NIL Newsletter #140 | 12th Man+ Fund, ACC Memo, Opendorse NIL Book, + ICYMI
Welcome to the NIL Newsletter by Optimum Sports Consulting - providing valuable, actionable NIL resources for student athletes, administrators, agents and other sport professionals.
Recapping NIL This Week:
NCAA Delivers Rapid Reprimand to Texas A&M
On February 15th, Texas A&M’s fundraising arm for athletics, the 12th Man Foundation, announced the launch of the 12th Man+ Fund, which would allow donors to contribute to student-athletes. This became the first NIL “collective” to operate directly under the control of a University.
In order to remain in compliance with the NCAA’s NIL policy, student-athletes are paid by the fund in exchange for promoting the 12th Man Foundation through social media posts and public appearances.
Texas A&M claims to have cleared the new fund with their compliance department and informed both the NCAA and SEC of the change. However, neither the NCAA or SEC offered any sort of approval before the launch.
“Texas A&M notified the NCAA that an NIL-related announcement was upcoming,” NCAA spokeswoman Meghan Durham said. “However, the NCAA did not review or approve any concept prior to the announcement.”
In response, the NCAA sent a memo to all member schools which appeared to be directed at the new fund. The memo came from Stan Wilcox, the Executive Vice President of Regulatory Affairs.
The memo emphasized the current NIL rules and guidelines: “The NCAA’s current Interim NIL Policy, Division I Board of Directors NIL guidance and NCAA rules prohibit an institution from compensating student-athletes for the use of their NIL. This prohibition also applies to entities acting on behalf of the institution.”
More on the story is available HERE.
ACC Memo Regarding Federal Legislation Released
An internal memo from the Atlantic Coast Conference became public this past week, and contained information on “Must Haves” that had been agreed upon by the Power 5 conferences regarding federal legislation.
The five “Must Haves” include three provisions that the conferences have agreed cannot be included in legislation:
Student-athletes being classified as employees;
Granting student-athletes their NIL rights in telecasts of competition;
NIL payments being used as recruiting inducements.
The P5 conferences also want federal legislation to preempt state laws and legal liability protection for following the new law.
In light of the recent hearing for Johnson v. NCAA, it seems unlikely that their first requirement will be met.
Finally, the memo included three additional categories that the conferences classify as “negotiable”: additional student-athlete support, healthcare benefits for student-athletes and enforcement of laws in new legislation.
More on the story is available HERE.
Opendorse Sends NIL Books
Opendorse, an NIL deal platform, sent out their first volume of an NIL book, which contains information on earnings expectations for student-athletes based on over 100,000 transactions conducted through or reported to the company.
There are two editions of the first volume—one for football and one for basketball. For each sport, earnings are broken down by position at each level of the sport.
Volume II will be shipped this upcoming July. Copies of the book are sent to Opendorse partners and data contributors, and recipients are encouraged to keep the included information confidential.
Opendorse released three free estimates from their first volume:
P5 Football Defensive Backs: $98,300/year
SEC WBB Guards: $22,800/year
DII MBB Centers: $1,700/year
More information is available HERE.
ICYMI Ticker
LEARFIELD’s Bronco Sports Properties and Jackson Food Stores partnered to create limited edition trading cards for every Boise State Broncos team. LINK
Elon launched the Forever Phoenix NIL Network in partnership with Opendorse. LINK
Three Pac-12 assistant coaches agreed that Oregon has the best NIL setup, claiming that it can go toe-to-toe with any University across the nation. LINK
Baylor AD Mack Rhoades shared his support of NIL legislation: “The only thing that will fundamentally and legally work is for there to be better legislation that will preempt [these] laws and put everyone on equal ground. LINK
Northern Iowa partnered with Opendorse to run its NIL marketplace. LINK