NIL
Why are Brighton sponsored by a Florida city almost nobody in England has heard of?
Kissimmee took over from Snickers UK — a workwear manufacturer, not the chocolate bar of the same name — which had been Brighton’s sleeve partner since 2019, having itself succeeded retailer JD Sports.American Express, the New York-based financial services giant, has been the club’s main sponsor since 2010. That long-standing partnership includes naming rights to the stadium, which opened the following year, and training kit. The arrangement was extended by a further 12 years in 2019, to the tune of more than £100million.As well as the shirt-sleeve sponsorship, Kissimmee sponsors away-coach travel for Brighton supporters to WSL (Super League) matches for the women’s team.
Kissimmee is located just south of Orlando and is the largest city in Osceola County, with a population of just over 80,000 — around a third of Brighton’s. It is a popular tourist destination due to its proximity to theme parks, including Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando Resort and golf courses, not to mention the often glorious weather.
Kissimmee is located just south of Orlando and is the largest city in Osceola County, with a population of just over 80,000 — around a third of Brighton’s. It is a popular tourist destination due to its proximity to theme parks, including Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando Resort and golf courses, not to mention the often glorious weather.
Arsenal have Visit Rwanda on the sleeves of their players’ shirts, while Bournemouth have a slightly less controversial training-kit deal with the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA), and Championship club Burnley signed a partnership last season with Visit Detroit.Brighton have an association with Sea Coast United, an amalgamation of community clubs in the north-eastern states of New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Maine. They were also one of the clubs who took part in the Premier League’s first ‘Summer Series’ pre-season tournament in the U.S. in 2023, while a go-it-alone pre-season tour has been mooted to the country that will co-host next year’s men’s World Cup with neighbours Canada and Mexico.Brighton aren’t the only English club to be sponsored by a tourist board.In 2017-18, Brighton’s first season back in the top flight of English football after a gap of 34 years, sleeve sponsorship was still emerging, and there was no data evidence to establish its worth. That has changed appreciably over the seven years since as it has become the third-ranking revenue driver relating to the matchday shirt, after the more visible chest area and a club’s overall kit partner.Sleeve sponsorship is a growing market and is increasingly lucrative for Premier League clubs.
Missouri Tigers defensive end Damon Wilson II (8) on the sidelines during a college football game between the Central Arkansas Bears and Missouri Tigers on August 28, 2025 at Memorial Stadium in Columbia, MO. (Photo by Scott Winters/Icon Sportswire v
ATHENS, Ga. – Former Georgia edge rusher Damon Wilson II is facing a push from the University of Georgia Athletic Association to repay $390,000 after the school accused him of breaking a name, image and likeness agreement tied to his transfer from the Bulldogs.
What we know:
Wilson, now a rising pass rusher at Missouri, was served the lawsuit on Nov. 19 in Clarke County. Court filings say Wilson signed the licensing deal with Classic City Collective on Dec. 21, 2024. The agreement was scheduled to run through January 2026 and paid him $30,000 per month plus additional bonuses for a total contract value of $500,000.
The contract allowed the Collective to immediately terminate the deal if Wilson left the football team, failed to remain enrolled at Georgia, or notified the program of his intent to transfer. If that happened, he was required to repay “liquidated damages” equal to all remaining unpaid licensing fees.
According to the lawsuit, Wilson told Georgia on Jan. 6, 2025, that he planned to transfer. He withdrew from the university on Jan. 13 and left the team the next day. Classic City Collective terminated the agreement on Jan. 14 and demanded repayment of the remaining $390,000.
The Collective later assigned its rights to the University of Georgia Athletic Association.
What we don’t know:
On Aug. 25, 2025, UGAA sent Wilson a formal demand for arbitration under the agreement’s mandatory arbitration clause. Attorneys say Wilson did not respond and has not asked a court to intervene.
What’s next:
UGAA is now asking a judge to appoint an arbitrator and order Wilson to participate in the dispute process. The petition includes a list of proposed arbitrators from the American Arbitration Association’s sports panel and notes that the contract does not specify a method for selecting one.
The motion was filed on Oct. 17, 2025. Court records show Wilson has not submitted a response.
Why you should care:
Classic City Collective is the primary NIL organization supporting Georgia athletes. Wilson appeared in 11 games as a freshman in 2024 before entering the transfer portal and committing to Missouri.
The case carries significance because it tests how far schools and collectives can go to enforce NIL contracts when athletes transfer.
A ruling could influence how players approach the transfer portal while still under contract and may shape how future NIL agreements are written.
The dispute also underscores the limited protections college athletes have in contracting and is drawing attention because Wilson is a high-profile SEC player whose situation could affect others across the sport.
