Cincinnati-focused NIL collective Cincy Reigns announces first class

The Cincinnati-focused name, image and likeness collective Cincy Reigns announced Tuesday that it signed its first class of 14 athletes. The class of athletes includes eight women and six men. Each represent a different athletic program.

The female athletes include volleyball middle blocker Abby Walker, basketball guard Jillian Hayes, distance runner Rylee Penn, golfer Brooke Patterson, lacrosse attacker Camryn Callaghan, soccer defender Ashley Barron, swimmer Joleigh Crye and tennis player Elizabeth Pendergast.

The male athletes include right-handed pitcher Griffin Hugus, nose tackle Dontay Corleone, golfer Ty Gingerich, basketball guard Dan Skillings Jr., swimmer Hunter Hubeno and thrower Korbin Spencer.

The collective has a stated goal of supporting athletes from each of Cincinnati’s athletic programs. The athletes will “provide marketing support and make event appearances,” according to a news release.

Cincy Reigns launches ‘Let’s Reign Campaign’

Cincy Reigns also announced the launch of the “Let’s Reign Campaign.” The campaign has established a goal of 7,000 donors who will each donate $350 by July 1, 2023. That’s the date when Cincinnati officially joins the Big 12 Conference.

“The time is now. We are less than four months away from Cincinnati joining the Big 12, and to compete in our new conference we need all of the financial support we can get in order to provide the best NIL opportunities for our Bearcats,” chair of the Cincy Reigns Board of Directors Brian Fox said in a statement. “We are asking for like-minded fans and donors to get involved by participating in our Let’s Reign Campaign as we ‘Build the Kingdom’ and give UC student-athletes best-in-class NIL opportunities.”

Cincy Reigns, which launched last November, operates both a nonprofit corporation and a limited liability company. Many fan bases or third-party entities nationally offer both components within their NIL collective ecosystem.

“I don’t know how we don’t figure in at the top every year, just like we have in the American Athletic Conference, and I think we will,” Fox said previously in an interview prior to the collective’s launch. “Will it take time as we transition? I don’t know that it will.”

Cincy Reigns has a seven-member Board of Directors, as well as an 11-member Board of Advisors. The collective’s Board of Advisors includes Cincinnati alumni, including Chicago Cubs outfielder Ian Happ, Green Bay Packers tight end Josiah Deguara, former Cincinnati outside hitter and Olympian Jordan Thompson and former women’s soccer player Jordan Cotleur.

“For forever we’ve been raising money around the student-athlete, which has been important, but this is a chance to put money in the pockets of student-athletes who certainly deserve it and have deserved it for a long time,” Cincinnati athletic director John Cunningham said in a previous interview.