Ken Seals signs ground-breaking NIL deal with company

Vanderbilt quarterback Ken Seals has signed a new NIL deal as the first college athlete representing cryptocurrency company FTX. Seals joins NFL quarterbacks Trevor Lawrence and Tom Brady on the company’s new partnership list.

Ken Seals’ NIL deal

New announcements continue to come out every week regarding NIL deals signed by college athletes across the nation. The new NCAA rules regarding the use of name, image and likeness opened the doors for many players to make very lucrative deals.

Ken Seals of Vanderbilt has now joined the ranks of NIL deal recipients with his ground-breaking partnership with cryptocurrency company FTX. FTX has already signed several high-profile professional athletes to their brand, including NFL quarterbacks Trevor Lawrence and Tom Brady.

FTX announced on Tuesday that Seals would be the first college athlete joining their team, along with NBA star Stephen Curry.

Seals’ new deal comes just a month after he signed another NIL deal with the goal of being more accessible to Vanderbilt fans. Seals signed a deal with VandySports.com that will have him appear weekly on the VandySports.com podcast. Another aspect of that deal could see Seals-specific content and potentially some on-site shows at restaurants around the city to allow fans a chance to interact with the quarterback.

Seals’ breakout freshman season

Despite the disappointing winless record Vanderbilt recorded in their 2020 season, Seals was a bright spot in his debut as a true freshman quarterback. Seals tallied up 214.2 passing yards per game and a passer rating of 127.6 in the Commodores nine losses.

Seals set a new Vanderbilt freshman passing record of 1,928 yards and a 64.6% completion percentage. Vanderbilt head coach Clark Lea named Seals the starter again for this season ahead of their first week of action, cementing him as the face of this Commodores team.

Even with his success off the field, Seals is focused on correcting what went wrong for him in 2020.

“I think one of the things that I struggled with last year is the lights were a little bit too big for me sometimes,” Seals said after being named starter, via the Tennessean. “I think my eyes would get caught up in the stands or lost in the moment a little bit. And so all offseason and leading up to these first couple games, my attitude has been, ‘Just focus on the game, don’t worry about any of the extra stuff.”