The Source: The details in this article come from Clarke County court documents and previous FOX 5 Atlanta reporting.
The SCORE Act collapses on Capitol Hill as NIL chaos, political infighting, and Lane Kiffin’s blockbuster LSU deal had Rep. Hakeem Jeffries all sorts of befuddled.
What was once thought to be an easy path to the Senate floor, the SCORE Act, which has been long debated over the past two years, fell apart this week before it could be voted on in the House. And, Lane Kiffin’s new contract with LSU was a main point of contention between congressional leaders, thanks to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
Can you imagine college athletics getting any crazier than what we witnessed this week between Kiffin, Ole Miss and LSU?
Oh, think again.
House Settlement Aftermath: Lawmakers Present Two Different NIL Bills That Aim To Regulate College Athletics
I’ve said from the start that the country has better things to worry about right now than having to argue over protecting organizations like the NCAA or even the new College Sports Commission from lawsuits that would come from trying to limit what athletes could make in the future.
Don’t forget, with the House settlement passing, this opened a whole new can of worms. Schools can now directly pay athletes for their services, with a salary cap set at over $20.5 million per year to be divided up between different sports on college campuses.
This hit a boiling point on Wednesday, with new LSU head coach Lane Kiffin being a point of emphasis. No, we’re not kidding.
The ‘Lane Kiffin Protection Act’ Is One Way To Describe It
There was always going to be infighting in regard to the timing and the optics of this entire ordeal. I just didn’t expect a college football move would be a major talking point, though Lane Kiffin does draw headlines.
At the same time as congressional leaders were trying to garner the votes that would protect the NCAA, Lane Kiffin signed a deal that would pay him over $90 million to coach the LSU Tigers.
Ole Miss AD Keith Carter Debunks Lane Kiffin’s Timeline: Players Begging Him To Stay Was ‘Overstatement’
Speaker Mike Johnson from Louisiana and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La) took the brunt of criticism from House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) on Thursday during a press conference to discuss ongoing issues that should take priority over a bill that would protect the NCAA, along with others.
“Why would Mike Johnson and Steve Scalise think it was a good idea to bring the Lane Kiffin Protection Act to the floor of the House of Representatives? Legislation that would do nothing to benefit college athletes and everything to benefit coaches like Lane Kiffin, who got out of town, abandoned his players in the middle of a playoff run to go get a $100 million contract from LSU, the home state of Mike Johnson and Steve Scalise.
“People are asking the question, why did you decide to bring this bill this week with all the other issues that the country is demanding that we focus on. “
People in Johnson’s office told OutKick that they are aware of the statements made, but have no comment on the matter.
According to multiple people connected to the situation in Washington, the Lane Kiffin saga has not helped this week when it comes to public perception.
A number of representatives have received push back, with the new LSU football coach being used as a prop as to why the college athletics business is hard to take seriously when a head coach is bailing on their team during such a pivotal time.
Also, add the comments from Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry last month pertaining to LSU having to pay the massive $54 million buyout for former head coach Brian Kelly, and congressional leaders are not going to get much sympathy from those looking to prevent an organization like the NCAA from having to answer for certain aspects of potential antitrust cases down the road.
During his SEC Championship press conference on Thursday, commissioner Greg Sankey even commented on the ongoing SCORE ACT debate, mentioning he was in Washington on Wednesday.
“There was an opportunity to vote yesterday in the House. It did not happen,” Sankey noted. “We’ll continue in our educational efforts. We’re going to take the time needed to try to address the questions that are being asked by members of Congress. Again, this is on both sides of the aisle.
“The fact that there’s so much interest, I think, is an indication of the serious nature of college sports, the importance to our nation, our culture.”
Yes, this is where we are at right now in college athletics, along with the politics that come with it.
NIL
Penn State reportedly putting huge investment into football program under next head coach Matt Campbell
Penn State has landed on Iowa State’s Matt Campbell as its next head coach, ending a wild 54-day search after firing James Franklin.
In addressing the media following the choice to part with Franklin, athletic director Pat Kraft clearly laid out his idea for the next head coach in Happy Valley.
“We want someone who will attract elite talent, retain players in the NIL era and make Penn State a destination,” Kraft said on Oct. 13. “This is also about the modern era of college football. Our next coach needs to be able to maximize elite-level resources, attack the transfer portal and develop at the highest level.”
Now, we reportedly have some details on what those “elite-level resources” actually are.
Kraft and Penn State are committing about $30 million in NIL money for the football roster and $17 million for Campbell’s coaching staff, according to a report from Matt Fortuna.
