Jeff Borzello is a basketball recruiting insider. He has joined ESPN in 2014.
SHORTLY AFTER PRESIDENT Donald Trump signed an executive order on July 24 calling for the elimination of “third-party, pay-for-play” payments, Janetta Andrews reached out to John Calipari.
The mother of 2026 five-star Arkansas commit JaShawn Andrews was looking for clarification on what the order meant and the impact it could have on her son.
“I have no idea, Miss Janetta,” Calipari told her. “When I find out, I’ll let you know.”
It’s become an increasingly common refrain among college basketball coaches since the House vs. NCAA settlement was formally approved in early June. The decision, following years of lawsuits, allows schools to begin paying student-athletes directly through revenue sharing. But it also casts doubt over how the newly established College Sports Commission (CSC) will regulate NIL deals as a supplementary source of player earnings, especially those facilitated by booster-run collectives.
In early July, the CSC’s NIL Go clearinghouse, operated by Deloitte, rejected some collective-backed transactions, stating deals had to be between players and companies that provide goods or services to the general public for profit — which doesn’t include collectives. Twelve days later, Yahoo reported that, following a new agreement between the House plaintiffs and the NCAA, the CSC would treat collectives like any other third-party businesses. Two days after that, Trump signed his executive order, once again complicating matters.
The latest development came Thursday, when the attorneys involved in the House settlement released a memo saying NIL collective deals must prove payment is for a promotion or endorsement of goods or services that will be sold for profit to the general public. It clarifies that collectives — responsible for an estimated 81.6% of all NIL compensation last October, with 21.2% of that going to men’s basketball, per Opendorse, which tracks and facilitates NIL deals — will have a role in the rev-share era, but not whether they’ll be able to generate player earnings at a comparable rate to recent years.
Uncertainty over how many collective-generated funds will be available to supplement revenue-share offers is one reason the 2026 recruiting class is developing at a snail’s pace. Coming off a transfer portal cycle in which high-major programs spent hundreds of millions of dollars to sign experienced players — a surge made possible by the confluence of getting collective-backed deals done before the House settlement, to be grandfathered in alongside the injection of rev-share dollars — coaches have pivoted their focus to the 2026 class later than in previous years.
Players, too, are drawing out their timelines. Entering the July recruiting period, only nine prospects in the 2026 ESPN 100 were committed, including just one five-star prospect, Andrews. A year ago, 17 ESPN 100 prospects had committed entering July. (The number remains the same as of this story’s publication, with No. 4 Jason Crowe committing to Missouri but Sheek Pearson — committed to Marquette — reclassifying to 2025.)
Adjusted timelines might not be the only impact. If collective-backed NIL deals are indeed at risk of being rejected — or hindered, at the very least — coaches will have to adjust their valuations of players to be mindful of salary allocations for future rosters, including saving money for next spring’s transfer portal.
This means college programs might need to move ahead with their recruitment of the 2026 class without knowing, for certain, what numbers they can actually promise. And recruits might need to make the decisions without further clarity. For now, it seems most programs will err on the side of caution, and player valuations for the 2026 recruiting class could fall dramatically.
“These guys have no idea what’s coming. [Agents are] telling these kids, look at this year’s numbers. But there were guys making $2-$3-$4 million, that’s not going to happen anymore,” said one high-major coach whose roster will cost around $11 million for the upcoming season. “That’s the whole salary cap now.”
THE CURRENT STATE is a stark contrast to this past spring, when there was essentially no cap on spending and player compensation exploded.
Houston was one beneficiary of that situation. The preseason No. 3 Cougars managed to retain three of their stars — Milos Uzan, Joseph Tugler and Emanuel Sharp — following the national championship loss to Florida. They also signed three top-25 recruits, headlined by projected first-round NBA draft pick Chris Cenac Jr. and Isiah Harwell.
