Tim Tebow company’s partnership part of growing NFT push in NIL space

Campus Legends – a non-fungible token company co-founded by former Florida Gators great and Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow – has formed a partnership with INFLCR that will allow college athletes to create NFTs and make money off NLI, Forbes’ Tim Casey reported.

The report says Campus Legends will be integrated into INFLCR’s global exchange and be included as part of INFLCR’s app. INFLCR says it has more than 100,000 student-athlete users at more than 200 institutions on its platform managing their own Name, Image and Likeness business. Forbes reported the deal was for three years, but financial details were not disclosed. Campus Legends is the first NFT platform featured on INFLCR.

“We created a model that allows student-athletes a path to monetize their NIL through NFTs,” Jim Cavale, INFLCR’s chief executive and founder, told Forbes. “The model is not for the top 1%. Campus Legends is really helping the entire 100% of student-athletes that use INFLCR.”

A non-fungible token, or an NFT, is a digital asset that represents real-world objects like art, music, in-game items and videos. They are bought and sold online, frequently with cryptocurrency.

Although they’ve been around since 2014, NFTs are gaining notice now because they are becoming an increasingly popular way to buy and sell digital artwork. More broadly, NFT sales totaled $25 billion last year. It comes one year after seeing only $95 million in sales in 2020, according to data collector DappRadar.

NFT deals popping up all over the country

The deal with Campus Legends is part of a growing trend in the NIL world where student-athletes can monetize their brand through NFTs. This is done in two ways:

• By creating collectible digital artwork that features the player’s name, image or likeness, much like a baseball card.

• Through a NIL collective selling a limited number of non-player-specific NFTs, then splitting the profits with student-athletes in that market. Deals like this have taken place with the Kansas and Kentucky basketball programs. It’s also been done with a group of Georgia football players after the Bulldogs won the national championship.

More and more student-athletes and companies are gravitating toward using NFTs as a way for student-athletes to make money through the NIL. Just last week, more than 50 of the top athletes in college sports signed NFT deals with The Players’ Lounge.

The Players’ Lounge deal features three players in the top 100 of the On3’s College Football NIL Rankings. The deal includes LSU quarterback Myles Brennan, who is No. 44 on the list; Auburn quarterback TJ Finley, who is No. 75; and Alabama safety Terrion Arnold, No. 95 on the top 100.

The Players’ Lounge deal also includes some of the top players from Alabama, Auburn, Oklahoma, LSU, Texas and North Carolina. It also features a deal with LSU gymnast Sami Durante, an All-American in 2021; Oklahoma gymnast Ragan Smith, an All-Big 12 selection in 2021; LSU star first-baseman Tre’ Morgan; Texas track All-American Tyra Gittens; and Longhorns All-America baseball player Tanner Witt.

NFTs can be big moneymakers through NIL

Deloitte Global projects that NFTs for sports media will generate more than $2 billion in transactions this year. That’s roughly double the figure from last year. By the end of the year, four to five million fans globally will have owned an NFT sports collectible. And NIL experts agree NFTs are going to be big revenue drivers for student-athletes.

“There are new college athlete-focused NFT projects and businesses popping up every week, and there are more on the way,” said Mit Winter, a sports attorney at Kansas City-based Kennyhertz Perry LLC. “And I think this makes a lot of sense. I’ve always viewed NIL and NFTs as a perfect match.

“College sports fans are very passionate about the teams they cheer for. They often want to own something to commemorate a certain player’s career or a special moment for a player or team. NFTs make it easy for fans to own those moments forever, while at the same time supporting their favorite athletes through NIL payments.”

NIL deals with NFTs can pay out after college

What Tebow likes about the NFTs is that they can also benefit student-athletes long after they graduate.

“These college athletes help create so many great memories for fans and work so hard,” Tebow told Saturday Down South after Campus Legends was launched last November. “But sometimes when they leave school, they’re forgotten. To me, Campus Legends is way more than NFT’s and digital collectibles. It’s special to me because we have the chance to use this progress in technology and NIL to support the athletes not only when they’re in school, but afterward as well. Through our primary and secondary marketplace, collections and our community, we’re able to find ways to promote some of these athletes that may have been forgotten but are so special to so many people and so many fans.”