The Business of College Sports

I'm joined this week by Malik Jackson, an associate attorney at Smith Hulsey & Busey in Jacksonville, Florida who is a member of the firm's sports litigation department.
A former Princeton quarterback, middle school teacher and football coach, Jackson has taken a particular interest in how NIL impacts student athletes prior to their arrival on a college campus.
Although we used Florida's law as an example in some of this discussion, it has broad applicability based on where most states (except California) and their high school sports associations have come down on NIL thus far.
We discussed:

• Advice for the parents of elite high school student athletes
• How the advice might be different for high school basketball athletes versus other sports when it comes to NIL
• What questions high school student athletes and their parents should be asking relative to NIL during the recruiting process
• How the early NIL deals we've seen impact recruiting
• The complication of everyone not playing under the same rules right now for NIL
• What parents need to watch out for when it comes to NIL and their high school student athlete
• How parents might become the problem for some student athletes
• When student athletes should engage an attorney for NIL

Mentioned in this episode:
High school basketball student athlete Mikey Williams signing with Excel Sports Management
High school QB Quinn Ewers considering bypassing senior year of high school because of NIL
You can follow me on Twitter and Instagram to discuss further, ask additional questions or suggest future episodes.
You can find more of my analysis on the business of college sports at BusinessofCollegeSports.com and Forbes.

You can follow Kristi on Twitter and Instagram to discuss further, ask additional questions or suggest future episodes.
You can find more of her analysis on the business of college sports at BusinessofCollegeSports.com and Forbes.
Need data and real-world experts to help you make decisions in your athletic department? Check out College Sports Solutions and connect with Jeff on LinkedIn.

On Friday, September 9th, I was joined on campus at the University of Florida by NCAA President Mark Emmert.
Special thanks to the UF Institute for Coaching Excellence for hosting this, which was an interview for both of the NIL courses I teach at UF in the Sports Management and PR departments. Students and athletes alike were invited, and I appeared in my capacity as a professor. Although this was not a media interview, the NCAA has granted me permission to share it.

In our nearly 90 minutes together, we discussed:

• How Year 1 of NIL played out
• Biggest challenges ahead for NIL
• Whether Congress will pass a bill to regulate NIL
• The debate over student athletes becoming employees
• Compensating student athletes as ambassadors of universities
• The challenges of student athletes unionizing
• Where NIL goes from here

There were so many great nuggets in this conversation, but especially the concept of student athletes as brand ambassadors, which comes up several times throughout the interview.
You can read a summary of the parts of this discussion that interested me the most on Business of College Sports.
You can also follow me on Twitter and Instagram to discuss further, ask additional questions or suggest future episodes.
You can find more of my analysis on the business of college sports at BusinessofCollegeSports.com and Forbes.

You can follow Kristi on Twitter and Instagram to discuss further, ask additional questions or suggest future episodes.
You can find more of her analysis on the business of college sports at BusinessofCollegeSports.com and Forbes.
Need data and real-world experts to help you make decisions in your athletic department? Check out College Sports Solutions and connect with Jeff on LinkedIn.

Former UGA quarterback Aaron Murray joins the podcast to chat about his new venture, The Players' Lounge. This NFT community was built by lettermen to empower relationships within the collegiate sports community through connecting current and former athletes with their respective fan bases while providing opportunities for student-athletes to monetize their individual brands.
Aaron joined the podcast back in January to talk with us ahead of their first NFT launch. That launch ended up generating $305,000 for the student athletes involved, a total of $28,000 each.
Now Aaron is back to tell us how they've expanded their concept beyond NFTs and taken it beyond UGA to other schools.
We discuss:

• How The Players' Lounge got started
• The ways in which college athletes are engaging more with fans
• How NFT drops are translating to in-person events
• Their relationship with the UGA athletic department
• The pursuit of licensing agreements
• Expanding the model to additional universities
• Big picture goals for the future

You can follow The Players' Lounge on social media: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
Are you a collective or thinking about starting one? Check out the new NIL Collectives Insider!
You can also follow me on Twitter and Instagram to discuss further, ask additional questions or suggest future episodes.
You can find more of my analysis on the business of college sports at BusinessofCollegeSports.com and Forbes.

You can follow Kristi on Twitter and Instagram to discuss further, ask additional questions or suggest future episodes.
You can find more of her analysis on the business of college sports at BusinessofCollegeSports.com and Forbes.
Need data and real-world experts to help you make decisions in your athletic department? Check out College Sports Solutions and connect with Jeff on LinkedIn.

I'm joined on this episode by Drew Butler, EVP of Collegiate at Icon Source, a platform where student athletes (and professional athletes) can connect with brands for partnerships. We recorded on the second day of this new NIL Era and talked all about how it's going so far.
One of our main focuses in this podcast is how female student athletes will fare in this new system. Drew talked about why some of the women are even more valuable in the marketplace than the male student athletes and what they're hearing from brands so far.
We also talked about why Icon Source was already in a great position to serve student athletes and why Drew wanted to join the company.
Drew is a former NFL punter for the Arizona Cardinals & Pittsburgh Steelers. While at UGA, Drew was twice First-Team Academic All-American. He is the host of the highly popular “Punt & Pass" podcast and additional shows.
Some trackers I mentioned that may be of interest:
State-by-State Legislation Tracker
School Policy Tracker
NIL Marketplace Tracker
You can follow IconSource on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or LinkedIn.
You can also follow me on Twitter and Instagram to discuss further, ask additional questions or suggest future episodes.
You can find more of my analysis on the business of college sports at BusinessofCollegeSports.com and Forbes.

You can follow Kristi on Twitter and Instagram to discuss further, ask additional questions or suggest future episodes.
You can find more of her analysis on the business of college sports at BusinessofCollegeSports.com and Forbes.
Need data and real-world experts to help you make decisions in your athletic department? Check out College Sports Solutions and connect with Jeff on LinkedIn.

I'm joined in this episode by Brian Kappel, a partner in Lightfoot, Franklin & White's NCAA Compliance & Investigations practice group. Kappel is here to break down the NCAA's new Independent Accountability Resolution Process (IARP).
The IARP is a group of lawyers, judges and arbitrators who operate separately from the NCAA to handle complex infractions cases. There are often significant disagreements between the involved institution and the NCAA's enforcement staff.
Because of trial-like procedures involved in the work-up and presentation of IARP cases, the elevated stakes and penalties associated with the process, and the lack of an appellate remedy, it is critical that institutions and individuals going before the IARP understand what’s involved and approach it like a litigator, with an eye toward not only NCAA practice and precedent but also advocacy.
Kappel says institutions or individuals before the IARP should thoroughly understand the process and their role, as well as that of their counsel. This includes the best methods to assist or participate in fact gathering and any re-investigation done by the CCU, the drafting of early submissions to the IARP regarding procedural and dispositive rules interpretations questions, and hearing preparation.
Listen in as Brian shares how the IARP works, the types of cases making it into the system and the consequences of decisions made through this process.
You can learn more about Lightfoot, Franklin & White at www.lightfootlaw.com.
You can follow me on Twitter and Instagram to discuss further, ask additional questions or suggest future episodes.
You can find more of my analysis on the business of college sports at BusinessofCollegeSports.com and Forbes.

You can follow Kristi on Twitter and Instagram to discuss further, ask additional questions or suggest future episodes.
You can find more of her analysis on the business of college sports at BusinessofCollegeSports.com and Forbes.
Need data and real-world experts to help you make decisions in your athletic department? Check out College Sports Solutions and connect with Jeff on LinkedIn.