Texas Tech’s athletics collective, the Matador Club, which has built a reputation for spending big — most notably making softball pitcher NiJaree Canady the first $1 million softball player and spending eight figures on the football program — convinced JT Toppin to forgo the NBA draft and return to Lubbock for north of $3 million. Then it helped coach Grant McCasland nab at least three potential starters out of the transfer portal.
Washington looked to bounce back from its last-place Big Ten finish by going deep into its pockets, too. The Huskies landed a top-50 recruit (J.J. Mandaquit), an impact international prospect (Hannes Steinbach), then went into the transfer portal for seven players, including Desmond Claude, who committed hours before the House settlement was passed.
Are any of these approaches to building top rosters still viable in the rev-share era if collectives aren’t able to operate in the same way?
Industry sources consider it unlikely, without players taking significant pay cuts.
“The actual money, realistically, is about 40-50 percent less than what it has been,” one Big Ten coach said.
Industry sources estimate 20 programs will have rosters this season that cost eight figures, with some individual players earning upward of $2 million to $3 million. With schools receiving $20.5 million this year to spend across their sports department, that’s not much less than the projected budgets for men’s college basketball programs in power conferences, according to Opendorse:
ACC: $4,400,000 Big East: $5,333,333 Big Ten: $3,250,000 Big 12: $4,239,000 SEC: $3,091,667
More generally, though, a program’s total rev-share budget could be comparable to what the best individual players have made through collective-backed NIL deals in a single season. As one high-major coach said, it would be difficult to have more than one or two “max slots” on a roster without those deals to supplement player salaries. Another said having multiple seven-figure players on a roster will be nearly impossible.
“No one’s going to pay a freshman $1.5 million anymore,” another high-major coach said. “You can’t have a third of your [revenue-share] cap going to a guy who’s never played in college.”
It’s trickling down to the back end of rosters, too.
“You have to manage expectations for later on,” another coach said. “It’s just not the reality for a freshman in the rev-share era. The last cycle, money was flowing. A kid that might have gotten $500,000 last cycle, he now might not get $200,000.”
Doubt over how many collective-backed NIL deals will be approved is leading programs to consider an NBA-style approach to roster-building, which means casting a wider net in the recruiting pool to look at players at different valuation points instead of just the top names at each position.
For now, conversations between coaches and 2026 recruits have barely addressed specific financials.
“We haven’t really discussed anything,” said Deron Rippey Sr., the father of five-star point guard Deron Rippey Jr. The No. 18 prospect is nowhere close to making a decision, having recently named a list of 12 schools and set eight official visits for the fall. “Most coaches say the rules are changing in the next two weeks, the next month, we’re trying to figure out what we can do for players and how we can do it. … They’re saying, ‘We’ll put something in front of you when you get on campus, with how the rules are changing and when we get more information. But we’ll be able to work it out.'”
Top-30 recruit Jalen Montonati, who recently set a pair of official visits, has had similar conversations. “No real numbers have been thrown at me yet,” he said. “Some coaches have no clue, really. A lot of their answers to questions my parents and my team ask is, ‘I don’t know.’ It’s funny hearing that.”
REGARDLESS OF A program’s spending limit and what the rules will look like in one month, or six, the transfer portal’s role in the slow-developing 2026 recruiting cycle also cannot be ignored.
The portal didn’t close until April 22, and 2025-26 rosters weren’t finalized until several weeks later. And with the growing need for proven college experience at the business end of the NCAA tournament, coaches know they can’t overspend on high school prospects in the summer and fall.
Essentially, the recruiting timeline of the 2026 class is getting squeezed at both ends. It’s not a new trend, but the prioritization on the portal has continued to grow since the one-time transfer waiver passed in 2021. In the year before the rules changed, 21 top-100 recruits averaged double figures as freshmen, compared to 38 of the top-100 transfers. In 2022, that number was down to 17 freshmen and up to 62 transfers. Of the 20 starters in the 2025 Final Four, 11 were transfers and three were freshmen. All three freshmen came from Duke.
