Group of NIL collectives hold 'productive' discussion with Sen. Lindsey Graham

For nearly two hours on Wednesday morning, NIL collectives sat in a committee room in Washington, D.C., and were called “fan clubs” and “hocus pocus.”

Never invited to testify as witnesses at the House Committee on Small Business legislative hearing, representatives from seven NIL collectives traveled to Capitol Hill on their own dime. They attended the event, however, making it known they want a seat at the proverbial table.

All members of The Collective Association (TCA), a trade association consisting of 21 NIL entities across the Power Five, the group of collectives were able to earn some face time with lawmakers outside of the committee’s hearing.

According to Hunter Baddour, the co-founder of the Tennessee-focused Spyre Sports Group and leader of the trade association, the group had a sit-down meeting with Sen. Lindsey Graham. Described as a “productive meeting,” the Republican of South Carolina was happy to take in the point-of-view of collectives. On3 reported on a draft of a bill from Graham’s office in May.

Baddour said the group also held meetings with staffers from the offices of Rep. Peter Stauber (R-MN.) and Rep. Aaron Bean (R-FL), both members of the House Committee on Small Business who participated in the legislative hearing.

“These were positive,” Baddour said. “There were a lot of things we agreed with him [Graham] on. Our takeaway as a group is we need to be spending more time in D.C. because these elected officials are only hearing one side of the story. Not the side of collectives and what we’re doing for student-athletes because these conversations were so positive.

“The more of those we can have, the more informed elected officials are going to be.”

No current athletes were represented at the hearing either. NIL, now in its third year of existence, needs fixing, according to the NCAA’s narrative pedaled Wednesday. For the last six months, NCAA president Charlie Baker has lobbied elected officials for a federal mandate.

The Collective Association holds similar beliefs to the NCAA on what it would like to see in NIL legislation. Chief among them is an agent registry and standards, which would set some rules for how agents would be forced to operate in the world of college sports and NIL. Most of the frustration around agents in the space doesn’t come from the major agencies focused on marketing or contracts but instead on the representatives that set up shops only to represent college athletes.

In some situations, that is where athletes can be taken advantage of.

The resounding takeaway from the day was still how collectives were left out of the conversation. While representatives questioned just how inept the NCAA is and if legislation is truly necessary, the contingency of collectives had to sit and listen.

As The Battle’s End executive director Ingram Smith told On3, NIL has become the catchall term for anything negative in college sports. On Wednesday, that included inducements in recruiting that are not new in college football.

“I’d also like to point out the the Big League Advance deal at Florida that had little to nothing to do with a collective,” he said. ”Suggesting that the collective tried to capture a kid’s future earning potential is so against what this space is, that was unfortunate.”

For Baddour, being referred to as “fan clubs” was evidence that many in the college sports sphere don’t have an understanding of what NIL collectives do on the day-to-day.

“Comments like that are not only false and irresponsible but they highlight that people still do not have an understanding of what all NIL collectives do,” he said. “Therefore it would have been a positive for an athlete or these collectives, who speak with an athlete on a daily basis, to sit as a witness.”