EA sports just sent out 11,000 NIL offers

Hey there,

What a wild weekend in college sports. This whole Tennessee NIL lawsuit has everyone going crazy — and rightfully so. It could prove just as important for NIL as the recent Dartmouth ruling. Keep reading to find out why!

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— Cole, Justin and Collin

KICK-OFF

Mixed Reviews on Tennessee’s NIL Lawsuit Ruling

The college sports world is still reeling after a federal judge granted a temporary injunction in the lawsuit Tennessee and Virginia have brought against the NCAA. The decision, which came at the end of last week, means the NCAA can’t enforce any NIL policies. 

Some entities are seeing the disintegration of NIL enforcement as a good thing. Russell White head of The Collective Association (TCA) said of the ruling “While it’s removing some of these guardrails, they were ones that didn’t need to be in place... It’s a huge step toward more transparency in the space.” 

Coaches, however, may be less bullish on the decision. Nearly across the board, coaches have been vocal about NIL recruiting’s slow descent into what they see as tampering. Over the weekend, one anonymous Power Four football coach lamented that “The NCAA is no more, there are no rules…. We have nothing guiding us.” (More)

EA Sports Sends NIL Offers to Football Players

EA Sports just sent out over 11,000 NIL offers to college football players asking for their permission to be added to the NCAA’s new college football video game. If they opt in, each player will receive $600 in addition to a free copy of the game.

If players decide not to opt in – we’re looking at you, Caleb Williams – EA has expressed that they will block gamers from adding in players “manually” with the player-creation feature. How exactly that strategy will be implemented is not yet known.

“Including players in the return of the EA Sports College Football franchise guarantees they receive their direct benefits,” said the senior vice president of strategy and operations at OneTeam – EA’s new partner for handling the NIL side of the business. (More)

March Madness without Mid-Majors?

The new Power Four conferences have not shied away from exerting their influence in the football world, but that power may be dipping into basketball as well. Many mid-major schools fear they could get booted from March Madness due to big conference pressures.

Fox has already expressed a desire to create an all Power Four postseason event to bring in more revenue, which caused a ripple effect that also guaranteed NIT invitations for twelve P4 conference teams. Slowly but surely, mid-majors are being phased out of post-season basketball discussions due to lacking brand recognition.

According to Mountain West commissioner Gloria Nevarez, adding automatic qualifiers “based solely on brand is unconscionable.” That’s what this is all about – brand – which is why shutting out smaller schools from March Madness would not only limit school brand exposure, also limit their players’ NIL brand potentials. (More)

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VIDEO OF THE WEEK

Kyle Filipowski Injured in Court Storming

The college basketball world was set ablaze with hot takes this weekend when court stormers seemed to accidentally injure Duke basketball star Kyle Filipowski after the game. Many are calling for court-storming and field-storming to be banned… What do you think? Respond in the poll at the end of the newsletter.

DOWN TO BUSINESS

Skinner Wants the Skinny on NIL Contracts

California state senator Nancy Skinner just introduced a bill that would require NIL collectives within the state to release information about NIL deals to the institution that the athlete attends. From there, schools would be required to make the information public.

For Skinner, making NIL deals public knowledge will not only provide transparency to the NIL marketplace, but give lawmakers information to combat Title IX non-compliance and gender inequality in the space. Collectives have “operated primarily in secret” to this point, according to the bill’s press release, so lawmakers have little information to create legislation from.

Nancy Skinner is no stranger to NIL. In 2019, she introduced the bill that made California the first state in the union to allow NIL monetization. (More)

• Mississippi just introduced an NIL bill that looks a lot like Missouri’s wildly successful NIL legislation. If passed, high school students could start making NIL the moment they sign their letter of intent to play at a Mississippi school – keeping talent in-state.

• Delaware tabled another vote on whether they would allow high school NIL within the state, pushing the decision back a month. The timeline is getting urgent – if not passed soon, there’s fear that student athletes could leave the state for the 2024-25 sports seasons.

COLLECTIVE 101

Journalist Suing Wisconsin, NIL Collective

A journalist in Wisconsin is suing the University of Wisconsin-Madison, along with their NIL collective partners, for not disclosing a consulting contract within the athletic department. In fact, the university is denying they even have the contract, saying it belongs to the collective.

Here’s how it happened. In 2022, the school signed a deal with Altius Sports Partners to help the athletic department with NIL. When journalist Daniel Libit asked for the contract – which under state law should be public record – the school said they didn’t have a copy, and the agreement actually belonged to the collective. The collective, in turn, is a private entity and thus not subject to Wisconsin’s Open Records Law.

“Madison can’t play ball like this,” said Tom Kamenick, who currently heads the Wisconsin Transparency Project, “The law specifically prohibits these kinds of games where government agencies try to hide records from the public by storing them with third parties.” (More)

• St. John’s University just received a seven-figure NIL donation from billionaire alumnus Mike Repole. “I need and will do more than I did this year,” the businessman said on social media.

• The University of Nebraska-Omaha’s collective is hoping to fend off big schools from stealing their mid-major basketball star with NIL money. “Frankie Fidler has brand equity in Omaha,” the school’s athletic director said, “I’m not saying that brand equity isn’t going to exist in other places, but I know they exist more here.

ATHLETE SPOTLIGHT

Johnny Furphy

Introducing Johnny Furphy, the basketball star hailing from Melbourne, Australia. Over the past 10 games, Johnny has averaged 13.7 points and 7 rebounds for Kansas. Standing tall at 6 feet 9 inches, this versatile wing player is also catching the attention of NBA scouts. His draft stock is steadily rising, and Johnny is proving to be a force to be reckoned with.

Johnny seems to be keeping his focus on the court because so far he hasn’t landed any NIL deals. As he continues to climb the NBA draft board, however, his NIL valuation is set to skyrocket.

NIL BLITZ

♦️ JLab wireless headphones initiates NIL program

♦️ New Washington coach’s recruiting philosophy: NFL & NIL 

♦️ How Florida Victorious intends to bring the Gators to the top of NIL 

♦️ Saban wants to help usher in new era of college football

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BATTER UP

Today’s Poll Question:

Last Edition’s Poll Results:

Would you still watch March Madness without mid-majors?

• Yes - 72%

• No - 28%