How NIL-specific A&P Agency has gone from Texas A&M to nationwide

A&P Agency was born from a need to help Texas A&M student-athletes.

Started by Stefan Aguilera and Jacob Piasecki at the advent of college athletics’ new age, the thought was to form a NIL-driven sports marketing agency. Both embedded in the Texas A&M community, they saw a need to assist Aggie athletes who suddenly needed to balance practice, a class schedule and making sure they followed the NIL parameters put into place.

Aguilera created The Aggiezine, a social media account and magazine. When the magazine was at its peak, before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Aguilera was constantly selling advertisement space in the monthly magazine. With a rolodex of clients in the College Station area, creating and maintaining relationships was not new.

Partnering with Piasecki just made sense, too. A business owner, he created the Class Chat app and spent time working in social media marketing and cryptocurrency. An avid NFT fan, Piasecki knew how to create digital collectibles and put them up for sale on the correct marketplaces.

There’s another major player, who Aguilera openly admits has helped open some opportunities for A&P. Houston trial lawyer, former Texas A&M Board of Regent and one-time Houston mayoral candidate Tony Buzbee is a partner. The attorney and his team assist Aguilera and Piasecki in sending out contracts and looking over potential offers.

“He definitely helps us get our foot in the door with his connections with bigger businesses,”

It’s safe to say it’s all come together well, maybe even better than expected.

What initially started as a reliable agency for a few Texas A&M athletes has expanded to a nationwide network. At last count, A&P has more than 50 college athletes signed. And its roster shows not all big-name athletes are running for major-name agencies. A&P represents USC wide receiver Brenden Rice, Notre Dame running back Jadarian Price, along with Texas A&M 12th man Connor Choate, among others.

And the 15-year-old ambidextrous quarterback who went viral earlier this fall? They are currently working with Mikey Gow on his brand and some possible partnerships. Nebraska allows high schoolers to monetize their NIL.

“We just want to strictly focus on NIL,” Aguilera recently told On3. “We just want to be the go-to guys for NIL. We’re not looking to take over the NFL ranks or anything. We kind of help our athletes find — at the end of their college career — we’re basically like the matchmakers for professional agents. We want to build a NIL agency.”

Eye-opening NIL experience

Demond Demas was the first client signed by A&P Agency.

Partnering with Demas was the right move in the moment. A former five-star recruit, A&P started work on a merchandise line, which included a T-shirt on shelves at Aggieland Outfitters. Piasecki, who has worked in the crypto industry, helped build an NFT collection for the wide receiver. It’s still up for sale on OpenSea, an NFT marketplace.

This spring, however, Demas was arrested by police in connection with an assault family violence charge stemming from an incident this week. Shortly later, he entered the Transfer Portal. He opted to step away from college football this season to sort out his off-field affairs.

A&P Agency does not represent the former Texas A&M star, but Aguilera told On3 they will also help out Demas if he needs the help. As two young agents trying to build a brand and navigate their way through NIL, the situation gave way to a learning experience.

“He had like some big deals coming in,” Aguilera said, reflecting on last spring. “It was a roller coaster ride for the first time. We don’t technically represent him, but if he calls us we’re always there for him. We try and help him as much as we can.”

Expanding footprint across country

The A&P Agency has a partnership with Fans Meet Idols, which is a NIL marketplace that allows fans to have direct access to the athletes along with businesses. They’ve also helped deliver major brand deals to their athletes, including work with Walmart, Durex Condoms, Jersey Mike’s, Smoothie King and Gillette.

From experiences in Year 1 of NIL, A&P has learned brokering deals at a local level is going to take more patience and time.

“The bigger brands just get it — they understand how this works,” Aguilera said. “They have experience and work with social media influencers. These local brands take a little bit surprisingly more convincing. They definitely want to see an ROI on their marketing investment.”

The main hope and goal, however, is to keep the athlete’s focus out of NIL. If there’s been a major takeaway in the first year of Name, Image and Likeness, that’s been the biggest one, according to Aguilera.

“They just need some guidance. It’s very hard for an athlete to do this all by themself,” he said. “Like I have 10 years of experience of walking into doors. There’s a big need in this to help these athletes just focus on their sport and academics. They don’t need to be thinking about when their next deal is coming or who is looking over a contract.”

Aguilera and A&P Agency are both very active on social media, specifically Instagram. He views the strategy through a simple lens. If athletes are going to be to build up major followings for NIL endorsement deals, his company needs to have a major presence, too.

They’ve been able to connect with a lot of new athletes because of this. A solid portion of the new additions to the roster has come through direct messages. A&P is now starting to scale back its efforts of adding student-athletes, instead focusing on securing NIL opportunities.

“We ask the athlete what they want, and that’s what we try and deliver on,” Aguilera said.