With the NBA draft lottery (hello, Dallas Mavericks) and draft combine over, teams and prospects now turn their attention to pro days and mostly private workouts where even more impressions are made.

Murray State University men’s basketball coach Ryan Miller visited the Hopkinsville Kiwanis Club on Thursday and brought the local organization up to date with what’s happening with the Racers’ program.

Miller, who was hired in March, said he spent most of his first few months building a team and a coaching staff. Six seniors graduated and several players transferred leaving him with nearly an entire roster to fill.

However, he has signed several high school players and filled the roster with college transfers. While he says he still is looking to sign a few more players, he’s happy with his roster to this point.

Miller, who came to Murray from Creighton where he was an assistant for four years, said NIL and the transfer portal has made college basketball more of a business environment.

While some may think that navigating the constant change in rosters and working with NIL, Miller said parts of recruiting actually have become quicker and easier on coaches.

A major part of every college basketball program now is making sure that they have funding to not only be competitive on the floor, but also in the recruiting of players. He said Murray State has done a great job of providing him with the tools necessary to find top players.

Miller is considered one of the nation’s top recruiting coaches and helped Creighton become one of the top mid-major programs in the country. His success with the Blue Jays is one of the main reasons he was attractive to Murray State.

However, Miller said Murray’s history of success actually drew him to the school.

Miller said players would begin arriving on campus in early June and he was looking forward to getting to work installing his offense and defense and creating a culture Racers’ fans will be pleased to see.

Photo by Dionte Berry

College Football and NIL now go hand in hand from here on out, and until further notice, it’s fair to expect highly random yet interesting deals to be made with some of the more high profile players within the Power 5 conferences, especially the SEC.

While Texas QB Arch Manning’s lucrative deals with with Panini America, EA Sports, Red Bull, Uber, and Vuori are unsurprsing given his skillset and namesake, Texas A&M’s starting QB has just signed on the the more intriguing deals of the summer.

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Earlier this week, there were rumblings regarding Marcel Reed signing an NIL deal with private jet company, which were confirmed on Thursday, as the Tennessee native is now a partner with ENG Aviation Group, joining Miami quarterback Carson Beck as the other active college signal caller to sign a private jet deal.

For those who are unaware of how private jet services are utilized outside luxury travel for high net worth individuals, ENG Aviation Group has a different and honorable mission, which Boardroom described in detail to provide an in-depth look of Reed’s NIL deal.

Texas A&M QB and rising star, Marcel Reed, just became the fourth college athlete to land a private jet NIL deal—but this one’s different. In a first for both sides, Reed has partnered with ENG Aviation Group not just for flights, but for a mission with real impact: raising awareness for organ donation.⁠

ENG runs a premium charter jet service, but when those jets aren’t in the air with private clients, they’re flying something far more important: life-saving organ transplants. Every empty seat, every available flight path is a chance to deliver hope to someone in need. Now, Reed is helping spotlight that work on a national stage.⁠ ⁠

As part of the deal, Reed will use his platform to share stories, stats, and ways fans can register to become organ donors. This summer, he’ll also visit a Houston hospital to meet with organ donors, recipients, and medical teams—turning a high-flying NIL deal into something grounded in purpose.

ENG offers a potential life-saving service, and Marcel Reed, who has been consistently praised as a locker room leader, is showing said leadership off the field and bringing an important issue to the forefront. If this is the future of NIL, I can safely say that everyone will be on board.

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This article originally appeared on Aggies Wire: Texas A&M QB Marcel Reed signs NIL deal with ENG Aviation Group

BLOOMINGTON— A former IU basketball player is putting his business degree to use and creating a platform to help other student athletes.

Anthony Leal played for Hoosiers and graduated from the IU Kelley School of Business. His junior year, he came up with an idea to help athletes with NIL deals.

“The final class of my entrepreneurship degree was to kind of try to start a business, so I started doing that and it started at just an NIL focused thing since NIL was so brand new so I started with that and realized you know there’s a lot bigger problem can be solved,” said Leal.

Leal was just starting his college career when in 2021 NIL came into play and athletes could capitalize on their name, image, and likeness.

“It was so new, and for me personally, my own NIL I tried to do as many deals as I could and raise as much as I could and try and save and do it for a good cause,” said Leal.

Leal did show that good can come out of NIL. He chose to pay off his sister’s student loans as a Christmas gift and a video of it went viral.

“I had athletes from all around the country reaching out to me asking for advice. Basically asking me to help them do the same thing I was doing,” said Leal.

“I think if you learn one thing about Anthony he’s usually on the cutting edge of applying his business experience to being an athlete and how he can monetize that and be a business and a brand,” said Jay Townsend, one of Leal’s business partners.

Leal teamed up with Townsend and Nate Ebel, both IU graduates, to co-found Motion Sports Inc. It’s a technology platform for college athletic departments putting team management, compliance, and NIL deals all in one place.

“It’s everything a college athletic department needs for how to function and manage the day to day,” said Ebel.

Ebel and Townsend helped Leal expand the app beyond just NIL. The money side of the platform is still developing as the House vs NCAA Settlement play outs, which could create revenue sharing.

“That gives the athletic department the opportunity to directly pay students athletes from a university bank account,” said Townsend.

Right now Motion Sports has deals with five athletic departments. The goal is to help them operate more efficiently and with everything in one place.

“We don’t think they should be spending lots of hours in the day to day of what the new revenue sharing looks like or what the new academic requirements are or how many hours you can spend on a practice field. We want to have their back on that,” said Townsend.