3rd Party Partnerships

Almost immediately after opening the Arkansas Razorbacks website, I see the words “NIL Program” at the top of the site. This, as you guessed it, links us to Arkansas’ NIL program page. You are then presented with a website that first explains what NIL is, as well as links for who you can contact to inquire about NIL at the University of Arkansas. 

From there, you are able to see who Arkansas’ third party partners are. The first partner you might see is NOCAP Sports. NOCAP Sports provides a marketplace for student-athletes nationally. Since the same marketplace is available to any student-athlete and not just Arkansas athletes, we had to put an X in the chart for Arkansas in this category. However, this does not take away from the fact that Arkansas athletes still have a marketplace for NIL deals. On the NOCAP Sports website you are able to sign up either as an athlete or a business to start your NIL transactions. Arkansas currently has other 3rd party partnerships with INFLCR and Captiv8 Collegiate. Those partnerships are geared towards student-athlete education and assisting them with personal branding.

Going back to Arkansas’ NIL website, we can see that they have a posted “NIL Directory” under the Connect tab at the top. This directory links back to the Razorbacks website under the roster of the specific sport chosen. The rosters have Twitter and Instagram links for all student-athletes that we assume have opted in to share such information. However, it seems as though not every team has opted in or had the chance to allow the athletic department to share their social media links, as there are several teams with many athletes that have no links to any of their social medias, while sports such as men’s and women’s basketball and football all have social media links. The NIL directory also links you to several student athletes’ shops where you can buy apparel specific to a certain student-athlete to help support them.

Terry Prentice is the head of the NIL department at Arkansas. There are currently 3 different people in that department to help athletes with anything regarding NIL. Arkansas also allows their athletes (with permission) to use the Institution’s Intellectual Property such as trademarks and logos. In unique offerings, Arkansas has a partnership with their business school to assist student-athletes on maximizing their NIL. 

Overall, Arkansas has hit 7 out of 8 of the categories of what it takes to have a great NIL program.

Auburn’s website links you to their NIL page from the Athletics tab on their drop down menu. The NIL page at Auburn is put in their life skills program, which is under the name AuburnYou. On the front page of the NIL program, titled SPIRIT, you are given a flurry of links that guide you to information on NIL policies, procedures, requests, and education.

One of those links is a NIL directory that lists every student-athlete along with their twitter and/or Instagram if they have opted in to share such information. From the looks of it, almost every Auburn student-athlete has opted in to share the information and their Instagram/twitter handles are listed accordingly.

Auburn is one of the many schools that has opted to partner with INFLCR to take advantage of their NIL resources. The specific product that Auburn uses is INFLCR Verified, which gives student-athletes a quick and easy way to report NIL deals along with receiving education about NIL in general. Auburn also uses Team Altemus for education purposes. However, those partnerships do not come with a marketplace for their student-athletes to apply/negotiate for deals. The marketplace that Auburn uses is through a third-party collective called NIL-Auburn. The collective provides a marketplace specifically for deals for those wanting to do business with Auburn athletes. When those athletes are executing these deals, Auburn policy allows student-athletes to use the institutional intellectual property after permission is given and a fee is paid.

Auburn also does not currently have a NIL-specific position within their athletic department. The AuburnYou department is what is listed as their NIL contacts. That department has three employees whose job responsibilities range from NIL duties, athletic alumni relations, and overall student-athlete development. So, like many other schools, Auburn delegates NIL duties to departments that already existed.

In conclusion, Auburn is doing great in the NIL space and has hit 7 out of 8 of the categories we have listed in the chart above.

At first, it was difficult to find the NIL page and policy on the Bronco Sports website. The NIL page (or what was thought to be the NIL page)  is listed under the program’s name, What’s Next Initiative (WNI). After clicking on the WNI Link, you quickly realize that it is not the NIL page and policy of the university, but a separate fundraising and donation program that is dedicated to enhancing BroncoLife and expanding the Name, Image, and Likeness department at Boise State. There is no link to an NIL policy or page on the Bronco Sports website. On the WNI website, there is no link or even mention of NIL. It is a website that is devoted to fundraising and donating to the Bronco Athletic Department and enhancing the quality of life for their student-athletes. 

After finding nothing pertaining to or alluding to NIL on the Bronco Sports website (even an institutional policy on anything about NIL), I had to google “Bronco Sports NIL” for one news article from Bronco Sports to come up. The article, posted on 12/2/2021, discusses a new NIL Exchange that is available to businesses for them to more easily get in contact with their student-athletes. The exchange is through INFLCR’s Local Exchange. Boise State was one of the first schools, and first in the Mountain West, to take the initiative to provide a marketplace for their student-athletes to be able to interact with businesses and successfully execute NIL deals and negotiations.

Other than the INFLCR partnership, Boise State is also partnered with Fanword Boost to provide a NIL Directory for businesses to contact student-athletes, Team Altemus for NIL education, and NOCAP Sports. While Boise State has several different partnerships with third-party companies, there is no specific NIL position at Boise State, nor are there any other unique offerings by the university such as a partnership with any school on Boise State’s campus. Fortunately for Boise State athletes, there is no state legislation that pertains to NIL. Boise State is essentially allowed to do whatever they want under NIL while following NCAA guidelines. In conclusion, Boise State has 4 out of 8 of the major categories of what a successful NIL program should have.

