Georgia women's basketball inks team-wide NIL deal through Classic City Collective

The Classic City Collective continues to deliver NIL deals to a multitude of Georgia sports.

The Bulldog-aligned NIL collective facilitated a team-wide partnership this week between the women’s basketball team and Conditioned Air Systems. The HVAC company based out of Gainesville, Georgia, has been contracted in the past for a handful of university projects.

Now it has struck a deal with the entire Georgia basketball team, thanks to the Classic City Collective brokering the partnership. While the terms of the agreements were not disclosed, the collective shared the news on Twitter. Classic City has placed an emphasis on creating NIL opportunities for every athletic program at Georgia, not just the football team.

Georgia is currently 16-9 on the season with a 5-6 mark in SEC play. Katie Abrahamson-Henderson is in her first season as head coach in Athens after five seasons at UCF.

Spearheaded by former UGA assistant athletics director and compliance officer Matt Hibbs, Classic City has provided opportunities for all of Dawg Nation to “contribute and engage with the athletes they passionately support through a variety of NIL activities, including social media endorsements, in-kind promotional deals, appearances, meet and greets, autographs and digital content.”

It goes well beyond that, too. Classic City partnered early on with DGD Fund and Icon Source to expand opportunities. The DGD Fund provides Georgia fans a unique opportunity to change the game of charitable giving by supporting causes in the local community. Icon Source is a digital marketplace that brings agents, athletes and brands together.

The collective also has an office and studio in Athens, allowing them to create and provide exclusive content with Georgia athletes.

Team-wide NIL deals continue to grow in popularity

Team-wide NIL deals are not new in college athletics or women’s basketball. They’ve continued to pick up in popularity over the the past six months. Level 13 Agency committed $25,000 to each Texas Tech player earlier this past summer.

The South Carolina women’s basketball is also making $25,000 or more in NIL deals this season; that was announced in September. Auburn-focused NIL collective On To Victory signed the entire team this past December but did not disclose details of the deal.

In a growing landscape where cash is king, securing compensation is not a problem. But questions of how much are starting to become true dealbreakers in recruiting. That’s not only reserved for football, either.