on various shirts and sweatshirts. Michigan’s M Den also has an agreement with several players to release custom jerseys. Due to restrictions with Nike, Braswell had to settle for shirts instead of football jerseys.
Nicole O'Keefe, BreakingT’s director of strategic partnerships, is hoping that more players opt in to the company’s platform as to have their license ready to produce immediate merchandise after in-season viral moments.
“What you’re going to see over the course of the next two years, everybody is going to end up allowing cobranding,” says O’Keefe, “but it’s going to take a little time to get through the legal side of things.
“If you have these deals out there already, then if Chris forces a turnover and wins the game, we’ll be ready to make a shirt to capture that moment.”