“A lot of great teams and coaches were trying to get their rosters set and only focusing on the recruitment of the 2026 class after they got their roster set,” Rippey Sr. said. “A lot of people are worrying about the portal when it comes to picking the right schools and going to the right place. Coaches are telling us, ‘We’re not going to the portal if you commit to us.'”
Andrews, the five-star Arkansas commit, is comfortable with his projected role under Calipari, but understands the concern from his classmates.
“I just feel like with a lot of players shifting in the portal,” he said, “it can cause players to have difficulty in trusting what the coaching staff may be saying, playing time-wise, what they think they may get.”
Montonati believes the emphasis on the portal — and the unforeseen resulting attrition that leads to entire roster and coaching overhauls — could cause more highly-ranked kids to delay their commitments.
“We could see a lot more kids [committing] after the national championship game, which is really rare, so they kind of have an understanding of the situation they’re putting themselves in,” he said. “Coaches leaving for new jobs, coaches bringing in seven, eight, nine new guys from the portal — it’s the uncertainty of what a roster could look like.
“Talk to any 2026 guy, if they commit to a school, they probably don’t want you to go get two 22-, 23-year olds in the portal.”
Wait too long, though, and a high school prospect risks getting lost in the shuffle of the 2,000-plus players entering the transfer portal.
“At that point, you should know what school you want to go to,” said ESPN 100 guard Jasiah Jervis, who is still in the process of compiling offers after strong performances in the July period. “You don’t want it to be too late.”
SPEAKING AT THE National Press Club in Washington D.C. last week, hours before President Trump’s executive order, NCAA president Charlie Baker expressed optimism surrounding the rev-share era, as well as the need for transparency in NIL compensation.
“It moves a big piece of the center of gravity away from third parties who are, for all intents and purposes, somewhat invisible and thoroughly unaccountable and totally driven by the opportunity to make money on transactions,” Baker said. “Most schools are not that interested in running a transaction shop, which is pretty much what NIL has been for the past couple of years.”
Will the NIL Go clearinghouse double down on that sentiment, denying lucrative collective deals it doesn’t deem to have a “valid business purpose” or fall within a reasonable range of compensation? Will the CSC’s determination of “fair market value” withstand arbitration and potential lawsuits? Are there ways to circumvent the clearinghouse?
Of course, the numbers will increase if the same kinds of collective-backed deals from the last cycle get approved by NIL Go. Or until there’s a lawsuit accusing the NCAA of limiting a student-athlete’s earnings. Or until schools get fed up and the under-the-table deals of yesteryear make a comeback.
Those types of conversations between agents and coaches have already begun, sources told ESPN.
“Schools aren’t going to sit idly by with $2.7 million [for their college basketball rosters] while other schools have double or triple that,” one high-major coach said.
“There will always be collectives, people that want their program to do well that will invest,” another said.
We won’t know the answers to many of these questions for some time, though basketball coaches are closely watching their football counterparts, who can officially begin sending written revenue-share offers to recruits on Aug. 1 — which will, in turn, help demonstrate which supplementary NIL deals get through the clearinghouse.
“Nobody wants to be the first to go through [the clearinghouse] and see what this is really like, how sharp are the teeth,” one ACC coach said. “There’s a lot of fear for what that looks like.”
Until then, the refrain remains the same.
“We don’t know what rules we’re playing by,” one Big 12 coach said.
Fernando Mendoza balked at entertaining the Heisman Trophy ceremony as an assured outcome Friday, even as he arrived in New York a comfortable betting favorite to win the award.
As of an afternoon press session, Mendoza hadn’t even finished his speech.
Yet even as he artfully sidestepped suggestions the award was already won, Mendoza did have a firm answer for where the 45-pound bronze trophy should live, if he is selected as its winner Saturday night.
NEW YORK — NEW YORK (AP) — Fernando Mendoza, the enthusiastic quarterback of No. 1 Indiana, won the Heisman Trophy on Saturday night, becoming the first Hoosier to win college football’s most prestigious award since its inception in 1935.