Michigan’s Athletic website links you to their NIL program under their About tab at the top of the page. The first link on the NIL page is a PDF of Michigan’s full NIL policy. The front page explains what NIL is, what the role of the university is and isn’t, and a link to their VICTORS Local Exchange.

The VICTORS Local Exchange is powered through INFLCR’s Exchange application. The University of Michigan, just like Boise State, has their own page and marketplace through INFLCR to allow their student athletes a place to apply and negotiate for NIL deals with businesses that also sign up on the exchange. The Exchange also allows student-athletes access to Michigan’s wide array of photos and videos that are taken by the Michigan media/creative services staff. Michigan also uses INFLCR for any NIL education that student-athletes need.

Michigan’s third-party collective is named Valiant Management. The main focus of the collective is to assist Michigan student-athletes with NIL deal-making and fulfillment. The VICTORS Local Exchange allows Michigan athletes a centralized way to seek out and transact NIL deals, whether that deal is through Valiant or from a local business. When completing these NIL deals, Michigan athletes are allowed to use the institution’s intellectual property with “appropriate licensing approval.”

Looking on the NIL page for Michigan, there is no NIL directory that immediately connects businesses or interested persons with student-athlete contact information/social media links. However, if you go to the roster for each sport, many of the student athletes have their Instagram and twitter linked in their individual roster profiles. There is just no link from the NIL page or a directory that lists all of this information in one place. Further, there is also not a NIL-specific position listed in the athletic department. The NIL page is hosted under the compliance part of the website, so it is very possible that the NIL program could be run through compliance at Michigan.

In conclusion, Michigan is able to hit 5 out of 8 of the categories for a great and successful NIL program.

Oklahoma State’s NIL program page has its own link in the main drop down menu on the OKState website. Immediately, on the homepage of the NIL program, you see that Oklahoma State has partnered with INFLCR to use OSU Elite. OSU Elite is there to help those student-athletes tell their own stories by connecting them with money-making applications, sending them photo and video content, and educating athletes on marketing and business. Oklahoma State is also partnered with Altius Sports Partners for guidance and education. 

If you scroll just a bit further, you get into the website explaining what NIL is and how it works. The website has a very useful FAQ section for the general public, student-athletes, international student-athletes, and businesses. The website also has links to their school policy for NIL and a way for anybody to message a question/inquiry to the NIL staff at the university.

While looking through the NIL page, it was very easy to find the NIL directory of student-athletes. The directory is a very useful and easily accessible chart of every student-athlete, their respective emails and social media accounts that each one has. The university, however,  does not list any specific person as a NIL contact or employee that specifically deals with NIL. The home page for the NIL program says to contact the compliance department for any questions regarding the NIL policies at Oklahoma State, so it is possible that the compliance department currently handles all NIL related ventures and concerns.

Oklahoma state also employs the use of Recur NFTs to create NFTs that fans can buy to support their athletes. Oklahoma State allows all student-athletes to use Oklahoma marks and logos for their NIL deals as long as that NIL activity is with an institutional partner.

The Cowboys and Cowgirls are unique in that they have NIL classes that are available for class credit and they have the Brand Squad. The Brand Squad is an official OSU student group that is made up of students from the marketing and business schools who make themselves available free of charge to student-athletes to help them with marketing, branding, and entrepreneurship.

Here, Oklahoma State gets 7 out of 8 of the categories of a successful NIL program.

The final school that is nominated for Best Institutional Program is Ohio State. You can find Ohio State’s NIL page by looking under the Athletics tab on the top of the Buckeyes website. After clicking the link, you are brought to a page that has a list of NIL resources for the university. Ohio State does a great job at making everything very simple and easy to access here.

The Buckeyes have their NIL guidelines and Ohio State Law as the first two items that are on the list. Scroll further and you will find guidelines, FAQs, and a flurry of other information. There is also a link to get in contact with the compliance staff or the head of their student-athlete development department for any NIL related questions that you  would have. As there is no NIL-specific employee listed on the website, it seems that the NIL duties might be split between the compliance office and the student-athlete development department.

Ohio State has a third-party partnership with Opendorse and Darlow Rules to provide education to their student-athletes and staff on NIL, what it is, what the process is like, and different courses on athlete brand building. From looking at the announcement article that Ohio State was partnering with Opendorse, it does not indicate that the Buckeyes have opted in to use Opendorse for a marketplace at this time. However, Ohio State student-athletes have two different third-party collectives that have goals of fostering deals and creating opportunities for them to have at their disposal. Just as the other collectives, we consider these two collectives to be marketplaces specifically for Ohio State athletes.

There is no NIL Directory of student-athletes on the Buckeyes website. Ohio State used to have a directory that would link you to rosters of the specific team you wanted, but has since transitioned to an inquiry-based system. Ohio State allows you to submit an inquiry if you want to connect with a specific student-athlete for a NIL deal through their “NIL Simplified” form. You fill out the form with your name, the student-athlete’s name and sport, and what the inquiry is about.

Ohio State explicitly says on the NIL page that “you may not use photos or videos containing Ohio State trademarks, logos, service marks, symbols, or other intellectual property in your NIL Activities.”

As for unique offerings, Ohio State’s Athletic Development department connects brands to student-athletes and designates NIL delegates for each team at the University. This is an extremely helpful and great hands-on approach to assisting athletes with NIL.

All in all, Ohio State has hit 5 out of 8 of the categories that we have listed as being components of a great NIL program.