MOBILE, ALABAMA / USA – JANUARY 25, 2020: Liberty University wide receiver Antonio Gandy-Golden (11) catches a touchdown pass in the end-zone during the 2020 Reese’s Senior Bowl.
NIL NETWORK INSIGHT
Recap: Liberty University joins a number of schools to partner with a third party to assist their athletes with the upcoming NIL legislation. Jeremy Darlow, a former marketing director for ADIDAS, will provide athletes with “The Darlow Rules” program to assist them with brand development and communication.
Observations: Liberty University made a strategic and early move to support their student-athletes. It appears that Darlow’s program is education-based and empowers athletes to control their NIL journey which is a great offering for the early stages of this new legislation.
It will be interesting to see if any of these third-party partnerships are exclusive, meaning that the agent or company can’t partner with other universities. That sort of contract would be advantageous to the university from a recruiting perspective, especially in the case of a well-known and established marketer like Darlow.
Athlete Tips & Takeaways:
- Research your school and other schools in your conference and see if any have made a public statement as to their plans to support their student-athletes yet.
Published Saturday, Jan. 16, 2021
Darlow, the best-selling author of Brands Win Championships and Athletes are Brands Too, is one of the nation’s leaders in brand consulting and is the former director of marketing for ADIDAS football and baseball.
Darlow will provide Flames’ student-athletes access to the exclusive “The Darlow Rules” program. The program is comprised of short, easy-to-understand, video-based lessons teaching student-athletes from every sports program the fundamentals of brand development and communication.
By the end of the course, students will have built their own brand marketing plan, employing the same planning techniques used by Darlow over the course of his extensive career in sports marketing. Additionally, each graduating student will receive a certificate of completion to include on their professional resume.