Mendoza claimed 2,362 points, including 643 first-place votes. He beat Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia (1,435 points), Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love (719 points) and Ohio State quarterback Julian Sayin (432 points).
Mendoza’s Heisman win was emphatic. He finished first in all six Heisman regions, the first to do so since Caleb Williams in 2022. He was named on 95.16% of all ballots, tying him with Marcus Mariota in 2014 for the second highest in the award’s history and he received 84.6% of total possible points, which is the seventh highest in Heisman history.
“I haven’t seen the numbers yet,” said Mendoza, “but it’s such an honor to be mentioned with these guys (Pavia, Love and Sayin). It’s really a credit to our team. It’s a team award.”
Mendoza guided the Hoosiers to their first No. 1 ranking and the top seed in the 12-team College Football bracket, throwing for 2,980 yards and a national-best 33 touchdown passes while also running for six scores. Indiana, the last unbeaten team in major college football, will play a College Football Playoff quarterfinal game in the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1.
Mendoza, the Hoosiers’ first-year starter after transferring from California, is the triggerman for an offense that surpassed program records for touchdowns and points set during last season’s surprise run to the CFP.
A redshirt junior, the once lightly recruited Miami native is the second Heisman finalist in school history, joining 1989 runner-up Anthony Thompson. Mendoza is the seventh Indiana player to earn a top-10 finish in Heisman balloting and it marks another first in program history — having back-to-back players in the top 10. Hoosiers quarterback Kurtis Rourke was ninth last year.
With his teammates chanting “HeismanDoza” as he addressed the media, he said there felt like a realistic chance of winning the Heisman when the Hoosiers routed then No. 19 Illinois 63-10 on Sept. 20.
“At that point my boys (teammates) said we might make it to New York (for the award ceremony),” he said. “It was lighthearted at the time, but that’s when it started. “
Quarterbacks have won the Heisman four of the last five years, with two-way player Travis Hunter of Colorado ending the run last season.
Mendoza is the 43rd quarterback to win the Heisman and the second winner of Latin American descent to claim the trophy. Stanford’s Jim Plunkett was the first in 1970.
“Although I grew up in America, my four grandparents are all from Cuba,” he said. “I had the opportunity to go there and that was important to me. I credit the love to my grandparents and the Hispanic community.”
The Heisman Trophy presentation came after a number of accolades were already awarded. Mendoza was named The Associated Press player of the year earlier this week and picked up the Maxwell and Davey O’Brien awards Friday night while Love won the Doak Walker Award.
Mendoza and Pavia clearly exemplify the changing landscape of using the transfer portal in college football. Mendoza is the seventh transfer to win the award in the last nine years. Vanderbilt is Pavia’s third school.
Pavia finished second with 189 first-place votes. He threw for a school-record 3,192 yards and 27 touchdowns for the Commodores, who were pushing for a CFP berth all the way to the bracket announcement. He is the first Heisman finalist in Vanderbilt history.
Generously listed as 6 feet tall, Pavia led Vanderbilt to its first 10-win season along with six wins against Southeastern Conference foes. That includes four wins over ranked programs as Vandy reached No. 9, its highest ranking in The Associated Press Top 25 since 1937.
Pavia went from being unrecruited out of high school to junior college, New Mexico State and finally Vanderbilt in 2024 through the transfer portal.
Vandy next plays in the ReliaQuest Bowl against Iowa on Dec. 31.
The last running back to win the Heisman was Alabama’s Derrick Henry in 2015. Love put himself in the mix with an outstanding season for Notre Dame. He finished with 46 first-place votes.
The junior from St. Louis was fourth in the Bowl Subdivision in yards rushing (1,372), fifth in per-game average (114.3) and third with 18 rushing touchdowns for the Fighting Irish, who missed out on a CFP bid and opted not to play in a bowl game.
