Oklahoma NIL collective Crimson and Cream launches donation campaign

Oklahoma is doing everything it can to capitalize on the Red River Rivalry.

The Sooner-driven NIL collective Crimson and Cream started to make preparations towards the end of Saturday’s game. On Thursday afternoon, the NIL entity operated by Student Athlete NIL officially launched a donor campaign.

With more than 90 Oklahoma football players under contract, each athlete will be promoting the campaign on their social media accounts in the coming days. Links will send Sooner fans directly to a page where they can join the collective and donate.

While it’s barely mid-October, the collective is starting to take steps for next year and keep the team together. Being in a strong position financially before the transfer portal opens for business in December is crucial.

“It’s almost like a flash sale, taking advantage of the big win,” SANIL founder Jason Belzar told On3 on Thursday. “But I think it does lead to the necessity or having the nimbleness to be able to do this. And that’s the value of the institutions that we work with. We can put a full graphic design team behind a fundraiser.”

Sitting at 6-0 and in their bye week, the Sooners are well positioned for a run at the Big 12 title game and a College Football Playoff berth. Oklahoma jumped seven spots to No. 5 in the AP poll after beating Texas, reentering the top 10 for the first time since mid-September of last year.

Dillon Gabriel has thrived, throwing 1,878 yards for 16 touchdowns and only two interceptions. Oklahoma’s defense has made some improvements, ranking in the top 50 in the country in total defense. More important, they rank in the top 10 of red zone defense.

Crimson and Cream’s initial fundraising campaign resulted in $1.6 million in annual donations. By January, the collective had signed or offered an NIL deal to the entire 115-member Sooner football roster.

Belzar shared with On3 in June the 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 and Cream was 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 will receive $500 in restaurant credit. 

Oklahoma Sooners prepping for transfer portal

Now is the time to raise dollars, though. When the portal does open, 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,” Belzar said. “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.”