That’s on top of an eight-year contract for Campbell that will place him among the top-10 coaching salaries in the country, according to ESPN and Yahoo Sports.
Under Franklin, Penn State had well-compensated rosters, but the model was not what Kraft envisioned.
Franklin preferred not to set the market on high school recruits and did not embrace the transfer portal fully, instead choosing to fill holes here and there.
Campbell will be tasked with flipping that script.
“We have invested at the highest level. With that comes high expectations,” Kraft added in October. “Ultimately, I believe a new leader can help us win a national championship.”
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Updated Dec. 5, 2025, 4:33 p.m. ET
The Georgia Athletic Association is seeking $390,000 from former Georgia football player Damon Wilson after he transferred to Missouri in January, weeks after agreeing to an NIL deal with the Classic City Collective.
The Classic City Collective, which shut down earlier this year, demanded that Wilson pay liquidated damages, based off the language of the contract. Wilson did not respond, according to online records in Superior Court of Athens-Clarke County.
The UGAAA then served a demand for arbitration on Wilson on Aug. 25, and he again did not respond, court records state. UGAAA holds all rights under agreements formerly held by the collective, Wilson was told in a letter sent to him by attorney Spence Johnson, representing UGAAA.
“When the University of Georgia Athletic Association enters binding agreements with student-athletes, we honor our commitments and expect student-athletes to do the same,” Georgia deputy athletic director Steven Drummond said Dec. 5 in a prepared statement given to the Athens Banner-Herald.
The application to compel arbitration was filed in court on Oct. 17. ESPN first reported about the dispute on Dec. 5.
Wilson and the Classic City Collective agreed to a contract worth $500,000, to run from Dec. 1, 2024 to Jan. 31, 2026. Wilson received the first monthly payment of $30,000 on Dec. 25, 2024, court records state.
Wilson was served a summons on Nov. 25 in Missouri and has 30 days to respond.
Wilson, a defensive end, is third in the SEC in sacks with 9 this season for the Tigers. Georgia, meanwhile, is last in the SEC this season with 17 sacks as a team.
Wilson played 26 games for Georgia in 2023 and 2024, registering 3.5 sacks and two caused fumbles. His departure was a blow for a defense that also lost eventual NFL first-rounders Mykel Williams and Jalon Walker after last season.
TCU’s just-passed 8-4 regular season had many in the purple people masses as angry as a tourist who just paid $40 to park, and for many others as disappointed as when Junior brought home an F in civics.
Many have expressed themselves in much the same way of our old friend, the frontier prospector Gabby Johnson of “Blazing Saddles” fame: No sidewindin’, bushwackin’, hornswagglin’ cracker croaker is gonna rouin me bishen cutter!
TCU Athletic Director Mike Buddie gets it.
“I think there were 11 teams in our league this year whose fan bases wanted their coaches fired,” Buddie said on Friday morning at the FIFA World Cup Draw party at Billy Bob’s Texas, the world’s largest honky tonk. “That’s the culture that we live in. You can win [against a] ranked opponent, [next week against] ranked opponent, [a third straight win against a] ranked opponent, and then lose — they want you gone.
“It’s a new day and age.”
Like the mood of Paris in 1793 — cheers in the morning, pitchforks and the guillotine by dusk.
TCU finished in the middle of a congested Big 12 at 5-4. To put some perspective on its season, Texas finished 9-3. Of course, many UT fans think the Longhorns should win every game, too. No. 25 Missouri, like TCU, finished 8-4. So, too, did Tennessee and Iowa, two teams receiving votes in the AP poll. In the end, after 12 regular-season games, only two teams finished undefeated — Ohio State and Indiana. One of those teams will lose this weekend; they play each other.
North Carolina — guided by renowned football genius Bill Belichick — stumbled to 4–8, taking a season-opening black eye from TCU.
Just last year, Ohio State fans wanted coach Ryan Day on the nearest interstate out of town after the Buckeyes took the worst kind of a second loss of the season — to Michigan. That was on Nov. 30. By the end of January, they wanted to elect him governor after winning the national championship.
The Horned Frogs will learn their postseason bowl destination on Sunday.
Dykes has gone 35-17 over four seasons at TCU, including 13-2 and a berth in the College Football Playoff championship game in his first season. That campaign included a victory over No. 2 Michigan in the Fiesta Bowl CFP semifinals.
TCU slipped to 5-7 in 2023 but went 9-4 last year and could do the same in 2025 with one last victory.
“We need to be better,” Buddie said. “We’re committed to getting better. I’m excited because nobody realizes that more than Sonny Dykes.
