BYU NIL Innovation
NIL CougConnect is continuing to find unique methods to compensate BYU athletes
Spring football games are in the books, and two games in the Rocky Mountains offered more than the typical excitement and standard hype for preseason scrimmages.
You can thank NIL for that.
Both Colorado and BYU packed the house for their games.
The Buffalos got 47,000+ fans to attend in the snow to kick off the Deion Sanders era. But 71 players have entered the transfer portal since Coach Prime arrived in August—47 players have transferred since April 15—as the 1-11 Pac-12 team attempts to rebuild.
By comparison, the BYU game was much more subdued with a mere 10,000+ fans but nevertheless was covered with NIL fingerprints.
BYU Royalties
A total of 13 players wore shirts with a QR code advertising for BYU’s NIL Collective CougConnect. Those players will receive a 10 percent royalty for people who use their specific QR code to sign up for annual or monthly membership.
They will collect that deal in perpetuity— or in other words, as long as that person stays a paying member of CougConnect.
Jake Retlaff, who is fighting for the starting quarterback position, said “I think it’s great that [CougConnect] are providing us an opportunity to create a NIL while giving the fans a way to interact with us, the players.”
There are three different membership tiers for CougConnect:
Insider: $10/month
Silver: $40/month
Gold: $100/month
The Silver and Gold plans actually include a fair amount of swag, including exclusive reports, apparel, and autographed items. The Gold package also provides free access to CougConnect events such as a golf tournaments; vacation packages and VIP meet and greets with the players.
If you are a die hard BYU fan or company that wants face time with top BYU players to advance the business relationship, there seems to be a ton of value for $1,200/year.
“We are excited to partner with the players in the long term,” announced CougConnect Director Jake Brandon. He continued, “[We] believe the best way to get buy in from the Student-Athletes and the fan base is with generous Student-Athlete compensation.”
With CougConnect anticipating to role this out to all players soon, the juice might not be worth the squeeze for players who are already short on time.
Still, it is an impressive initiative from a collective who has already pioneered into the NIL unknown before. Recently, the organization hosted a first of its kind cruise vacation package.
The efforts of CougConnect have certainly resonated with the BYU athletes. UNLV transfer running back Aidan Robbins expressed his excitement for this partnership:
“I truly think that the NIL royalty with CougConnect is an excellent opportunity to not only expand our personal brand for a lifetime but CougConnect’s as well. It’s an honor to be able to participate in something like this let alone be the first to ever do it!”
Not the First, Likely Not the Last
Assigning athletes QR codes and paying commission indefinitely, however, is not an NIL industry first.
One of the first collectives on the NIL scene, The Gator Collective—which supports Florida—began doing exactly this when they launched when the NCAA ‘legalized’ NIL in 2021.
Gator Collective Founder and CEO Eddie Rojas, former Florida pitcher, told us that “players were provided QR codes and web addresses to promote their name, image and likeness… [the] athlete maintained the right to continue this relationship with GC indefinitely.”
In this model, Florida athletes were receiving 25 percent of the total sales. If they sold $500,000 in revenue—memberships and merchandise mainly being sold—then they would make $125,000.
In April, a new NIL Collective called Florida Victorious emerged and acquired the Gator Collective. Here is the letter that Rojas penned.
It will be interesting to see if more NIL Collectives—many of which are struggling to stay out of the red while earmarking near 90 percent of their operating revenue to athletes— adopt this commission strategy moving forward.