🏅 The Spring Transfer Portal is Open

Teaming up with

Hey there,

It feels like just yesterday the college football season was wrapping up, but with NIL news coming in 24/7, there are days when the “offseason” is more eventful than the regular season! Today’s edition is a testament to that: the Spring football portal has opened and sent the college football world spinning. We’ve got updates on that, plus much more, in today’s edition of NIL Wire — keep reading to find out more!

If you’d like to advertise with NIL Wire, we’d love to discuss a potential partnership. Get your product or brand in front of readers today—just respond to this email!

We’re always excited to hear feedback. Send us an email at [email protected] with suggestions. Now, to the news!

— Cole, Justin and Collin

KICK-OFF

The Spring Transfer Portal Opens for Football

On Tuesday, the Spring college football transfer portal officially opened, opening up a chaotic window of time that will leave no school untouched. In the current age of college football, just about anyone is liable to switch schools and chase a bigger paycheck – further accentuated by transfer portal restrictions being lifted earlier this year.

One of the stories to watch this portal season is how parents get involved with their kids’ recruitment. “We had a player’s mother approach us and asked us to guarantee in a contract that her son received a certain amount of playing time,” an unnamed agent told On3 about the winter portal, “They were asking for a certain number of looks per game, too.” (More)

Mark Pope is Building Kentucky Back with NIL

Mark Pope has arrived in Lexington, and Kentucky boosters are making sure the new head basketball coach is set up for success with NIL. The school’s athletic director, Mitch Barnhart, took to the radio to announce just how excited deep-pocketed boosters were about the new hire.

“The brand that we have and then the NIL space and we’ve got, some people that have already stepped up over the last 24 hours,” Barnhart said last week, “We’ve had several donors who have stepped up to put over $4 million in our NIL portfolio for coach to work with to get started. … I can confirm that’s true.” 

The money doesn’t stop there either. Club Blue, one of Kentucky’s NIL collectives, reportedly added 500 new monthly subscribers within 20 minutes of the hire. Over the course of the year, those subscribers alone will account for $150K in NIL funds. (More)

MAC Athletes Are Out on Employment Status

Student-athletes of the Mid-American Conference (MAC) sent a letter to Congress to voice their opinions on employment status. The conference’s Council of Student Athletes (COSA) provided a clear and unified message: they don’t want to be considered employees.

The letter addressed nine areas of concern for the council, including “healthcare,” “taxation obligations,” “inequitable resource distribution,” and much more.

Among the various concerns raised, Toledo women’s swimmer Kennedy Lovell was worried about how employment might change athlete attitudes. “I think shifting student-athletes to employment status would create a professionalization in the sport,” she said. “It will ultimately just move away from your love of the sport.” (More)

Teaming up with

Arbitrage betting is one of the most profitable methods of sports betting out there. The best part about arbitrage betting is that it essentially removes the gamble from sports betting. Let's break down how this is possible...

Arbitrage betting is the process of placing bets on all outcomes of an event to guarantee a risk-free profit regardless of the outcome of the game. This method of sports betting can make you hundreds and for some, even thousands a day like this user.

The process:

• Get notified by OddsJam of an arbitrage opportunity.

• Place side "A" of the bet on the associated sports book.

• Place side "B" of the bet on the other sports book.

• Guarantee yourself a risk-free profit!

As you can see, it's as simple as that. The OddsJam Arbitrage Tool notified me about this opportunity and I secured $44 regardless if this player had a double-double or did NOT have a double-double.

Simple enough?

OddsJam has a 7-day free trial so that your whole experience is a risk-free opportunity. Start your profitable sports betting journey now!

