What Do You Do?Two months ago, I began a new position at San Diego State as their NIL Coordinator. While I haven’t done a thorough audit of institutions recently, I believe that SDSU is the 4th or 5th athletic department in the country to hire an NIL specific position – meaning someone that has no other job obligations other than developing, coordinating, and executing an NIL program. With my background in D1 coaching, fascination with NIL, love of program development, and having already lived in the beautiful city of San Diego for three years, this position was a no brainer for me. The past two months have reinforced many of the challenges that I’ve noticed since July 1 and brought up a few new ones. However, my biggest takeaway remains the same: Transparency, sharing information, and empowering athletes (not to be confused with hand holding) is the key to a successful transition into the NIL era for all stakeholders. To get started, let’s go over the top FAQ: So… What Do You Do?With the NIL role being not only brand new at SDSU but also across the country, I constantly am getting asked this question. The best part about having a new position in a new industry? You get to write the job spec! As someone who has studied this industry exclusively for the past 14 months (and non-exclusively since California passed SB206 in the fall of 2019), I couldn’t have been more excited for the challenge. Athlete EducationMy top priority is ensuring SDSU athletes have the tools to successfully and safely navigate NIL opportunities. This includes 1-on-1 meetings, team chats, integrating NIL topics into the student-athlete development program, developing educational resources, and liaising with the university to develop a comprehensive curriculum that covers all aspects of NIL opportunities: The before, during, and after. In particular, I’ve noticed that there seems to be one important aspect of education that has been overlooked: Given that posting content currently accounts for 82.5% of NIL activity, what are the actual steps for an athlete to secure an endorsement deal? Aside from building their brand, optimizing their social media, and knowing the various laws and policies, how do they find opportunities? Should they navigate this themselves or utilize a third party to assist them? I am definitely an advocate of utilizing a third party – whether a digital marketplace or a management agency – to get started. A third party can help an athlete understand the process, the market, and the expectations. Most will also vet contracts to ensure compliance with NCAA, state, and institutional policies and protect athletes from getting taken advantage of by brands (remember, brands are looking for the best ROI; aka they want to give the least to get the most!). However, given that there are over 80 digital marketplaces currently catering to collegiate athletes, how in the world does an athlete decipher between them? They certainly aren’t going to make 80 profiles and then be able to check them all regularly for new opportunities. This …
Navigate NIL
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The Need for Numbers, NIL for Good, and Emergence of Platforms Specific to Universities September ended quite spicy. We had a congressional hearing on the 30th to discuss federal NIL…
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We are certainly in the Wild West of the Name, Image, and Likeness era. It seems that every week, there is new NIL activity that further pushes the boundary of…
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This content originally appeared as part of the Medalist Athlete Branding Guide. Get more tips and insights from Medalist here! Making a good impression on visitors to your Instagram Bio…
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Note from NIL Network Founder, Michelle Meyer: While I had aspirations of writing a weekly NIL trends report, I’ve found that my writing style, unfortunately, is SLOW. I have a…
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Utilizing NIL to Optimize Your Recruiting Pitch Previously, I shared some questions from my webinars with the coaches of the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) and United Soccer Coaches around…
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NIL & Your Team: How Can You Take a Leadership Role as a Coach? As a former D1 coach, I can imagine that NIL feels like another thing piled on…
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Almost immediately following the NCAA’s blanket interim policy for collegiate athletes to monetize their NIL, Dr. Karisa L. Niehoff, the executive director of the National Federation of State High School…
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This article was initially written as a Guest Post for the American Volleyball Coaches Association and appeared HERE. June 24, 2021 │ By Michelle Meyer If you’re similar to the…
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DIGITAL MARKETPLACES Sport Endorse Athletiverse Two Yay Huckle Coinlete MyNIL Milnil Athlete Reserve Sway Athlete NBC Sports Athlete Direct Find My NIL NIL X Athlyt Off Season Klout Machine Team…