Mass St. Collective raises NIL funds for Kansas with Ladies Night Out

Mass St. Collective is hosting a Ladies Night Out with the Kansas football program to raise funds for the NIL collective. The event will cater to women who are 21 and older. It will be held from 5-9 p.m. Thursday at the Anderson Family Football Complex, where attendees will have the opportunity to go through drills and learn more about the Jayhawks’ football program.

“It’s fun and it’s certainly something that the players get excited about doing, too,” Mass St. Collective President and COO Dan Beckler said in a phone interview.

He later continued, “It’ll be fun to have some of the coaches’ wives involved in it as well. Just making it a fun event overall is the first purpose of it. Then when the guys hear that, they get excited about it, and makes it a lot easier for them to help promote and just spread the word.”

Mass St. Collective made general admission tickets available for $100. Attendees will receive a t-shirt, food and beverages. Beckler said the event is currently “packed out,” with the number of attendees in the low three figures. He said the goal was to create a laid-back atmosphere the attendees receive individual attention from Kansas players, coaches and coaches’ wives rather than making the event as big as possible.

College football programs, and now NIL collectives, cater some programming to women. Earlier this month, Ole Miss invited The Grove Collective to attend the Ole Miss Ladies Forum, where fans could spend time with players, coaches and staff members.

“This women’s-only clinic is designed for any fan who is interested in taking a look behind the scenes of the KU football program and an up-close opportunity to interact with the KU Football team,” according to Mass St. Collective’s website.

Kansas enters third season in Lance Leipold’s tenure

In coach Lance Leipold‘s second season, the Jayhawks went 6-6 in the regular season and they qualified for the Liberty Bowl. The 2022 season marked the program’s most wins and its first bowl appearance since the 2008 season when Kansas went 8-5 and played in the Insight Bowl. The Jayhawks also cracked the AP Top 25 poll last season, reaching No. 19 for two weeks in October after starting 5-0.

“There’s complete buy-in from the top down, which is what you need to have a successful program,” Beckler said of the alignment at Kansas. “This isn’t, you know, us versus them and try and do stuff that’s not in alignment. At the end of the day, the university and the athletics department and then this collective, we have the student-athlete’s best interest in mind so that’s kind of where the vision and alignment always come together, and doing an event like Ladies Night Out is something fun.

“It’s a great way to get another segment in the doors at Kansas football. It just shows that KU football has an open-door policy when it comes to doing stuff like this. We’re gonna have a little fun along the way and keep spreading the message and hopefully these ladies will learn some stuff and get to know some of these young men and that way when they’re watching them on the field, whether they’re in the stands or at home, they can say, ‘Oh, I know this guy individually. (I) met him,’ and it just helps that relationship standpoint and really peel back the layers of what can be a big-time college football program.”

Mass St. Collective utilizes players’ social media followings

More than 30 Kansas football players promoted the event on Twitter in May. Mass St. Collective has leveraged its social media followings. The players also list the collective in their Twitter bio.

The players include skill position players such as quarterback Jason Bean, running backs Dylan McDuffie and Sevion Morrison, and wide receivers Craig Young, Trevor Wilson and Surahz Buncom. Tight ends Mason Fairchild, Rich Miller, Jaden Hamm and Jared Casey, and offensive linemen Logan Brown, Michael Ford Jr., Joey Baker, Spencer Lovell, Nolan Gorczyca and Mike Novitsky also promoted the event.

The defensive players who promoted Ladies Night Out include cornerback Damarius McGhee, safeties Marvin Grant Jr., Andrew Russell, Kaleb Purdy, linebackers Taiwan Berryhill Jr., Dylan Downing and Donovan Gaines, EDGEs Austin Booker, Dean Miller, Caleb Taylor, Tony Terry Jr., Patrick Joyner Jr. and Jerome Robinson, and defensive lineman Ronald McGee, Kenean Caldwell and Deldrick Withers.

The team’s specialists were involved, too. Long snapper Luke Hosford, punter Reis Vernon and kicker Tabor Allen promoted the event as well.

In May, Mass St. Collective promoted the event as a potential Mother’s Day gift.

More recently, the Twitter account for the collective posted, “This program has so much momentum right now that you won’t want to miss out on hearing some secrets to success & get real football coaching from players & staff members in drills!”