WHAT’S TRENDING

Ups and Downs

• If a “Super League” is coming to college football, it won’t be for quite some time. To set up a league, it would require conferences to get out of their current decade-long media-rights deals 📉 

• Florida’s DJ Lagway is building an impressive NIL portfolio early on, signing a huge deal with Leaf trading cards and launching his own apparel line 📈

• #1 Draft pick Caitlin Clark will only make $76K in salary her first year in the WNBA. However, her NIL brand valuation will likely carry over — according to Fanatics, she just sold the most jerseys in one night in the company’s history 📈

DOWN TO BUSINESS

Updates on NIL State Law Trends

States are passing NIL laws so rapidly that it’s hard to keep up with every development. Change is the only constant within the NIL industry, and the legal world is perhaps moving faster than any other arena. 

Virginia, Oklahoma, and Mississippi all signed laws to limit the NCAA’s power for the future while simultaneously allowing schools within the states to negotiate NIL directly with athletes. Meanwhile, Nebraska, Rhode Island, and Louisiana are slowly eroding NCAA power in less direct ways.

 Pay-for-play seems inevitable at this point – it’s only a matter of when and how it comes about. With the NCAA’s December proposal on hold for now, it looks like states are taking NIL into their own hands. (More)

• A Dartmouth basketball team member wrote an open letter to express his disagreement with the team’s decision to unionize, saying it “may lead to unintended consequences for athletes across the College.”

• Indiana fans sent Arizona transfer Oumar Ballo money on Venmo to sway his decision toward the Hoosiers, a small amount compared to his reported $1.2M price tag. It’s wild to think about the scandal Venmoing a player would have been a couple of years ago — now, it’s simply a funny story.

COLLECTIVE 101

USC Looking to Take Advantage of NCAA Chaos

When asked about the NCAA’s current legal battle with the state of Tennessee, Lincoln Riley shared how he and USC’s collective plan to take advantage of the chaos surrounding the sport right now.

“We’ve certainly looked at it; we’ve had a lot of great conversations with our collectives about it,” he said, adding, “If that becomes kind of totally deregulated, like it essential is right now, then certainly we want to use that to our advantage.” 

Without regulations, the deep pockets in Los Angeles could go even further. We talked about how USC is primed to take over the NIL world last edition – check it out here in case you missed it. (More)

• BYU has hired Kevin Young, the Phoenix Suns’ associate head coach, to usher in the next era of its basketball program. The school is now turning its attention toward gathering NIL donations.

• UC Berkeley is running a fundraising campaign to raise nearly $2M as they prepare to enter the ACC. The campaign is looking to raise $1M for football, $500K for men’s basketball, and $250K for women’s basketball.

ATHLETE SPOTLIGHT

Yazzy Avila

Yazzy Avila, a talented redshirt sophomore from El Paso, Texas, is quickly establishing herself as a standout player for the Illinois softball team. Despite facing challenges in her redshirt freshman season, Yazzy demonstrated her resilience and commitment by appearing in 36 games and making 28 starts at center field.

Beyond the diamond, Yazzy is utilizing her platform to land NIL deals with prominent brands like Urban Outfitters, Dick's Sporting Goods, Crocs, Steve Madden, Alba Botanica, and more.

nil_wire

View more on Instagram

NIL BLITZ

♦️ Deion Sanders’ sons are taking transfer applications through their Instagram DMs

♦️ How Montana State is navigating the NIL/transfer portal era so nimbly

♦️ Could a combined Men’s and Women’s Final Four be on the horizon?

♦️ Advance NIL gives Maryland students a financial literacy crash course 

♦️ LSU Gymnastics team signs deal to help local nonprofit 

Share NIL Wire

Have a friend or colleague who would enjoy NIL Wire? Share with them today!

You currently have 0 referrals.

BATTER UP

Today’s Poll Question:

Last Edition’s Poll Results:

What would Kemba Walker's NIL have been worth in 2011 had the current policy been in place?

• $1.1M (comparable to Duke commit Cooper Flagg) - 19%

• $1.6M (comparable to Alabama QB Jalen Milroe) - 16%

• $2.8M (comparable to Texas QB Arch Manning) - 32%

• $3.7M (comparable to LSU gymnast Livvy Dunne) - 17%

• $4.5M (comparable to USC guard Bronny James) - 16%