As summer ends and the NCAA Fall sports season begins for many NCAA sports, NIL companies are doing their due diligence in signing NCAA athletes to deals to represent their companies/brands. These deals continue to set historic precedents on how much these NCAA athletes can earn off the field and how this continues a new wave of student-athlete revenue in today’s collegiate world. Today, we’ll go over some of the latest deals before the NCAA athletics season officially kicks off.
Lifestyle energy drink “CELSIUS” made a massive commitment in the NCAA American Football marketing world by inking six potential Heisman Trophy candidates to NIL deals. Their new “The Essential Six” campaign features Dillon Gabriel of Oregon University, Donovan Edwards of the University of Michigan, Jalen Milroe of the
University of Alabama, Emeka Egbuka of Ohio State University, DJ Uiagalelei of Florida State University and Travis Hunter of the University of Colorado. The campaign will feature several TV commercials throughout the college football season and have the athletes engaging on social media all season long as well.
Meanwhile a pair of brothers at the University of Southern California became the first NIL football athletes for the Jordan brand. All-American wide receiver/return specialist Zachariah and safety Zion Branch signed partnerships with Nike’s Jordan Brand. The Branch brothers will sport Jordan brand off the field while wearing Nike brand on the field. They will also continue to advertise the Jordan Brand throughout the college football season as well.
Abercrombie & Fitch owned apparel brand Hollister geared up for back to school by launching collegiate graphics apparel featuring more than 30 universities. They then collaborated with several student-athletes across these universities to advertise this
apparel on social media. In a combined effort through NIL agency Postgame, more than 150 athletes made over 500 social media posts showcasing their schools' apparel by wearing the Hollister clothing. This was the largest number of single day social media posts in NIL history.
Now even fans are getting NIL deals. The University of Colorado “superfan” Peggy Coppom will be getting her own NIL deal. The 99-year-old fan struck a deal with sunglasses company “Blenders Eyewear,” which also holds head football coach Deion Sanders as a client. This historic deal will be the first time a fan will directly benefit from having a NIL deal in place. The company has already started a sunglasses sleeve with Peggy featured on it waving her pompoms. The sleeve priced at $8 can be found on their website.
If you or a family member are a student-athlete interested in participating in NCAA sports or are a current NCAA athlete looking for NIL representation please contact Student Athlete Pathways