He was the first player in Notre Dame’s storied history to produce multiple TD runs of 90 or more yards, a 98-yarder against Indiana in the first round of last year’s playoffs and a 94-yarder against Boston College earlier this season.
Sayin led the Buckeyes to a No. 1 ranking for most of the season, throwing for 3,329 yards while tying for second in the country with 31 TD passes ahead of their CFP quarterfinal at the Cotton Bowl on Dec. 31.
The sophomore from Carlsbad, California, arrived at Ohio State after initially committing to Alabama and entering the transfer portal following a coaching change. He played four games last season before winning the starting job. He led the Buckeyes to a 14-7 win in the opener against preseason No. 1 Texas and kept the team atop the AP Top 25 for 13 straight weeks, tying its second-longest run.
Sayin follows a strong lineage of Ohio State quarterbacks since coach Ryan Day arrived in 2017. Dwayne Haskins (2018), Justin Fields (2019), C.J. Stroud (2021), and Kyle McCord (2023) averaged 3,927 passing yards, 40 TDs, and six interceptions, along with a 68.9% completion rate during their first seasons.
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The Heisman Trophy award may not come with a cash prize, but these finalists have already scored millions through their name, image and likeness deals
Fernando Mendoza of the Indiana Hoosiers celebrates after defeating the Ohio State Buckeyes in the Big Ten Championship Game on Dec. 6.
It pays to be the Heisman.
The final voting for the 2025 Heisman Trophy will take place on Saturday, as the top players in college football compete for the game’s highest individual honor.
The Heisman Trophy, given to the most outstanding player in college football, doesn’t come with any cash prizes – just prestige. But while the Heisman finalists may not be paid for winning, they’re still among the highest earners in college sports when it comes to name, image and likeness (NIL) deals.
College athletes have been allowed to leverage their influence and make money from NIL deals since 2021, after decades of having to avoid any form of payment that could compromise their amateur status and NCAA eligibility. Now, many of the top student-athletes earn millions of dollars each year from NIL arrangements.
The four finalists for the Heisman this year are Fernando Mendoza, Diego Pavia, Julian Sayin and Jeremiyah Love.
Here’s at look at what the 2025 Heisman finalists are estimated to have made from NIL deals this year, according to On3’s deal tracker.
Fernando Mendoza, QB, $2.6 million
Fernando Mendoza of the Indiana Hoosiers runs the ball in a game against the Oregon Ducks.
Indiana University quarterback Fernando Mendoza was not a highly rated Heisman contender headed into the season – but Mendoza had a great 2025 campaign, leading Indiana to its first Big Ten conference title since 1967, a 13-0 record and the No. 1 seed in the College Football Playoff.
Mendoza won a separate Associated Press player of the year award, and is the betting favorite to win Heisman, according to DraftKings (DKNG) odds.
Mendoza has an NIL deal with sports-apparel giant Adidas (XE:ADS) (ADDYY).
“At the beginning of the year, I saw the list of the top 10 Heisman contenders, and evidently [my name] wasn’t there,” he said about the award.
But that didn’t discourage Mendoza. “I was like, ‘Wow, I want to make a goal for myself.’ I prayed about, like, if I could make it to the ceremony, how cool that would be,” he said. “Now that it’s come to fruition, I’m able to share that moment with people who appreciate it. It’s such a cool moment.”
Related: A $100 million NFL contract isn’t enough money to last a lifetime, says former football star Odell Beckham Jr.
Diego Pavia, QB, $2.5 million
Quarterback Diego Pavia on the Vanderbilt Commodores celebrates after defeating the Auburn Tigers.
Vanderbilt University quarterback Diego Pavia threw 27 touchdowns this season, leading his team to the eighth-best scoring offense in the country.
Pavia, who has the second-best odds to win the Heisman, behind Mendoza, is expected to declare for April’s NFL draft.
Pavia has NIL deals with AutoPro, Raising Cane’s and the NIL Store.
