The Grove Collective raises $1.7M for Ole Miss NIL deals on first day of fundraising campaign

On the first day of The Grove Collective‘s Grove Collection Week, the collective raised raised $1.7 million for NIL deals for Ole Miss athletes, according to executive director Walker Jones.

Monday marked the first day of the fall semester, which coincided with the first day of The Grove Collective’s seven-day NIL fundraising campaign to raise $3 million in cash and pledges.

“It was the first day of school yesterday,” Jones said Tuesday morning. “So we had athletes on campus for the first day. We had coaches running around, making sure their team, their roster and their athletes were getting to the right classes. It was kind of a crazy day but that was the magic. We wanted to do something to kick off the start of school, the first day back.

“But really, logistically, we had to have everybody pulling together and that’s why it was successful.”

Ole Miss’s athletic department website promoted a nearly three-hour livestream on its YouTube channel.

Plus, football coach Lane Kiffin and first-year men’s basketball coach Chris Beard each campaigned on behalf of the collective.

“We’re not going anywhere without our fans and donors,” Kiffin said.

Let's keep it going, Rebs! 🙌@grovecollectnil | #HottyToddy pic.twitter.com/SOgT65DCE4

— Ole Miss Football (@OleMissFB) August 21, 2023

Around 6 p.m. Monday, the collective announced on X it exceeded its $1 million goal for the day with what it called a “major gift” from the camouflage brand Realtree and its TV host Tyler Jordan.

“The pledges, we want those by year-end,” Jones said. “So $3 million, either now or by December, we want to raise this week. We closed the day out right at $1.7 million.”

The Grove Collective plans for 5-10% NIL budget increase

The Grove Collective announced last November it had raised more than $10 million. Jones said the collective’s budget will increase slightly this year.

“I think we’re still in that same neighborhood,” Jones said. “Some of the factors we had to consider were a coaching change in one of our big three sports, men’s basketball. We hired Chris Beard. So, you’ve got to give him resources to rebuild the roster. Also, coming off the national championship, we had a down year in baseball so we had to do some work in baseball.

“Those two things probably pushed the cost up a little bit, but I think we’re still in that same range. We’ve seen some sports stay steady from a cost perspective. Some have a modest increase but nothing shocking. So probably all in all, a five or 10% increase over that original number but pretty much the same neighborhood.”

Men’s basketball deals are “still pretty expensive,” Jones said.

Beard said, “In my opinion, what we do have is enough. It’s enough to be competitive. It’s enough to win championships.”

Jones said the NIL market in college football has mostly settled.

“I probably would say the sport that had the biggest increase has been baseball,” Jones said. “I think baseball was probably the sport where the values were a little bit higher than what I expected.”

Collective, school, foundation: ‘Three-headed monster’

Jones credited the collective’s alignment with the athletic department and the Ole Miss Athletic Foundation.

“It was really a three-headed monster,” he said. “We all got together and knew that we needed, from a collective standpoint, we needed the university’s resources and amplification to really make this thing successful. So really leaning on the university, the athletic department, the athletic foundation, with their resources, their ability to amplify the message on social media, go live on the YouTube channel for the university. We had that live broadcast.

“And then making our coaches and our athletes available. That’s a challenge.”