Voided NIL Contracts
Michigan State Collective Spartan Dawgs 4 Life voided NIL agreements with 30-35 Spartan football players.
Taking a look at NIL lessons from Week 5 of the 2023 CFB season.
If you are an athlete and would like our team to help share your story, please DM us or email TheNILReport@gmail.com.
Null & Void
There has been an overwhelming amount of negative PR coming out of East Lancing recently. The Michigan State football program is in an absolute tailspin.
No sooner had the university given head coach Mel Tucker a 10-year, $95 Million guaranteed contract then they had to turn around and fire him for sexual harassment.
And not just any sexual harassment, but for masterbating over the phone with Brenda Tracy—a rape survivor and activist who Michigan State paid $10,000 to share her story with the Spartan football team.
The day after the firing, the Michigan State NIL Collective Spartan Dawgs 4 Life voided NIL agreements with 30-35 Spartan football players. That was communicated over email as the team was on the road, traveling to play the Iowa Hawkeyes.
It was fully within the SD4L’s legal right to do so and they still plan to support basketball players they have NIL deals with; however, it is without a doubt a bad look. Many NIL Collectives are struggling to stay financially sound as they are essentially startups relying on seed investments from alumni donors for no other reason that they like their sports teams.
That is why it is imperative for athletes to understand who they are working with when they enter into partnerships. It is their brand that they need to protect first and foremost—not their school or Collective.
You must do the due diligence to understand if a brand (including a Collective) is a good partner fit for you. Then work to develop a strong relationship; prove your value as a partner; and have a team behind you to ensure that the agreement is fair and you are legally protected.
Michigan State proceeded to only score 16 points in a 26-16 loss to Iowa where they did not score an offensive touchdown.
Their on-field performance is the least of their performance right now.
Hollywood, Colorado
All the stars—like Will Ferrell— were out in Boulder for Colorado’s game against Caleb Williams and USC. Trailing by 27 late in the third quarter, it looked like the Buffs were going to get blown out for a second straight week.
A furious comeback by Deion Sanders’ group made the final score 48-41 in what nearly turned into a historic comeback. There is no question, the stars put on Heisman worthy performances all afternoon:
USC’s Caleb Williams: 403 passing yards & 6 TDs
USC’s Tahj Washington: 117 receiving yards & a TD
Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders: 421 total yards & 5 TDs
Colorado’s Omarion Miller: 196 receiving yards & a TD
After a three-game winning streak and becoming the biggest phenomenon in college football in two decades, the Buffalos have now lost two in a row to two top 10 foes.
Oregon and USC have beaten Colorado by a combined score of 90-47. How they respond is anybody’s guess.
Similarly, Baylor had a hot start in 2011 but then lost two games to top teams by a combined 114-52. That team was led by Robert Griffin III, who helped the Bears respond to win their final six games, including over both Oklahoma and Texas, and win the Heisman Trophy.
The important NIL lesson in the middle of all this is to not give up. You never know how your business, team or brand can turn around with focused hard work.
Magical Comeback
Speaking of Baylor and never giving up. The Bears took a road trip to the most magical place on Earth—Orlando, FL— to face the Central Florida Knights in their first ever Big 12 home opener.
The Bears were down 35-7 late in the third quarter, but persevered to score 29 unanswered points and beat their first FBS opponent on the season.
UCF did not execute the little things down the stretch and Baylor never gave up. To be successful on the field and off it in the NIL space, you must be able to perform under pressure through the finish line and never give up on the winning the deal.
Georgia Power
I am convinced that Georgia tight end Brock Bowers is the best player in the nation.
With the No. 1 Bulldogs on the ropes against Auburn, Bowers tallied 121 yards in the fourth quarter and the game-winning touchdown. He had eight catches and 157 receiving yards for the day.
There are a lot of great play-making QBs out west, but it felt like Auburn was destined to pull off the upset, but they simply could not cover, tackle or slow down Bowers.
As Kirby Smart and the Bulldogs seek their third straight national championship, their state high school association ‘legalized’ NIL for all HS athletes moving forward.
For whatever reason, many southern states continued to prohibit NIL at the high school level, which was causing all sorts of problems with high level athletes, local businesses and university recruiting strategies.
Georgia became the 33rd state to allow NIL and shortly after, Florida’s high school association has drafted an NIL proposal.
The best advice I can give to high schoolers is to keep perfecting your craft, building your brand and network with businesses so you can be ready when your moment arrives.
Utah Trucks & Taxes
Utah’s Crimson Collective just announced that they are providing all 85 scholarship football players with a 2024 Ram Big Horn 1500 truck.
The truck retails for $61,000, which makes the total NIL deal worth about $6 Million. The collective is covering the lease and insurance for all the players so long as they do not transfer and stay academically eligible.
Solving for the problem of transportation is a noteworthy mission for the collective; however, as Kristi Dosh points out, the athletes will still be responsible for paying the taxes on these leased vehicles.
According to TrueCar, the average monthly payment with a 36-month lease is about $726. That is $4,356 every six months ($8,712 for a year) minimum and other expenses could potentially add up quick.
This type of deal is creative, solves a potential problem and fun. But as an athlete on the receiving end, you will want to be sure this type of deal makes sense for you. For example, ask for a portion of the sale when the vehicles are auctioned off by the collective at a later time.
This deal, though in the works for awhile, was finalized the week after the Utes were upset by Oregon State.
This proves that other brands and organizations see value in striking NIL deals no matter the on-field results.
Similarly to Michigan State’s SD4L, the arrangement is terminated if a player leaves Utah. According to sources that is the exact reason why SD4L terminated their deals—for fear of players entering the transfer portal after the coach was fired.
The Week Ahead
I am looking forward to seeing if ranked SEC East teams Kentucky and Missouri can stay perfect this weekend against the more traditional powers of Georgia and LSU respectively.
Can Notre Dame stay strong after an emotional last two weeks? Will the Pac-12 continue to impress? And most importantly…
What will happen in the final Red River Rivalry (Big 12’s version) between undefeated No. 12 Oklahoma and No. 3 Texas?
Brands are salivating more and more every week that the Longhorns prove they are ‘back.’
Pumped for Texas OU!