Recapping NIL This Weekend:

Popular dating app Bumble launches ‘50for50’ NIL program

In honor of the 50th anniversary of Title IX, dating and social networking app Bumble - which bills itself as a “women-first” app - has signed 50 female college athletes to NIL deals as part of a new “50for50” program. The partnership includes different engagements over the course of the year, including events and media. The women will also be Bumble ambassadors on their respective campuses.
“These sponsorships are an exciting step in empowering and spotlighting a diverse range of some of the most remarkable collegiate women athletes from across the country. Athletes who work just as hard as their male counterparts, and should be seen and heard,” said Christina Hardy, Bumble’s director of talent and influencer. “In honor of the 50th anniversary of Title IX, we are so proud to stand alongside these women and are looking forward to celebrating their many achievements throughout the year.”
Hardy says it was important to Bumble to chose women “across a variety of sports, from state colleges to HBCUs, and that represented diverse backgrounds and experiences.” The first 25 women in the campaign have been announced, per Business of College Sports.
“Partnering with Bumble and announcing this campaign on the anniversary of Title IX is very special,” said Alexis Ellis, (Oregon T&F). “I am grateful for the progress that has been made for women in sports, and am proud to be part of Bumble’s ’50for50’ to help continue moving the needle and striving for more. I look forward to standing alongside so many incredible athletes for this campaign throughout the year.”

When is EA Sports College Football coming out? Studio announces new video game, details scarce | Sporting News

EA Sports is still targeting Summer 2023 for the return of ‘NCAA Football’

In March of 2021, Matt Brown of Extra Points filed a series of Open Records Requests for updates that EA Sports, or the CLC (Collegiate Licensing Corporation) were sending to NCAA schools about the game. Those FOIAs returned a project proposal, dated Jan 15, 2021, that spelled out that the company was targeting a July of 2023 release date.
Additional records requests also turned up an update, sent from CLC management to multiple D-I institutions, dated Feb 25, 2022, nearly a full year after the first proposal. That letter states: “...game development is in full swing, and the launch goal remains summer of 2023.”
“EA Sports is continuing to gather stadium assets and is now at a point where they would like to start obtaining music assets from your institution. As you can see inthe attached spreadsheet, EA is looking for information about band songs, crowd chants, and cheers, as well as when particular audio is played during the football game” the letter said. “[O]r crowd chants, if there aren’t any files available as reference, please provide the text of the chant (and anything EA may need to know in order to recreate it authentically, like cadence, or if there’s a specific piece of music that plays with the chant).”
Each school's guarantee is determined by their "Tier", according to the 2021 memo. A school's Tier is based on the number of AP Top 25 finishes over a ten year period, a period that will include the 2022 college football season. According to the memo, those tier amounts are: Tier 1: $104,900; Tier 2: $62,900; Tier 3: $41,900; Tier 4: $10,400.

Oregon female athletes working with Division Street on NFTs

Division Street’s new NFT program to benefit Oregon’s female SAs

Division Street, a University of Oregon-focused NIL company formed by Phil Knight and former Nike executives, is launching a new NFT collection to benefit all participating female athletes at Oregon.
“Visions of Flight” is part of Division Street’s previously announced Ducks of a Feather NFT platform. The collection was designed by Lili Tae in collaboration with Sedona Prince and 11 other University of Oregon female athletes: Briana Chacon (Golf), Jadyn Mays (Track & Field), Harper McClain (Cross Country), Terra McGowan (Softball), Blessyn McMorris (Acrobatics and Tumbling), Allison Mulville (Tennis), Gloria Mutiri (Volleyball), Brooke Nunerviller (Beach Volleyball), Te-Hina Paopao (Basketball), Croix Soto (Soccer), Alyssa Wright (Lacrosse).
“As the 50th anniversary of Title IX draws near, we were inspired by two female University of Oregon trailblazers - Sabrina Ionescu and Sedona Prince - who regularly use their voices and platforms to shift the landscape of women’s sports,” said Division Street CEO Rosemary St.-Clair. “Visions of Flight will enable female U of O student-athletes to express their voices through creative NFT design in partnership with Lili Tae, who is a trailblazer in her own right as an artist. We believe the innovation and community of Web3 will benefit the next generation of female student-athletes.”
“It’s incredibly important to me to use my platform to empower women student-athletes—now and for the next generation,” Sedona Prince said. “Being able to collaborate with Lili Tae to bring our voices to life in such an innovative way and benefit all participating women Ducks athletes is an absolute win-win. We couldn’t be more excited about this project.”

ICYMI Ticker

Ohio State fans can now take extra pride in the moment of saying THE in front of OSU thanks to the United States Patent and Trademark Office approving the program’s trademark on Tuesday. The Buckeyes first filed the trademark application for “THE” in August of 2019.
Oklahoma will expand its relationship with longtime multimedia rightsholder LEARFIELD for the next 10 years, as announced by OU Vice President and Director of Athletics Joe Castiglione.
Five-star recruit Arch Manning committed to Texas via his personal Twitter account this week. The grandson of Archie, son of Cooper, and nephew of Peyton and Eli has impressed at Louisiana’s Isidore Newman School, completing 65.7% of his passes for 6,307 yards and 81 touchdowns against just 17 interceptions across three seasons as starter. On3 gives Manning a $3.1 million valuation for potential NIL deals — the highest among any HS football player and third overall behind Bronny James ($6.1M) and Bryce Young ($3.1M).
Student athletes at the University of Minnesota's flagship campus disclosed more than 90 NIL agreements since November. More than a quarter of those deals involved players on the Golden Gophers football team. One volleyball player reported earning $1,000 a month to post to Snapchat 18 times. And a football player disclosed a five-figure autograph deal. Full report HERE.
“I would just say this, I’m … alarmed by what’s occurred in this second six months of the first year, but I remain really proud of our department in year one,” Kansas AD Travis Goff said during a Kansas Athletics Board of Directors meeting this week. “And we set a sound foundation with our policy, in the absence of state legislation. We were and have remained pretty conservative, in terms of engagement outside of education - is how I would probably describe it for the call today. And what I think that’s done, is I think that’s given us an understanding of what NIL is and what NIL isn’t. And it’s prevented us from getting out in a way that probably has to be reined back in.” More HERE.
Colorado AD Rick George: “We do have a couple of collectives that haven’t really morphed yet,” he told the Board of Regents meeting on Thursday. “We also have some that want to come to us and talk about creating a collective and we’ll be in process of looking at what that looks like for our student athletes, but we intend to be competitive. But, one thing that we’re not going to do is we’re not going to induce student athletes to attend here, we’re not going to tamper with student athletes and we’re not going to have boosters involved in the recruiting process and other areas.”

Optimum Sports Consulting Newsletter

NIL Newsletter #99 | Bumble's 50for50, EA…