NIL NETWORK INSIGHT
Recap: Florida launched Gators Made with Opendorse Ready with Darlow™ to assist their student-athletes with building their personal brand and utilizing it with their future NIL opportunities. They are the first athletic department to join the program, as Opendorse and brand consultant Jeremy Darlow just recently joined forces. With the “Darlow upgrade”, the athletes, coaches, and staff receive “exclusive access to Darlow personal branding education, live interactive coaching sessions, and full access to the Darlow Rules course, among other resources.”
Observations: I think we will continue to see extravagant services being developed, offered, and purchased by the programs in the power five conferences. The athletic departments can’t afford not to. NIL services are taking place of previous outrageous spending on stadiums, locker rooms, and athlete-only buildings in order to entice future student-athletes to accept scholarship offers to their school. While this trend will further separate the “haves” and the “have nots”, these NIL services seem to be a great educational tool for athletes that will give them life long skills, so I’m all for it.
Florida becomes first NCAA athletic department to join Opendorse Ready with Darlow™ to assist student-athletes
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The University of Florida Athletic Association has officially launched the Gators Made program, which will focus on providing student-athletes with enhanced tools for career success. Gators Made takes the existing UAA support in the area of career advising, financial planning, and professional sports counseling, and adds enhancements with brand and social media assessments and education on name, image and likeness opportunities.
“The comprehensive and continued education of our student-athletes remains a priority in the Gators athletic program,” said Scott Stricklin. “A staple of those programs over the years has been financial literacy, along with career and personal skills development. Gators Made adds personal brand and social media development to better position student-athletes for current and long-term success.”
Florida’s launch coincides with Opendorse’s kick-off of ‘Ready with Darlow’ as an addition to the company’s best-in-class brand and social media assessment offering. The exclusive arrangement makes the program the sole avenue for college athletic departments to access brand consultant and award-winning author Jeremy Darlow and his suite of Darlow athlete development resources.
Darlow, a leading brand consultant and best-selling author, has worked with some of the most heralded athletes, celebrities, and NCAA programs in and around sports. Darlow was the former director of marketing for adidas football and baseball and the author of Brands Win Championships and Athletes Are Brands Too. His portfolio of athletes and celebrities includes: Aaron Rodgers, Dak Prescott, Lionel Messi, Snoop Dogg and Kanye West, to name a few.
