1Oklahoma lands Drake Stoops for its first major NIL partnership

There are four different NIL collectives jockeying for position in the Oklahoma market. One of them got a big boost on Tuesday thanks to a NIL deal with receiver and fan-favorite Drake Stoops.

1Oklahoma – the nonprofit collective founded by a group of Oklahoma businessmen and Hall of Fame Coach Barry Switzer – announced Tuesday it agreed to a deal with Stoops.

“We’re excited to announce the signing of Drake Stoops to a major NIL deal with 1Oklahoma collective,” the group said on social media. “He will be a huge difference maker, serving our nonprofit partners throughout the state.”

Stoops was originally a walk-on at Oklahoma, but he was awarded a scholarship on the field after the 2021 Sooners’ spring game. He’s racked up 144 yards receiving and one touchdown grab this season for OU.

Drake Stoops’ NIL deal important for 1Oklahoma

When it launched, 1Oklahoma said it hoped to pay football players between $40,000 and $50,000 for NIL partnerships. But the terms of Drake Stoops’ agreement were not revealed.

Yet, it’s a significant deal in the Sooners’ NIL space, because Stoops is the son of legendary OU coach Bob Stoops. Getting the Stoops’ seal of approval will certainly raise some eyebrows. Plus, this is the first meaningful deal 1Oklahoma has executed with a star player.

It definitely signals that 1Oklahoma intends to be active in the NIL space, despite rival collectives Crimson and Cream, Strengthening Oklahoma and even player-led group Norman NIL Club grabbing most of the headlines this football season.

In fact, many NIL observers had written 1Oklahoma off with their lack of announcements and executed deals since originally launching this past winter.

Interestingly, in the deal announcement, 1Oklahoma called itself the “approved collective of the Sooners.” When it launched in mid-October, Crimson and Cream touted that they had “university support.”

“I’d say we have a great relationship with the university,” said Jason Belzer, who operates Student Athlete NIL, the parent company of Crimson and Cream. “We were fully transparent in our process of building the collective. We asked for advice on having the right people involved. Obviously, the university can’t directly be involved. But they were able to point us in the right direction for alumni and other individuals they thought would be good ambassadors for any type of program we wanted to build.”

Strengthening Oklahoma also has strong ties with the OU football program. Strengthening Oklahoma was founded in August 2022 by former Oklahoma football stars Dusty Dvoracek and Gabe Ikard, along with Josh Smith, an offensive lineman on the Sooners’ 2000 national championship team.  The collective launched with NIL deals with 13 Sooner football players.

1Oklahoma has nonprofit focus

The 1Oklahoma Foundation is a nonprofit organization “committed to collaborating with and serving some of the most impactful non-profits throughout the state of Oklahoma through the Name, Image, and Likeness of OU athletes.”

1Oklahoma said its goal is to deliver one of the most comprehensive and impactful NIL offerings in the country and will be a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization.

“The spirit of making a difference aligns with the high standards for student-athletes set forth by the OU athletic programs,” the collective’s website says. “It aligns with the statewide ‘Oklahoma Standard’ initiative of preserving and promoting a culture of citizens making a difference through Acts of Service.”

“We changed the game in 1981 at The University of Oklahoma football by being a pioneer for schools to negotiate their own contracts and generate additional revenue,” Switzer told The Oklahoman when the group launched earlier this year. “We are changing the game again with 1Oklahoma Collective.”

Drake Stoops has solid On3 NIL Valuation

Drake Stoops currently has an On3 NIL Valuation of $95,000. He has more than 34,000 social media followers. He also has an On3 Per Post Value of $465. The On3 NIL Valuation is the industry’s leading index that sets the standard market NIL value for high school and college athletes. The On3 NIL Valuation calculates the optimized NIL opportunity for athletes relative to the overall NIL market and projects out to as long as 12 months into the future.