Collectives lead the charge in NIL era

With NIL being referred to as the “Wild West” by multiple NCAA coaches, and all of the uncertainty around it, NIL collectives have been formed on many college campuses. Since schools are not allowed to be directly involved with NIL and athlete compensation, collectives have been established to help student athletes navigate NIL during their time in college.

“Kansas State can’t formally pay athletes yet, that is something that is not quite legal at the NCAA level as of now, so these collectives were formed,” Ryan Henington, managing partner of Wildcat NIL, said. “As this whole thing has transitioned, you saw the formation of collectives which were groups of school-specific supporters, alum, and donors who got together and pulled together funds in order to create a substantial amount of resources for athletes.”

When student-athletes partner with Wildcat NIL, they are opening up doors which lead to many business opportunities.

“It has been good for the businesses but also good for the community,” Henington said. “Whether it is meet-and-greets or commercials for certain businesses, there are a lot of opportunities for our student-athletes.”

NIL deals not only help student-athletes — they also benefit the businesses that partner with Wildcat NIL.
“We have engaged with hundreds of businesses in Manhattan and within Kansas as a whole,” Henington said. “These businesses are seeing that influencer marketing is one of the hottest marketing strategies out there, but as far as the return on investment and the engagement rates they’re seeing it has been really good.”

As the landscape of college athletics evolves, Wildcat NIL works to ensure K-State can compete with other schools when it comes to NIL resources.

“We have been making a conscious effort to grow our following on social media and we also have been reaching out to local businesses to get word of mouth out there,” Jace Friesen, director of strategic operations at Wildcat NIL, said.

With student-athletes being able to earn money, there has been more talk about financial responsibility, as they are dealing with more money than before. Wildcat NIL isn’t just setting up business deals for athletes — it is teaching them critical lessons when dealing with large amounts of money.

“This teaches them about finances at a whole new level, since NIL money is giving them a potential head-start in life,”  Henington said. “We pride ourselves on teaching student-athletes how to be fiscally responsible, and equipping our student-athletes with the resources to learn.”

Although football and men’s basketball players — the sports most associated with NIL — tend to make more, Wildcat NIL is working to ensure student-athletes of all collegiate sports can benefit.

“We have athletes in pretty much every single sport on contract here at Wildcat NIL, and that is a goal we have been striving towards for some time,” Friesen said. “We want all of our athletes to be benefitting from NIL.”

In the era of NIL, things are constantly changing, and nobody is quite sure what the future of college athletics may look like.

“To the direction of where things go from here, I am not sure anyone knows,” Friesen said. “It is an ever-changing space and that is one of the pros to it, but I think at some point in the future there will be some new rules and regulations established.”

In the Wild West era of college athletics, Wildcat NIL is at the forefront when it comes to handling the legality and compliance side of NIL.