YOKE, Ohio State players launch Columbus NIL Club

The expansion of YOKE’s player-driven collectives continues. Ohio State players have announced the formation of the Columbus NIL Club, joining a list of more than 30 other collectives to launch at FBS programs.

The Columbus NIL Club (CNC) plans to hit a $50,000 monthly goal through donations, similar to most of YOKE’s collectives. Hitting that number has been a major lift for many fanbases. When fans make a contribution to the CNC fund, they will receive access to online to meet-and-greets with the team, members-only tailgates and an online community where they can interact with players. Merchandise will soon be on sale, too. Donors are allowed to sign up to donate on a monthly basis.

Buckeyes Taron Vincent, Mitch Rossi, Zach Harrison and Teradja Mitchell all have promoted the new collective on their social media platforms. Players are not required to join and the cash is spread evenly to all who choose to participate.

Not all the cash will go directly to Ohio State players, though. YOKE’s platform fee was 25% when the organization launched the East Lansing Club in June. Since then, the fee has decreased to 18% as the company’s scale has grown.

“We’d love to get into the single digits eventually but a lot more people have to be using our technology for that to be the case, but I think that’s really possible,” YOKE CEO Mick Assaf told On3.

There have been ups and downs for YOKE organizations across the country. Michigan’s Ann Arbor Club has raised well over $25,000 since its launch last week. Others have struggled. The Baton Rouge NIL Club just has raised just over $3,000 of its monthly goal of $15,000. It launched in July.

And the Tucson NIL Club misspelled the city in its URL, leading Arizona State fans to buy the domain.

How YOKE operates Columbus NIL Club

Former Notre Dame football players Mick Assaf and Nic Weishar are two of the three co-founders of YOKE. It’s a platform that provides business tools and technology, which allows athletes to launch paywalled communities. Assaf, the 24-year-old CEO of YOKE, walked on as a running back at Notre Dame. He roomed with New Orleans Saints quarterback Ian Book in college.

YOKE has immediate plans to expand beyond Power 5 football programs. Assaf believes the technology can be used by athletes who compete at any level or sport.

“I think that it should absolutely service FCS programs. I can tell you a non-football team will not be too far off,” Assaf said in late July. “Had a ton of people reach out trying to make that happen and it’ll probably be less than a month before you see both of those. Hopefully, by the end of the year, you will have more non-FBS football clubs than just FBS football clubs.”

When YOKE launched, its collectives were selling access passes. Those have been phased out with the recent launches. The company provides the infrastructure for each collective and sets up the websites.

Crowded Columbus collective market

While the Columbus NIL Club provides a pathway for all Ohio State players to receive some NIL cash, it is also very late to the scene. Between the Cohesion Foundation and The Foundation, two established organizations are already making sure the Buckeyes are taken care of.

The Foundation was founded by Brian Schottenstein and legendary Ohio State quarterback Cardale Jones. The organization held its season kickoff fundraiser this week. With over 300 in attendance and a going rate of $10,000 for a table, the collective is awash in cash. More than $100,000 was raised through the live auction, too. This is the same collective that helped broker a deal that saw American Eagle, DSW and Value City Furniture dish out $550,000 to four players.

Cohesion Foundation, the other collective in the market, has the backing of Ohio State greats Jack Nicklaus and Archie Griffin. It’s an official sponsor of Ohio State through an agreement with LEARFIELD’s Ohio State Sports Properties. And the foundation has also partnered with Booster Athletes, a crowdsourcing app where fans can support athletes through subscriptions to exclusive content.

The Columbus NIL Club has a chance because of how passionate the Ohio State fanbase is. But three collectives do not leave much breathing room.