The Business of College Sports

Thomas Thomas Jr. is the co-founder and CEO of Basepath, whose software is used by student athletes, collectives, and universities to automate name, image, and likeness operations. 

Thomas joins the show to discuss: 

• How Basepath started, the work they currently do, and how they work with collectives 
• The first steps they take when onboarding a collective and its athletes 
• The ways they help partner with universities to b...

In this episode, I’m joined by Ksenia Maiorova and Amy Maldonado. Ksenia and Amy are very accomplished immigration attorneys who work with international athletes seeking to take advantage of NIL. They've been able to secure O-1 visas for several athletes and are sharing with us both their successes and the challenges.

Topics we covered include:

• The limitations on a student visa and how it complicates an international student...

This episode, I am joined again by Wesley Haynes, President and Founder of The Brandr Group. If you missed the first episode from last year, it's available here.

The Brandr Group remains one of the leaders of the group licensing sector of NIL, with more than 70 schools signed to group rights partnerships. 

In this ever-changing NIL scene, Wesley gives updates on: 

• The Brandr Group’s growing list of partner...

This episode, I'm joined by Jordan Acker, the Immediate Past Chair of the Board of Regents at the University of Michigan and a partner at Goodman Acker in Detroit.

A lifelong sports fan, Jordan was an early advocate of allowing student athletes to monetize their name, image and likeness. We chatted about the role of the Board of Regents relative to athletics issues and opportunities and where he seems college athletic...

I'm joined this episode by Chris Giles, co-founder and CEO of FanRally, a platform that replaces traditional season tickets with a tech-enabled subscription service.  

Members pay a monthly subscription fee instead of paying for tickets and can reserve seats directly on their phones, finding games that work best for their schedules.

FanRally is aimed at modern consumers, including younger fans, who are comfortable with...

We're joined this episode by Marty Ludwig, Director of Trademarks and Licensing at University of Cincinnati, where he is responsible for managing all internal and external relationships regarding the commercial use of the university’s brand (including its name, identifying marks, and still and moving images) to protect and promote the goodwill and reputation of the university, ensure the university receives appropriate value, ...

This episode I'm joined by industry veteran Steve Hank, currently an Executive Vice President at Affinaquest, to talk about how athletic departments can leverage the data they already have to increase fan engagement and revenue for the department. 

We discuss:

• The main revenue struggles he sees over and over again in college athletics
• How pro teams have done a better job creating a personal connection with fans
• Overc...

On Friday, September 9th, I was joined on campus at the University of Florida by NCAA President Mark Emmert. 

Special thanks to the UF Institute for Coaching Excellence for hosting this, which was an interview for both of the NIL courses I teach at UF in the Sports Management and PR departments. Students and athletes alike were invited, and I appeared in my capacity as a professor. Although this was not a media interview, ...

I'm joined this episode by Rob Seiger, a partner in Archer & Greiner P.C.’s Sports Law Group, who has joined us once before to talk about issues international student athletes have been trying to navigate in order to take advantage of the NCAA's new name, image and likeness rules.   

Rob represents college and university athletic departments in immigration and related compliance issues for their foreign athle...

Former UGA quarterback Aaron Murray joins the podcast to chat about his new venture, The Players' Lounge. This NFT community was built by lettermen to empower relationships within the collegiate sports community through connecting current and former athletes with their respective fan bases while providing opportunities for student-athletes to monetize their individual brands.

Aaron joined the podcast back in January t...

In this episode, I'm joined by Gary Veron, Associate Athletic Director for Student-Athlete Experience at BYU. 

BYU has been very proactive in its approach to name, image and likeness, so I invited Gary on to discuss what's going on in Provo. We dive into:

• How Gary's position morphed from compliance to an NIL focus
• Why BYU took a more proactive approach toward NIL right off the bat
• The overwhelming response ...

In this episode, I'm joined by Eddie Rojas, the founder of the Gator Collective. Eddie was a former baseball player at the University of Florida and was one of the first to start an NIL collective to support student athletes in their name, image and likeness endeavors.

The Gator Collective's success is marked by it's more than 2,000 members and $500,000 in annualized revenue, in addition to numerous one-time...

There is so much creativity and innovation happening in the NIL space right now, and Oklahoma State's The Brand Squad is a terrific example. 

If you aren't on a campus, you might not realize the level of interest non-athlete students have in being part of NIL. I've heard from law students, accounting students, PR students and all sorts of other students on campus who are trying to help their student athlete ...

I'm joined this week by Porter Grieve, CEO of Mercury, a white-label NFT platform that focuses on helping universities and sports teams to create one-of-a-kind digital fan experiences.

Mercury recently partnered with Kansas Athletics (read my piece on the deal) to create a new NFT platform. What I thought made this deal really interesting was how it was being combined with an NIL deal for the Kansas men’s basketball t...

This week, I'm joined by Jason Belzer, CEO and co-founder of Student Athlete NIL, and Kimberly Beaudin, President and CEO of the College Football Hall of Fame, to talk about the inaugural NIL Summit being held June 13-15, 2022 in Atlanta at the HOF. 

The NIL Summit is an immersive multi-day professional development experience and gathering place for college sports’ most important stakeholder to share cutting-edge idea...

For this episode, I'm joined by David Kaplan of The Hockey Guys,  a group of 10 NCAA hockey players who got their start on TikTok. The Hockey Guys have grown their reach to over 1.4 million followers and subscribers across multiple social media platforms.

I recently had David, along with two other members of The Hockey Guys, on my Game Face podcast, and we touched on a few things that warranted a deeper dive. In this ...

Former UGA football players Ty Frix, Keith Marshall and Aaron Murray, along with Ty’s brother Trent Frix, recently created The Players’ Lounge, a digital collaborative space for college fanbases, with the University of Georgia as its initial focus. 

In addition to using a Discord channel to connect fans, the group will launch an NFT collection called DGD Mafia on Sunday, January 9 to benefit current UGA football players.

Th...

This episode, I'm joined by Wesley Haynes, President and Founder of The Brandr Group. His company has been on the leading edge when it comes to group licensing in the NIL era, signing nearly 20 schools to deals that allow their student athletes access to group licensing opportunities.

The Brandr Group currently has agreements with the following schools: UNC, Ohio State, Texas, Alabama, App State, Indiana, Michigan Sta...

In this episode, I'm joined by Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Commissioner Dr. Dennis E. Thomas to chat about the MEAC's new partnership with Syracuse University and how his conference is approaching name, image and likeness for its student athletes.

Dr. Thomas is the third full-time commissioner of the conference and entered his 20th year this summer. He's retiring in December, but he's made some big ...