Maryland gives blessing to Kevin Plank-backed The Best Is Ahead Foundation

Maryland athletics is taking the necessary NIL steps to ensure its football program can compete in the Big Ten.

The Terrapins announced last week the formation of The Best is Ahead Foundation (TBIAF). A non-profit foundation, the collective will operate with the goal of providing NIL opportunities in community service for athletes. Another main priority will be to prepare players for their post-college careers.

Serving as the go-to NIL collective for Maryland football, TBIAF has already received the backing from multiple donors. Former Terrapin player and founder of Under Armour Kevin Plank is on the list of chief boosters for the foundation. Addressing financial literacy, wealth management and entrepreneurship will be the educational goals of TBIAF.

“Playing football at Maryland opened so many doors for me beyond the field,” Plank said in a release. “I’m proud to support The Best is Ahead Foundation, not only because it will help players navigate the new world of NIL, but because of its focus on teaching players that there is a great deal more to life than football. Community involvement should be high on their list of priorities.”

The Best Is Ahead Foundation plans to focus specifically on football, and will be led by Maryland businessmen Jeff Leventhal and former NFL player Dan Crowley. Leventhal has worked as a wealth manager for nearly 30 years, while Crowley has spent more than a decade as a senior administrator with Towson athletics.

While the collective will be open to multiple charitable areas, four categories have already been identified: gun violence education, literacy programming, drug and alcohol prevention and mental health awareness.

What this NIL move means for Maryland

Maryland has been slow to build a football-specific NIL collective, something that nearly every Big Ten program has. The Foundation, an Ohio State-centric organization, has signed countless Buckeyes players. And Wisconsin recently re-launched The Varsity Collective — Russell Wilson, JJ Watt, Joe Thomas and Sam Dekker are just a few of the former Wisconsin athletes who have committed to helping the collective.

But with Kevin Plank’s sign-off, Maryland can be a major player in the space. More importantly, the Terrapins opted to announced the move on their social media platforms and posted an announcement on their website. It’s rare for an institution to publicly attach itself to a collective with news.

The initiative also gives head coach Mike Locksley a needed boost. Collectives can play a major role in ensuring recruits and transfer portal prospects that there will be NIL opportunities upon enrollment.

“TBIAF was born out of the desire to accomplish two fundamental goals,” Leventhal said. “The first is to help Maryland football players with NIL opportunities. The second is to help the athletes serve the needs of their community in positive, consequential, and constructive ways.”

TBIAF will go the 501(c)(3) route opposed to registering as an LLC. It is the second collective to join the Maryland NIL market; basketball-centric Turtle NIL was formed in Aug. 2022 to keep Maryland competitive in college basketball. Since then it has started to take donations and has signed multiple men’s basketball players.