LSU 2026 commits receive early NIL lesson at event featuring local businesses

We’re in a new age of college athletics and Thursday morning was another reminder of that. Before athletes were allowed to capitalize on their name, image and likeness, brand events and outside endorsement opportunities were not publicly endorsed.

However, walking into Elite Training Academy and seeing all nine of LSU’s commits in the 2026 class from Louisiana walking around to different local businesses, trying out products and conducting various interviews and photoshoots was yet another dose of reality of where we now are in college sports.

Among the businesses that the athletes spent the better part of three hours learning about, Raising Canes, Voyager, Tanger Outlets, Retief Windows, Boot Krewe Media, Reliable Roofing, Poppi soda and LSU Snacks all had stations set up. The pitch to the Tigers’ commits was pretty straightforward in talking with multiple players out there. 

“They’re just showing me all of the resources that I have here and being a Tiger. I’m pretty sure most of them were Tigers too. Just some resources here in Baton Rouge Louisiana businesses to help us build our brands,” Lamar Brown said. 

“Really just getting to promote these brands and ourselves as well. Just having a fun time getting together as commits and really enjoying the family environment,” Jabari Mack said. “Just getting a connection with LSU’s sponsors and really let them promote us as commits.”

“Come support a few brands for NIL, having fun with some of the other recruits, building bonds,” Richard Anderson said. “Coming here today, everything’s about building bonds. Having a brotherhood.”

In addition to those three, Brysten Martinez, Aiden Hall, Kenny Darby, Dezyrian Ellis, Isaiah Washington and Jalan Chapman were all in attendance. This was the first event of its kind that was organized for these high school commits to explore different brand opportunities here locally in Baton Rouge. The players moved from station to station, hearing different pitches from the local business partners, wore different gear, tried various snack and soda products and spent time around each other as well. 

Every recruiting class at LSU has a healthy dose of Louisiana talent and with six months until signing day, a lot of these players are getting to know each other while others have spent quite a bit of time around each other already. Brown, Mack and Hall all played on the same AAU team growing up and a lot of these commits have played against one another in high school as well. 

But building a brand is something that’s new to all of these players and doing it together is something they were all keen on doing. 

Revenue sharing went into effect back on July 1 and preparing for that has been at the forefront of the NIL planning for LSU going back to the end of the 2025 signing class and transfer portal window in the winter of 2024. But outside endorsement deals are at the heart of where NIL was supposed to lean when it was first allowed by the NCAA. 

These top high school recruits are getting an early lesson on what that looks like and opportunities like the one on Thursday will only continue to grow in years to come. 

“I feel like it’s great. With NIL there’s some bad ways but some good ways but I feel like it’s great for young guys like me. I know I’m going to invest what I get and make sure I’m surrounding myself with the people to help me,” Brown said.