Golden Touch partners with WME Sports to support Notre Dame athletes

Golden Touch, a Notre Dame-affiliated collective, is partnering with WME Sports, the leading entertainment agency representing talent across a variety of sectors, in what is billed as a first-of-its-kind collaboration between a university-specific NIL organization and a global agency.

The goal is to advance NIL opportunities for all student-athletes and create innovative new ways to engage with fans, alumni and brands. Launched in 2022, Golden Touch works with student-athletes at Notre Dame as well as St. Mary’s College and Holy Cross College, which together make up South Bend’s tri-campus community.

“We’re thrilled to partner with Golden Touch, and we share their mission of impacting student-athletes at such a critical time,” said Garrett Yaralian, head of WME’s NIL division. “We’ve had great success and learned a lot through in these first years of NIL, and we’re well positioned to help elevate these athletes that are already a part of one of the best brands in college sports.”

Golden Touch CEO Karen Phelps said in a statement that Golden Touch has sought to support student-athletes across all sports. Phelps added that WME Sports has “proven to be a power player in uplifting student-athletes across the board. The knowledge and the relationships WME Sports possess in this space are boundless and we are completely aligned in the ways we approach enhancing the lives of all our student-athletes.  

“There’s quite simply no partnership like this anywhere in the NIL space that can match the resources our total student-athlete population will have available to them.”

WME Sports represents many top college athletes

Since the NIL era began more than two years ago, WME Sports has sought to support athletes with NIL deals, as well as business, marketing, and content strategy. The agency will now advise Golden Touch and its student-athletes and will be an educational resource, conducting regular seminars for students to expand their strengths in personal brand building, media communication, financial literacy and sports marketing.

WME Sports has previously developed strategies and built NIL businesses for a wide swath of athletes, including men’s basketball stars Chet Holmgren (Gonzaga), Gradey Dick (Kansas), Cam Whitmore (Villanova) and DJ Wagner (Kentucky) as well as football standouts Evan Stewart (Texas A&M) and Maason Smith (LSU).

WME’s NIL representation runs the gamut across sports such as gymnastics with LSU’s Oliva Dunne; women’s basketball with North Carolina’s Deja Kelly; track and field (Sam Hurley, Texas); softball (Maya Brady, UCLA); and more. Many of those names are considered some of the highest earners in NIL outside of college football, especially Dunne. She has the second-highest On3 NIL Valuation at $3.2 million, which ranks No. 2 on the On3 NIL 100.