Grambling State athletes get NIL deals to appear in Times Square ad

Every Grambling State athlete will have the opportunity to individually appear in an ad in Times Square to promote HBCU League Pass+ through an NIL deal. HBCU League Pass+ is a live, on-demand sports network that’s focused on historically Black colleges and universities.

More than 300 Grambling State athletes will have the opportunity to participate in the NIL deal, while wearing official Grambling State apparel. The digital billboard will be located at 1540 Broadway in New York City and every participating athlete will be featured at least once for 15 seconds.

The ads debut in early September.

Grambling State, HBCU League Pass+, the NIL platform ATHLYT and Blip Billboards helped facilitate the school-wide NIL deals, according to a press release.

“President [Rick] Gallot and I believe strongly in supporting our student-athletes, on and off the field,” Grambling State Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics Dr. Trayvean Scott said in the release. “This NIL opportunity is uniquely aligned with our school’s official motto: ‘Where Everybody is Somebody.'”

Grambling State is the latest school whose athletes received offers for school-wide NIL deals. Recently, the Drew Brees-backed Boilermaker Alliance, an NIL collective that supports Purdue athletes, announced it’s offering NIL opportunities to all 385 scholarship athletes.

Grambling State allows athletes to use school marks

Grambling State athletes’ official school photos will be featured in the Times Square ad.

“We didn’t ask for anything special, we just worked with HBCU League Pass+ and ATHLYT to make sure the images were used correctly,” Scott said in the release. “Our number one goal was to help provide our students opportunities they wouldn’t otherwise have. That’s one of the many reasons we enjoy working with the team at ATHLYT.”

Athletes typically need permission to use school marks, which refers to intellectual property such as a logo, in NIL activities.

“Equity is a word used in the diversity and inclusion landscape, identifying ways that we can strive to provide a more even playing field for those who have been disenfranchised,” ATHLYT co-founder and Chief Brand Officer Ray Austin said in the release. “Bringing NIL opportunities to historically black colleges and universities is a great first step in rewriting the narrative that you have to make it to the ‘big leagues’ in order to be successful.”

Grambling State is also one of the few schools whose football program competes at the FCS level whose athletes are supported by an NIL collective. A collective is a catch-all term for an organization that’s independent of a school whose athletes it supports through NIL opportunities by pooling funds or helping to facilitate NIL deals.

The Icon 1901 Collective, whose founders include Grambling State alumni and former athletes, launched in April. The organization’s website says it wants to help all HBCU students.