Blinding Lights and Minnesota Gripes

Hey there,

We’re back with some more NIL news hot off the press. In today’s edition, we’ve got an NBA legend speaking up on NIL, a Big 10 coach pleading to his fanbase for donations, and much more. Keep scrolling to read up on everything happening in the NIL world.

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Blinding Lights

Last year’s UNC basketball season was a disappointment, to put it lightly. After a magical Final Four run the year prior, the Tar Heels failed to even receive an NCAA tournament bid in 2023. Carolina’s star big man Armando Bacot opened up about it in a recent interview, and admitted that NIL may have played a role in the team’s lack of focus throughout the season.

“"It was the first year in college basketball history you saw all the media attention and then add in in all the different endorsements and things like that,” he said, “It was a huge bubble of distractions. It's something nobody really knows how to navigate.”

Bacot also admitted that NIL has served him well, however. “We make a lot of money in college, too. If this was five years ago, I probably would have left after the Final Four.” (More)

Learfield’s NIL Impact Report

Learfield has been an absolute game-changer in the NIL space for some time now. The company deals in sports marketing generally, but have really carved out a niche within college sports – especially in terms of securing brand partnerships through NIL. They just released their first NIL impact report too, and it revealed some pretty staggering numbers.

$8 million. That’s how much money was earned by athletes through Learfield sponsorships last year, and the number will likely grow significantly by the next report. Through over 250 NIL sponsorships, over 1,000 student-athletes have benefited financially from their work. You can read the entirety of the report here if you want. (More)

Shooters Shoot

We may think of Ray Allen as one of the best shooters in NBA history now, but back in the day he was an all-around basketball freak. One of the highest touted recruits in the nation, he laced up for three seasons at UConn before being selected at the top of the NBA draft. Without a doubt Allen would have been raking in NIL deals had he come around thirty years later.

But oddly enough, the Hall of Famer is relieved NIL didn’t exist back then. “I’m glad I didn’t have to deal with it,” he said, “Once you start receiving it, you think you need it… It was a much more simplistic existence for me.” (More)

Morehead wants More Oversight

“But I think it’s healthy to have guidelines… I think having some boundaries and some structures is important. If it’s through the NCAA, so be it. If it’s through an outside party, so be it.” Wells’ comments reflect a general feeling of confusion throughout college athletic departments, who are trying to remain competitive with NIL while also doing right by their students. (More)

Tech Tune-up

Pepperdine University has joined in the NIL game, but they’re taking a bit of a different approach to the space. They partnered with INFLCR+ to create the Waves Exchange, which should help students connect to NIL opportunities at Pepperdine.

The Waves Exchange is a website extension provided by the school that allows students to search for and agree to NIL deals within the network. Businesses register to be part of the network, and can even make transactions within the application. That’s tech-talk for “players can connect with a database of NIL opportunities.”

Solutions like this will likely become more common for schools like Pepperdine that can’t necessarily devote tons of resources to NIL, but still want to make deals more attainable for their students. (More)

Challenged on Charity

New Mexico’s NIL collective director Paul Grindstaff was asked a “gotcha” question about NIL recently, and handled it pretty well. The question was essentially, why should people donate to NIL when they could be donating to research for curing cancer and ending homelessness?

Here was his response: “We never talk about doing things in absolutes and have a forthcoming non-profit partner that will give us a philanthropic bent. There was a fear that philanthropy that would have otherwise gone to the university could get cannibalized but the data shows that is not the case.”

He also made sure to mention that the sports teams drive business to the city in general: “After a New Mexico State basketball game culminating in a big win for example, people will go out and about and visit our local breweries/ice cream shops. The entire community benefits from success on the field and court.” (More)

Fleck gets Flustered

Minnesota head football coach P.J. Fleck didn’t mince words when talking about how NIL has affected their own program to this point. “We had players that were here that are now gone and playing at another school that should be here playing right now — because NIL,” Fleck explained to Gopher fans during a luncheon event, “So, if we want to keep players ... all these guys we have, they won't be here next year.”

To this point in the 2023 season, Fleck’s been one of the most vocal coaches in the country in calling his fanbase to action. "I'm making sure everybody understands… We'll be a Triple-A ballclub for somebody else. That is the reality and the truth of the situation. So, please contact Dinkytown Athletes [NIL collective].” (More)

Power-Up with Powerade

Donavan Edwards hasn’t gotten off to a particularly hot start this season, but that hasn’t stopped the Michigan running back from getting deals. Michigan’s bulletproof NIL infrastructure means that anyone playing a big role for the Wolverines will likely get deals, and that’s exactly what’s happened for Edwards. He recently signed a deal repping Powerade on Instagram – sometimes a school brand alone can get players paid. (More)

Paige Bueckers

Page Bueckers was one of the most anticipated high school basketball prospects in recent memory, and somehow, she’s actually lived up to the hype since she joined the UConn Huskies. That hype-train hit a roadblock last summer though, when Bueckers tore her ACL and missed the entire 2022-23 season.

As the 2023-24 season looms, her eyes are set on the prize. “I want to see all my hard work and all my suffering moments pay off,” she recently said in an interview, “Honestly the only thing I work towards is raising that National Championship trophy.”

Paige isn’t the only one who believes in her comeback though. She just signed deals with Nike and Chegg, adding to an already extensive NIL portfolio. The deals are a testament to her talent, which (at least in Nike, Chegg, and most other brands’ calculation) is too good to pass up even despite injury woes. (More)

♦️ Louisville’s Jack Plummer deals with Plumbers

♦️ UTA announces partnership with Dream City Sports, UTA’s new NIL collective

♦️ Iowa’s NIL store opens up

♦️ Gamechanger partners with Multiview to help Female Athletes with NIL

♦️ Maryland announces partnership with Advance NIL

Todays Poll Question:

Last Edition’s Poll Results:

What effect will NIL have on recruiting for smaller schools?

• It will be easier - 69%

• It will be harder - 21%

• It will stay relatively the same - 10%