House of Victory to hold NIL event with USC quarterbacks

The House of Victory collective is tapping into USC‘s rich history of quarterbacks for its latest event.

The NIL collective released plans Friday for a “QB U” fundraiser on June 19 at the Hotel Vea in Newport Beach, California. Dubbed as an “evening of current and past icons” Trojan quarterbacks Carson Palmer, Matt Barkley, Rodney Peete, Paul McDonald, Max Browne and John David Booty will all be in attendance. Current quarterbacks Caleb Williams, Malachi Nelson and Miller Moss will also be on hand.

The collective formally joined the USC NIL market in April as a nonprofit organization servicing all Trojan athletes. Alumni-led and board-operated, the collective has a flavor of BLVD LLC, which was launched in August 2022 as the official USC NIL entity.

Raising NIL dollars has become imperative for football and basketball programs to attract and retain talent in today’s edition of college sports. Even earlier this week, House of Victory announced plans for a meet and greet with at least 12 other USC athletes.

Having buy in from former quarterbacks shows the support House of Victory has built in nearly two months.

“The history of USC quarterbacks is massive and is the centerpiece of USC football,” House of Victory executive director Spencer Harris said in a phone interview Friday. “It’s a long history of very successful college athletes that define what USC football is all about. We wanted to get different generations of USC quarterbacks all together for a really unique event that could help the fundraising for both the current and the future athletes of USC. It’s just all these different generations of talent that represent different eras of success at USC.

“I think it will be a really special night and a great way to bring awareness to House of Victory and awareness for an NIL overall and what that means in today’s college athletics.”

Williams has emerged as the face of college football. The reigning Heisman Trophy winner threw for 4,537 yards this season with a 66.6% completion percentage in 2022. He has become a face of the NIL era, too, inking noteworthy deals with Athletic Brewing Company, Fanatics, AT&T, Beats by Dre and AC+ION Water. 

A former On3 Five-Star Plus+ prospect, Nelson is on track being USC’s next great quarterback. Similar to Williams, he is poised for success in monetizing his publicity rights with more than 160,000 social media followers.

Table to QB U will cost $20,000

House of Victory has taken steps to set itself up for long-term success. The collective secured a sponsorship agreement through USC’s multimedia rights holder, Playfly, prior to its launch. With permission to use the institution’s marks and colors and the ability to have athletes appear in their jerseys publicly, it sends a clear message to USC fans.

Donor-led collectives have popped up across the country, competing to raise the most funds to attract high school recruits and retain athletes looking at the transfer portal. The QB U event will have financial implications, too. House of Victory is charging $20,000 per table and $2,500 for an individual.

“Obviously, that’s a high ticket value,” Harris said. “But to compete in today’s college athletics, it takes a major commitment from USC alumni and a strong NIL program to support the current players. This event represents that. It’s going to be an exclusive event — you won’t have the opportunity to be around this type of current and former players that had this type of history with the school. And so we wanted to put it at a high-ticket price and make it as exclusive as possible.”