NCAA Student Athletes Using NIL and Personal-Branding to Their Advantage

In the time since NIL became available to athletes in July 2021, many student-athletes began to position themselves to best take advantage of the new opportunity.

Some began their own brands, some immediately made their intentions clear, some could finally watch dreams they had been working on come into fruition.

These aren’t always the star athletes or the folks who hit the headlines with 6 figure deals. The athletes we are highlighting are ones who saw the opportunity and jumped on it, knowing the needed to build their brands in a clear way to secure NIL deals.

Indiana Basketball: Miller Kopp

Miller Kopp also created a Twitter thread on July 1, being completely transparent with his goals for the new NIL world. He explained to take advantage of the NIL opportunities, he would release videos, behind-the-scenes, interviews, and other creative content for fans and followers.

He made four strong points in his Twitter thread:

1. Be Authentic
   Authenticity creates the right kind of opportunity. I am looking to give my audience a clear look into my life as a college athlete.
2. Tell my story
   Athletes have hundreds and thousands of stories, I intend to share those stories with my audience in the most genuine way possible.
   I want to connect with the thousands of kids with the dream to play college basketball and help them achieve their dream.
3. Engage
   I want to engage with my audience, from Indiana University basketball fans, to my hometown family and friends, and basketball lovers all over.
4. Align
   I want to align myself with brands, people, and businesses who respect my brand, my worth and my future as well.

And so far, Kopp has done an incredible job in fulfilling his promise to create engaging content and give a “clear look” into his life. His Youtube channel continues to grow as he releases entertaining vlogs. In the second episode, he even showed off some magic tricks:

University of Texas Softball: Lauren Burke

Lauren Burke shared her thoughts on NIL on July 1. She began her thread with a reminder to keep your head in the game and keep the first things first: “SO IMPORTANT to prioritize taking care of business in the classroom and on the field.”

I never want my social media pages to become a walking advertisement. Remain authentic!!

— Lauren Burke (@lauren_burke5) July 1, 2021

She completed her list with another crucial note: “Read the fine print… and remember TAXES!!”

Marshall University Football: Will Ulmer

Will Ulmer used NIL to pursue a passion of his off the gridiron: music. He can now play shows (and make money off of those) using his name. Ulmer had previously used the stage name “Lucky Bill” do to the NCAA’s limits on using his name, image, and likeness.

He shared a tweet announcing his venture on July 1 and has his Soundcloud linked in his Twitter account.

Now that the NCAA will allow it, I will be playing live shows this year as Will Ulmer!! I am open to all venues and business opportunities!! DM if interested, let’s make some music🎶 pic.twitter.com/iniLdoz2ye

— Will Ulmer 𓅓 (@UlmerWill) July 1, 2021

University of Oklahoma Football: Spencer Rattler

On June 30, Spencer Rattler shared his thoughts on NIL in anticipation of the NCAA legislation. He gave advice to fellow student athletes using NIL to their best abilities: Focus on the field and use your platform for good.

He emphasized the importance of staying focused in the classroom and on the field. The post was signed with his personal logo, a trademark he now sells on merchandise.

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A post shared by Spencer Rattler (@spencer_rattler)

University of Tennessee Football: Grant Frerking

Of course, when mentioning NIL and entrepreneur successes, we can’t ignore NIL U’s very own, Grant Frerking. At just 15 years old, Frerking created MetroStraw, which is now a multimillion-dollar company.

Now, at Tennessee, Frerking and his teammates can encourage each others’ success through new NIL legislation as his fellow Volunteers are backing MetroStraw in sponsored posts. That’s right: Frerking and his company are sponsoring posts from his own teammates. Talk about a win-win.

So far, Metro Straw has sponsored posts from Tyler Baron, Brian Maurer, and Velus Jones Jr.

These individuals are just a peek into the ways we see student athletes using NIL to grow themselves.