• ESM, a sports marketing company, connects athletes, primarily football players, with brands and revenue-sharing deals.
• The company has grown significantly over the past decade, expanding its clientele and services.
• ESM represents numerous high-profile athletes, including college and professional players, and even high school prospects.
• The company is actively involved in NIL deals, including revenue sharing agreements with schools.

GREENVILLE, S.C. — A decade before the advent of NIL deals, Dan Everett was hustling to set up autograph appearances for Georgia football players readying for the NFL Draft.

MILWAUKEE, Wis. (July 11, 2025) – Wisconsin will face Villanova at the Milwaukee Hoops Showdown on Dec. 19 at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wis.,  a critical neutral site contest in what will be one of the final non-conference tests for each program ahead of their respective conference schedules for the 2025-26 season.
 
Game time and broadcast designation will be announced at a later date. Intersport, a Chicago-based sports marketing and events agency, will manage all aspects of the event.
 
Tickets for the event are scheduled to go on sale Sept. 24, and fans can register to receive dedicated event information and be eligible for ticket presale access, which will take place on Sept. 23, by registering online at www.fiservforum.com/showdown.
 
It will be the third all-time meeting between the two programs, with the Wildcats defeating the Badgers in 1995 and Wisconsin earning an NCAA Tournament second-round victory over top-seeded Villanova in 2017.

It will be Wisconsin’s first regular season neutral site game at a traditional basketball venue in Milwaukee since the 1989-90 season, when the Badgers faced Gonzaga at the Bradley Center on Dec. 1. Wisconsin has played numerous regular season games in Milwaukee when visiting both Marquette and UW-Milwaukee in addition to NCAA Tournament contests on three separate occasions in the city. Wisconsin also played a neutral site contest at American Family Field as part of the Brew City Battle against Stanford in 2022.

 

Wisconsin is led by Greg Gard, who is entering his 11th season as head coach with the program. Gard and the Badgers won 27 games last season, the team’s most since 2016-17, and earned a No. 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament. Villanova welcomes new head coach Kevin Willard, who has a proven track record of success with Iona, Seton Hall and Maryland. Willard brings 335 career wins with him to Villanova, which won 21 games and advanced to the semifinals of the College Basketball Crown last season.

 

This will be the first of two visits for the Wildcats to Fiserv Forum in 2025-26. Villanova will visit Marquette in BIG EAST regular season action there. That date will be announced in September when the conference reveals its complete schedule.

 

For more information on the event and to receive email alerts regarding future event news, follow Intersport Basketball on Twitter (X) and Instagram at @IntersportHoops.

 

About Intersport

Intersport is an award-winning agency that fills the empty space between marketing campaigns and consumers—helping brands make more meaningful connections. Its industry-leading team offers expert insights in content marketing, experiential marketing, hospitality, partnership consulting and platform development. The Chicago-based agency also owns and operates events across the professional and collegiate sports landscape, including basketball, football, golf, pickleball and volleyball. Intersport has been headquartered in Chicago since its inception in 1985 and has an additional office in Detroit. Learn more at www.intersport.global and on social media (LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook).

 

This Summer, College sports underwent one of it’s biggest changes yet when the House Vs NCAA case was finally settled. Among the many changes to the landscape of college sports was the arrival of revenue sharing as programs now have the ability to pay their players directly. NIL payments came from outside parties but, the athletes are now cut in on the money the schools are earning for the first time ever.

Revenue Sharing arriving in College Football will only help calm some of the chaos with NIL as it gives schools a clear path to money which will help some of the schools without the massive boosters. Each NIL deal now needs to be cleared by a third party which will help ensure that NIL is being used the way it’s supposed to be rather than teams just buying players.

In order to keep some of the chaos under control in College Sports, many have called for the sport to start using collective bargaining as the professional leagues do. While that change hasn’t arrived at the college level yet, it could be the next massive shift in the near future.

This week while attending Big 12 Media Days, Mike Gundy appeared on The Andy & Ari On3 Podcast where he called for everyone to finally restructure and admit that the athletes are now employees this way the College model can start to match the NFL model.