He also recently joked on “The Pivot Podcast” that he would donate his 2025 NIL money if one of the lower-ranked teams like Tulane or James Madison won the College Football Playoff this year.
Julian Sayin, QB, $2.5 million
Quarterback Julian Sayin of the Ohio State Buckeyes enters Ohio Stadium prior to a game against the Minnesota Golden Gophers.
Ohio State University quarterback Julian Saying led his team to yet another College Football Playoff bid this year, in addition to his Heisman-hopeful season. It’s the fifth time in the last eight years that an Ohio State signal-caller has been a Heisman finalist.
Sayin threw 31 touchdown passes this season, which was third in the nation. He has NIL deals with The Foundation (Ohio State’s collective), Panini and EA Sports (EA).
Related: Why Michigan’s Sherrone Moore probably won’t get paid the millions left on his contract – unlike other recently fired college football coaches
Jeremiyah Love, RB, $1.6 million
Jeremiyah Love of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish celebrates after a touchdown.
University of Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love is the only non-quarterback among this year’s Hesiman finalists.
Love was fourth in the nation with 1,372 rushing yards, and led Notre Dame to a 10-2 record. Unfortunately for the Fighting Irish, they narrowly missed out on the College Football Playoff.
Love has NIL deals with Samsung (KR:005930), Celsius (CELH) and New Balance.
The 2025 Heisman winner will be announced at 7 p.m. Eastern time on Saturday, Dec. 13, on ABC.
From the archives: The number of millionaire college athletes has tripled
-Weston Blasi
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US President Donald Trump’s dislike for the NIL system in college sports may end up bringing a major reform as he reportedly looks pursue federal measures to address NIL issues or regulate the system more strictly.
During his appearance honoring the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team at the White House, Trump said the current NIL system is “a disaster for college sports.” He added that it will highly impair the US’s ability to compete at the Olympics, as several universities are looking to shut down programs because they don’t result in good revenue, as football and men’s basketball do.
“I think the NIL is a disaster for sports. It’s horrible for the Olympics, and I think it’s actually horrible for the players,” Trump said. “Those sports don’t exist because they’re putting all their money into football, and by the way, they’re putting too much money into football.”
This is a result of the House v. NCAA settlement that allows universities to pay up to $20.5 million per year to their athletes. Because of this, the universities are largely using this sum to attract top talent in football and basketball through NIL money, resulting in the elimination of non-generating revenue sports.
“You can’t pay a quarterback $14 million to come out of high school. They don’t even know if he’s going to be a very good player,” Trump said. “Colleges cannot afford to pay the kind of salaries you’re hearing out there.”
In order to keep these NIL dealings in check or maybe even put a stop at it, Trump indicated a possible interference of the federal government.
“You’re going to have these colleges wipe themselves out. And something ought to be done and I’m willing to put the federal government behind it,” Trump said.
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Donald Trump Fears the Worst For College Sports If NIL System Continues
Given the spike in NIL payments, US President Donald Trump thinks that this could wipe out some of the top programs in the country if nothing is done to control, regulate or eliminate.
“But if it’s not done fast, you’re going to wipe out colleges. They’re going to get wiped out, including ones that do well in football,” Trump said. “Colleges cannot afford to play this game, and it’s a very bad thing that’s happening.”
Overall, Trump thinks that this NIL payments are not for the betterment of the sports and are instead dragging the entire college sports ecosystem into the toilet.
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One of college football’s most accomplished young head coaches is now among the candidates being considered by a fledgling NFL franchise for its coaching vacancy.
Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman has emerged as a candidate for the open position with the New York Giants, according to The Athletic’s Diana Russini.
Interest in Marcus Freeman is rising
New York isn’t the only place that could be taking a close look at Freeman, as the Tennessee Titans may also become interested in him, according to the report.
Freeman, who will turn 40 next month, signed a contract extension with Notre Dame last year that will lock him in with the school through the 2030 season, but if this carousel has proven anything, it’s that almost any contract can be gotten out of.
