NIL Newsletter #93 | Adidas x Rose Zhang, SEC Spring Meetings, Miami's Lou Hedley flies to Australia, Cobra Puma signs 12-year-old + ICYMI Ticker
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:
Adidas signs top female amateur golfer Rose Zhang
Stanford golfer Rose Zhang became the first collegiate student athlete on Tuesday to sign a brand deal with Adidas. The top female amateur golfer is about to play in this year’s US Open, just days after capturing the NCAA DI individual and team titles for Stanford.
For over two years, Zhang has held the top spot in women’s amateur golf. She’s a two-time AJGA Player of the Year (2019, 2020) and has represented the US on the Junior Solheim Cup (2017, 2019), Junior Ryder Cup (2018) and Curtis Cup (2021) teams, all of which were victorious. At just 17, Rose became the first woman in history to win the U.S. Women’s Amateur (2020) before winning the U.S. Girls’ Junior (2021).
Zhang already has a portfolio of sponsors - her equipment deal is with Callaway, and she also has agreements with Beats by Dre, American Express, Eloise Trading Company (bag), Amundi Asset Management, Uswing sunglasses and Paradox. Zhang, and her teammate Rachel Heck, are represented by Excel Sports Management, which launched its women’s golf division last year.
Adidas is not far behind competitors in the NIL space. Nike only signed its first athlete in UCLA soccer’s Reilyn Turner late last year, and the company just announced this month the signing of sisters and high school soccer stars Alyssa and Gisele Thompson. Adidas announced earlier this year that it plans to have an NIL network reaching over 50,000 student-athletes across 23 sports at 109 Division I schools.
SEC Spring Meetings talk NIL
LSU HC Brian Kelly: “This has turned into a runaway train that has moved well past a SA and is moving too fast toward a pro contract. I don’t think that’s what the intention was. So we’re going to need some guidelines here before this gets thrown into Congress.” // “I don’t think they want contracts. I don’t think they want to be traded. I’m sure they don’t want to be cut. I’m sure they’re not going to like getting a call at 3 p.m. in the afternoon saying, ‘Hey, I don’t know but we traded you today to St. Bonaventure. Oh they don’t have a football team.’”
Ole Miss HC Lane Kiffin: “Our group is more professional in the room than they are when they're on camera by themselves.”
Alabama HC Nick Saban: “I didn't really say that anybody did anything wrong,” per 247Sports’ Brandon Marcello, regarding his comments directed at Texas A&M. “I’ve said everything I'm going to say about this. I should have never mentioned any individual institutions, as I’ve said before.” // “I should have never singled anybody out,” per ESPNU Radio Off-Campus. “That was a mistake and I apologize for that part of it.”
Alabama AD Greg Byrne: “I think with NIL it's reality and what's happened is you hear all of these stories that are out there, some of them are really good. We have young men and young women in our programs who are benefiting greatly from NIL opportunities that are market driven, that are what this was intended to be. But what I also think is happening is that there are people around the young men and young women who will say, ‘Go talk to your coach and say this school is offering me this, what are you going to do? You have no way of verifying that.’ Okay. That's a really hard thing to try to respond to … I think that's what Coach Saban talked about it- there's just so much speculation, some of which is accurate, some of which is very inaccurate.”
Miami Punter Lou Hedley flies to Australia to promote Life Wallet
Miami punter Lou Hedley is the latest member of the Hurricanes to ink an NIL deal with John Ruiz’s company Life Wallet. For this deal, however, Hedley had to return home to his native Australia. The punter took a 37-hour flight home to Australia, where he filmed promotional content for Life Wallet in Perth.
Hedley chose not to disclose the exact amount that the NIL deal was worth, but did say it was in the same range as his other Miami teammates who have signed deals with Life Wallet at roughly $50,000.
“It’s a pain in the backside having to fly over but it’s all worth it,” he told The Associated Press after a day of filming promotional spots. “I feel like I deserve to get a little bit of money, I’ve contributed wealth to the team (with) my name, image and likeness … so it was good to kind of get compensated for what I’ve been doing the last three years.”
International student-athletes can’t profit off of NIL while in the United States, given how the law is currently written. With that comes debate as to what international students can do to profit. These are murky waters for NIL. Depending on what school a student goes to, they’re being given different answers and different regulations. Despite all the confusion, Lou Hedley remains confident. “The work is all done here, paid for over here. As long as I’m doing all my work in Australia, I’m getting paid in Australia, paying taxes in Australia and all that stuff, it’s all legal,” Hedley told The Associated Press.
Cobra Puma Golf signs 12-year-old Xeve Perez to NIL deal
Cobra Puma has entered the NIL space - the golf company announced Friday the signing of 12-year-old golf phenom Xavier "Xeve" Perez. It's the first NIL deal for the company, and while Cobra Puma did not disclose specifics, the agreement includes free product and monetary compensation to help Perez pursue professional golf.
Perez began playing golf at the age of 3 and has now won over 250 tournaments in the past nine years. He has already signed a contract with the GSE Worldwide agency to represent him in his NIL deals. Along with Cobra Puma, Perez has signed deals with Easypost, JumboMax and OnCore.
"Xeve's personality, talent and love for the game is inspiring, and we're thrilled to welcome him to the Cobra Puma Golf family," Dan Ladd, president and general manager of Cobra Puma golf, said in a statement. "He is a fantastic talent and role model, which aligns with our mission to push the game forward and inspire the next generation of golfers. We're excited to be part of his journey."
One of the agents working with Perez is Brett Falkoff, who also represents PGA Tour players, including Bryson DeChambeau. “He hits the ball further than any 12-year old I have ever seen, and when it comes to his short game, he already has hands like a professional,” Falkoff said in a statement. “His larger-than-life personality and well-mannered demeanor will set him apart, and we feel that combined with his work ethic and passion for the game, it's only a matter of time before he takes the golf world by storm.”
ICYMI Ticker
“I don’t know of an industry, I don’t know of a corporation, I don’t know of a nonprofit anywhere who says ‘Let’s just turn it over to Congress to regulate us,’” Arne Duncan, co-chair of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics and former U.S. Secretary of Education, told the Wall Street Journal. “Congress only steps in when they see dysfunction or a lof leadership.”
Jeff Kearney, Gatorade’s Global Head of Sports Marketing has announced that Gatorade will not renew its contract with the NHL- and instead invest in college sports deals, among other areas.
Fishbait Solutions has added The Brandr Group to its growing roster of clients with expertise in the college space. Charleston, S.C.-based Fishbait will provide sales and consulting services to Brandr, and the two companies will work together on group licensing in the NIL field.
Kentucky MBB HC John Calipari on The Paul Finebaum Show: “What's next and how can we be first at it? What are we allowed to do? If you truly care about the kids and are authentic about it, you'll always be able to go on because they know [you care about them].”
Forbes’s Shaan Rais’s piece “How To Build An Empire Like Shaq Using Your Name, Image And Likeness” advises student athletes on NIL branding, modeled after Shaquille O’Neal. Full article HERE.