“You’ve gotta restructure your systems and admit players are employees, then you can build collective bargaining. We’ve all talked about it. But you have to admit they’re employees. You can do it all. You can have a [salary cap] and you need an entry level for a high school player coming in because it’s not sustainable.”

Mike Gundy

Given the recent events in college athletics, Mike Gundy’s sentiment has never been more true but, changes may be far down the line. When the athletes were receiving NIL payments, they weren’t technically employees of the school as other outlets were paying them but, after the House Settlement brought revenue sharing into College Football, the schools now directly pay their athletes.

Everyone saw with the House Vs NCAA Settlement how long these cases and changes take to clear the courts and then actually get implemented by the NCAA. It’s clear that athletes should now be considered employees like in every other sport where the players get paid but, every party involved may not want to push for the changes.

More Oklahoma State Cowboys News:

Since the NBA Draft shrunk to two rounds, Virginia Tech has never had two players selected in the draft. Prior to that, the Hokies only had two players selected in the top 60 (the equivalent size of today’s draft) of the same draft once in 1986 when Dell Curry was selected 15th overall by Utah and Keith Colbert was selected 56th overall by Philadelphia. Bobby Beecher was also selected 91st overall by Sacramento during that draft.

That could change in 2026 with Neoklis Avdalas being on the first round radar and Tobi Lawal being a potential second round pick.

Let’s start with Avdalas who has already been listed by many as a name to the watch in the 2026 NBA Draft.

CHICAGO (July 10, 2025) – For the 15th consecutive month, UConn’s Paige Bueckers was the top-earning collegiate female athlete on the NIL Store.

Joining Bueckers as June 2025 leaders were Duke’s Cooper Flagg as the top-earning male athlete, and the University of Connecticut as the top-selling school. The NIL Store supports more than 25,000 athletes and 115 institutions nationwide.

June marked the end of Bueckers’ illustrious NIL Store run as a collegiate representative with the 2024-25 academic calendar officially coming to a close.

Bueckers’ gear will remain available for sale, however, thanks to the NIL Store’s partnership with the WNBPA which provides WNBA athletes a platform to earn proceeds on their collegiate gear. 

Bueckers’ collegiate legacy gear is available alongside other WNBA legends including Kelsey Plum, Breanna Stewart, Brittney Griner, Angel Reese, Alyssa Thomas and more.

June ’25 Top-Selling Schools

1. UConn

2. Arkansas

3. UCLA

4. Duke

5. Louisville

6. Tennessee

7. Syracuse

8. LSU

9. Texas Tech

10. Florida

June ’25 Top-Earning Male Athletes

1. Cooper Flagg – Duke Men’s Basketball

2. Gage Wood – Arkansas Baseball

3. Roch Cholowsky – UCLA Baseball

4. Wehiwa Aloy – Arkansas Baseball

5. Kade Anderson – LSU Baseball

6. Kiyan Anthony – Syracuse Men’s Basketball

7. Liam Doyle – Tennessee Baseball

8. Blake Balsz – UCLA Baseball

9. Steve Angeli – Syracuse Football

10. Roman Martin – UCLA Baseball

June ’25 Top-Earning Female Athletes

1. Paige Bueckers – UConn Women’s Basketball

2. Azzi Fudd – UConn Women’s Basketball

3. Karlyn Pickens – Tennessee Softball

4. NiJaree Canady – Texas Tech Softball

5. Sarah Strong – UConn Women’s Basketball

6. Bri Ellis – Arkansas Softball

7. KK Arnold – UConn Women’s Basketball

8. Jordan Woolery – UCLA Softball

9. Hailey Toney – Texas Tech Softball

10. Megan Grant – UCLA Softball

ABOUT CAMPUS INK AND THE NIL STORE

Backed by Mark Cuban, Campus Ink expanded into the Name, Image, Likeness (NIL) space in 2021 and launched the NIL Store which serves as a merchandising solution for student-athletes and schools across the country. The NIL Store operates with the firm belief that every student-athlete has an opportunity to capitalize on their NIL and should earn industry-leading payouts. Campus Ink was founded in 1947 on the campus of the University of Illinois and was reimagined in 2015 with an office in downtown Chicago and a production facility in Urbana, Ill., where the company handles all of its own production and fulfillment.