🏅Fanatics' newest NIL Deal is unreal - literally.

Hey there,

I get it – there’s only one more college football game this season. But I think we’re all thinking about this the wrong way – we’ve still got one more game to watch this season! And then we’re on to college basketball, baseball, and some exciting offseason action. Oh, and of course, a ton of NIL news.

Today’s edition we’ve got three radically different stories. First, Fanatics just signed an NIL partnership… with a fake person. Seriously. Next, there’s drama brewing down at Arizona State, where two basketball players are in a standoff with their team about NIL compensation. And lastly, a new NIL basketball agency just sprung up with a clear goal – steer away from freshman superstars. It’s all coming up right now – let’s go!

— Cole, Justin and Collin

The Big 3

Fanatics Signs an NIL Deal… with a Fake Athlete?

Fanatics just signed a virtual (read, fake) college football player to an NIL deal. The football player was created by Sketch – a videogame streamer who’s been playing College Football 25 in front of a national audience for some time now. Now, “Sari Fercussin,” is an official Fanatics athlete, with a custom jersey a trading card. 

“We're in this situation where we're playing on behavior that we were already seeing,” said Harry Barron, the company’s creative social director, “We kind of knew that if we added a really fun idea on top of what people are already doing [with the EA Sports video game], we would have a lot of fun with it, which is what we've seen.”

The company is trying to build on this campaign by signing other fake College Football 25 players to real NIL deals. Fans just simply use the #SignedbyFanatics hashtag to try to get their own created players NIL deals now – which includes $1,000 in Fanatics credit. (More)

ASU Hoopers Say They’re Owed More NIL

Just last edition we were telling you about how magnificently Arizona State had done with NIL – retaining their star quarterback Sam Leavitt after a sensational season that ended with a CFP birth. Apparently, however, there’s problems on the basketball side of things in Tempe. 

Two five-star freshman, Joson Sanon and Jayden Quaintance, are alleging the school still owes them NIL money for a docuseries that was supposed to be produced this season. That docuseries isn’t happening anymore, but it seems like the players were planning on that money as part of their NIL package. 

After the news broke that the docuseries wasn’t happening, the school allegedly serviced the NIL agreements to make sure the players were still paid. Whether or not they made good on that is a matter of he-said-she-said… but could escalate quickly if legal action were taken. (More)

A New NIL Agency for Old Faces

Momentous Sports Partners is launching a full-service NIL agency for college basketball players. The agency will focus on partnering with players that aren’t going to the league after one year – players that intend to leave their mark on college hoops for multiple years.

“We want to be somewhat complementary, but also not even necessarily recruiting the same guys as the top NBA agencies,” MSP founder Joey Pennavaria said, “Those guys are gonna go after the Cooper Flaggs, the guys that are for-sure one-and-dones…But there’s so many more athletes now in college basketball that need representation.” 

They’ve already added a pretty great roster of players – Kansas’ Hunter Dickenson, North Carolina’s RJ Davis, and Baylor’s Jeremy Roach have all signed on with the agency. (More)

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ATHLETE SPOTLIGHT

Carson Beck

• School: Miami 

• Sport: Football 

• Position: Quarterback 

• Class: Senior 

• Accolades: 

•  2024 CSC ACADEMIC ALL-DISTRICT

•  BIG 12 CONFERENCE PLAYER OF THE WEEK (JAN. 2, 2024)

•  2021-22 ALL-SEC FRESHMAN TEAM

•  SEC FRESHMAN OF THE WEEK (2/22/22)

• NIL: Beck’s NIL Agent claims he's secured nearly $10 million in deals over the past 12 months. 

NIL BLITZ

♦️ Utah AD says the football team will be comprised of 50% new players next year

♦️ A former Texas A&M football player is objecting to the House Settlement’s damages calculations

♦️ There’s a new House Settlement Q&A

♦️ Paige Bueckers is using NIL to give her teammates iPhones

♦️ Lil Wayne just signed another Colorado player to his sports agency, Young Money APAA Sports

♦️ Here’s the difference between a college basketball general manager and an NBA general manager

♦️ Swimmers are seeing House Settlement payments that are higher than they expected 

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BATTER UP

Today’s Poll Question:

Last Edition’s Poll Results:

Should fans give the money they would have spent traveling to support the team to the school's NIL collective instead?

• Yes, it's more helpful in the long run - 39%

• No, it's a ridiculous proposition - 61%