Bose announces NIL deal with multiple college football stars

Headphones for Christmas? That’s one part of Bose’s new NIL deal with some huge names in college football.

Bose is partnering with Oregon quarterback Anthony Brown, Cincinnati quarterback Desmond Ridder, Ohio State quarterback CJ Stroud, Michigan defensive end Aidan Hutchinson and Alabama wide receiver Jameson Williams as part of a name, image and likeness deal. The quintet will be able to give their teammates headphones as gifts as part of the agreement.

Headphones for the whole team? That’s exactly what these five athletes will be able to do as part of their new #NIL deal with @Bose! pic.twitter.com/AfahnZ8cSw

— On3 NIL U (@on3nilu) December 20, 2021

“We’re excited to partner with some of college football’s brightest stars as they head into bowl season and the College Football Playoffs,” Bose tweeted Monday. “Welcome to the Bose family Anthony Brown, Desmond Ridder, CJ Stroud, Aidan Hutchinson, and Jameson Williams!”

Two of these players — Stroud and Hutchinson — were in the top four of the Heisman Trophy voting. Hutchinson finished second in the balloting and Stroud was fourth.

Oklahoma coach Brent Venables opens up about NIL usage in recruiting nowadays

Name, image and likeness has been front and center this latest recruiting period. Coaches around the game are talking about its impact — and Oklahoma coach Brent Venables was among them.

Venables opened up about his approach to using NIL in recruiting. It’s been a particularly hot-button issue after Jackson State coach Deion Sanders flipped No. 1 overall recruit Travis Hunter from Florida State to the Tigers amid rumors of NIL deals.

During his National Signing Day press conference on Wednesday, Venables addressed how he thinks NIL should be used in recruiting.

“I’ll be honest, I believe that you need to use it to your advantage in every way that you possibly can within the rules, but that shouldn’t be the focus of your program,” Venables told reporters. “We want to attract players and families that are looking for all of it. The holistic piece. In my experience … when the focus is all on just ball and now just the short-term money, again, everybody has their different situations. Families have their different situations, institutions do. But if that’s where all the focus is, then maybe those values don’t align.

“We want to be able to provide in an advantageous way opportunities for our guys to enhance all those opportunities, all within the rules. So I think we got to do a good job of knowing what [those are] because I think there’s some creativity that you see that’s going [on] across college football. My hope is that we all continue to stay in the front of it from an educational standpoint, the dos and the don’ts and continue to do more about it, and I think the NCAA’s learning more and more about it, too, to be quite honest.”