Notre Dame is a private school and is not obligated to publish its coaching salaries, but insiders contend his deal pays him $9 million per season and is worth a total of a reported $54 million.
But that raise is already somewhat out of date after Indiana recently inked Curt Cignetti to a new deal that will pay him $11.7 million per season.
Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images
Notre Dame knows Freeman is getting that interest
“Everybody has eyes on Marcus,” Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua said.
“College has eyes on Marcus. NFL has eyes on Marcus. I bet Hollywood has eyes on Marcus. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s in the next Leo DiCaprio movie with Martin Scorsese.
“Marcus is Marcus. All the credit to him. He deserves it. He’s the absolute best coach in the country for Notre Dame, full stop. One of the greatest college coaches in the country.
“And people forget how young he is, so I get it. That’s a compliment to him and his success and the way he represents himself and the way he prepares and who he is and how he talks.”
What Freeman has done at Notre Dame
Freeman has just completed his fourth season at the helm of the Fighting Irish program and boasts a 43-12 overall record, winning more than 78 percent of his games.
Freeman led Notre Dame to a No. 2 national ranking and an appearance in the national championship game against his alma mater a year ago.
His team went 10-2 this season and seemed poised for another berth in the College Football Playoff, before the committee reversed course on Selection Day and left the Irish out of the field, leading the school to decline playing in a bowl game.
Michael Caterina-Imagn Images
Notre Dame won’t let him go
Cognizant of the talk around his head man, Bevacqua is not willing to watch from the sidelines if his successful football coach is going to be courted by opportunities in the NFL, or anywhere.
“I would never say we wouldn’t match anything when it comes to Marcus,” Bevacqua said recently.
“I make sure that he knows that he will be where he deserves to be, and that is at the top, top, top tier of college football coaches when it comes to compensation every year.
“I view his contract, although a multiyear contract, as a living, breathing document that we will revise every year as need be to make sure he’s where he deserves to be. He knows he has that commitment from me and more importantly from the university.”
Nike announces a new NIL venture, and it has chosen LSU as the first school to partner with.
Nike, along with other equipment manufacturers, have been partnering with university athletic departments for decades. But Nike’s Blue Ribbon Elite NIL program is the first to partner with the athletes themselves.
Zach Greenwell, LSU’s deputy athletic director for external affairs, said Nike is partnering with ten athletes on a very extensive campaign to promote Nike products.
“They brought in a very large-scale production company from out of town to work with those athletes, and it was 15-hour days with our athletes doing individual shoots,” Greenwell said. “They did a big group shot, which was a big part of our roll-out.”
Among the LSU student-athletes joining Nike’s growing roster of elite NIL athletes are: Kailin Chio, Gymnastics, Derek Curiel, Baseball, Tori Edwards, Softball, Casan Evans, Baseball, Trey’Dez Green, Football, Jayden Heavener, Softball, ZaKiyah Johnson, Basketball, DJ Pickett, Football, Jurnee Robinson, Volleyball and Dedan Thomas Jr., Basketball. Greenwell said Nike is working with them on product that they like, and they’re promoting products on the Nike store that’s specific to them and their respective sports.
“It’s a big thing for Nike to work with this demographic whether it be college kids, teenagers, so they’re going to work with all of those ten athletes across seven sports to tap into that demographic and they think LSU is a great place to start,” Greenwell said.
Greenwell said it’s a tremendous honor for LSU to be the first school that Nike selected for its new Blue Ribbon Elite NIL program.
“I think we’re the envy of a lot of people around the country to be able to launch this program with them (Nike) and we know they’ll work with other teams as they go, but our first immediate thoughts are, ‘How can we grow this? How can we take this to the next level?’” Greenwell said.
Along with the Blue Ribbon Elite NIL program, LSU Athletics and Nike have announced an extension to their five-decade long partnership through 2036.