“He’s committed to addressing some needs that I think we have and more than ever before, what I do and how we strategically fundraise and approach people financially has a direct impact on your football program. I think Texas Tech showed us all that if you can build the most talented roster and develop them, really good things happen.”
Texas Tech, which is playing in the Big 12 Championship Game on Saturday against BYU, spent, according to reports and speculation, as much as $28 million on its football roster this season. The Red Raiders are No. 4 in the most recent CFP rankings.
Spending that kind of money is the result of a completely transformed landscape in college football. Colleges can now spend as much as $20.5 million on payroll for athletes in its various programs. That mostly impacts football and men’s basketball — those sports that generate the most revenue, the “revenue sports.”
Before that, each Division I school had an adjacent collective designed to allow athletes to cash in on their name, image, and likeness. That quickly evolved — devolved? — into merely paying athletes by writing checks out of the collective’s pool. Now completely legal after a U.S. Supreme Court case permitting athletes to receive compensation beyond traditional scholarships. The collectives simply became the mechanism to funnel those payments.
Most, if not all, of the collectives have now been merged with universities’ traditional athletics fundraising arm. NIL endorsement deals are now supposed to be just exactly that — an athlete endorsing a product, for example. I’m not exactly sure how all that sorts out.
“The landscape has changed, but we still have a ton of advantages in facilities and where we’re located and historical success,” said Buddie, who added that TCU also is “thoughtful and strategic in how we employ people.”
“We’re not in the business of paying $50 million buyouts for people to go away. And when you believe you’ve got the right person who’s already proven that he can win in the College Football Playoff, it’s incumbent on me to provide him every resource that he needs to be successful.”
Updated Dec. 5, 2025, 5:27 p.m. ET
- Leaked audio allegedly captures Penn State athletic director Pat Kraft criticizing the program’s recruiting and NIL strategy.
- Kraft is heard taking shots at rival programs like Oregon, Ohio State, and Michigan in the profanity-laced recording.
- The athletic director also questioned the effectiveness of NIL spending under former head coach James Franklin.
Athletics director Pat Kraft ripped Penn State football recruiting and NIL procedures under former coach James Franklin in an alleged team meeting.
“We probably need to (expletive) change the way we recruit. Because Alabama ain’t around (expletive). Oregon? Have you all been to Oregon? Ain’t (expletive) going on, it’s a bunch of (expletive) weirdos,” Kraft can be heard saying in audio that became public.
Kraft’s profanity-laced discussion with players before the regular-season finale at Rutgers was part of a purported audio recording of a team meeting that was leaked this week to the Dead Air Sports podcast. Kraft’s passionate discourse touched on a wide-range of topics — from taking shots at Big Ten opponents and his own program’s recruiting, to interim head coach Terry Smith, how NIL is allocated and the future of the program.
The recording, which features unidentified players speaking, was edited and does not feature the entire meeting, according to Dead Air Sports.
Recording and leaking the meeting without proper consent could be a felony under Pennsylvania’s wiretap laws.
Penn State officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Kraft began his recruiting talk in the meeting by commenting on the 11 players in Penn State’s 2026 recruiting class who eventually flipped to Virginia Tech, where Franklin is now the head coach. The Lions, then, stunningly signed only two high school prospects during Wednesday’s early national signing day.
“All the guys that (were) on visits to Virginia Tech, they’re not even top-500 (ranked) kids that can help us win. You need help,” Kraft said, speaking to the players in the room. “You needed a wide receiver, but we couldn’t get a (expletive) dog to help open things up. Am I wrong? Would you have taken (Ohio State’s) Carnell Tate?
“Those are the things we have to get addressed if we are going to actually win a national championship, which is what we will do here. That’s what Ohio State, Michigan, as it pains me to (expletive) say, and Georgia, Bama and Oregon right now, although I think they’re frauds … think they’re not tough. That’s our edge, is the toughness.”
Kraft also made clear that he did not approve of Penn State’s NIL payment plan to players under Franklin — despite increased university investment.
“This is one of the highest-paid rosters in the country. … This roster that’s on the field right now, probably top four (in the nation). Now, how the money is spent is a different story. … it’s the strategy behind it that matters,” he said.
An unidentified player then described what believes is the NIL issue at Penn State: “The NIL with (Franklin) was kind of more like feed everyone and obviously pay the bigger guy. But I think with Terry (Smith), how he’s straight on with us … he’s going to pay who he needs to pay and not be a players’ coach and just pay everybody.”
Frank Bodani covers Penn State football for the York Daily Record and USA Today Network. Contact him at fbodani@ydr.com and follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @YDRPennState.
