Oklahoma's Crimson & Cream NIL collective launches Hawaii trip giveaway honoring Dillon Gabriel

Dillon Gabriel had many doubters entering this season.

The Oklahoma quarterback struggled in his first season with the Sooners. Throughout August, fans and some media called for five-star freshman Jackson Arnold to start. All of that was silenced when the former UCF transfer delivered in the Red River Rivalry, leading the Sooners on a game-winning drive with less than 90 seconds to play.

While he’s not in the Heisman conversation, he delivered the win Oklahoma fans were clamoring for. Gabriel exited last week’s game at BYU with an upper body injury and didn’t return; Sooners head coach Brent Venables expects him to play Friday.

Ahead of what could be his final game at Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium, the Sooner-driven NIL collective Crimson & Cream is launching a membership campaign in honor of No. 8. The collective is giving away a free, all-expense paid trip to Hawaii to honor Gabriel.

The only way to sign up is to become a member of the collective. It’s a smart strategy to grow its membership base while drawing attention to the operation. Other prizes in the sweepstakes include a pair of custom sneakers that Gabriel will wear on Friday.

The deadline to enter the giveaway is Dec. 31. A five-day inclusive trip at the Waikiki Malia, the prize value is over $4,125, plus taxes.

Dillon Gabriel enters the regular season finale with 3,260 passing yards. He touts a 27-5 touchdown to interception ratio, too. The Sooners are 9-2 overall with a 6-2 mark in Big 12 play. They still have a shot to make the conference title game. Oklahoma’s defense has made some improvements, ranking in the top 25 of red zone defense.

Powered by Student-Athlete NIL, it’s another forward-thing move by the Crimson & Cream collective. A roundup program debuted in October, allowing members to round up all of their daily purchases on their credit card, with the dollars going towards the collective and NIL deals for Oklahoma athletes.

The program coincided with the launch of a membership loyalty rewards program. Members of Crimson & Cream are able to access a network of discounts and perks, such as 8.40% cashback at Fanatics and 3.5% cashback at Target.

Oklahoma Sooners prepping for transfer portal

SANIL founder and CEO Jason Belzer shared with On3 in June that the Crimson & Cream collective had more than 1,800 members. That number has since grown to more than 2,000. Over 300 athletes have signed deals with the collective, including more than 90 female athletes. On top of that, 130 athletes are on retainer, including football and men’s basketball players. 

Crimson & Cream were included in the most recent edition of On3’s most ambitious NIL collectives, coming in at No. 17. Last month the collective announced it brokered team-wide deals for the scholarship players on the football, basketball and softball teams with Hal Smith Restaurants. Through the agreements, each athlete received $500 in restaurant credit. 

The collective is starting to prep for the portal, too. When college football’s free agency does open Dec. 4, a wide range of talent is expected to appear in the NCAA’s transfer portal database. Not every entry will try to find a new school immediately. A growing trend across has been players announcing their intention to enter the portal, even if their name will not populate in the system until December. The announcements provide athletes with a bartering chip at their current programs. 

Schools and their fans want to win. They want to stay relevant. And for some to stay on top of the sport, that means dominating the transfer portal by using NIL-related resources.

“The reality is that millions of dollars were raised and deployed to put this roster together,” Belzer previously told On3. “And in order for this team to perform at the level Sooner fans expect in this new age of NIL, we need businesses and fans to step up to help fund this program.”