Five Tennessee football players to provide behind-the-scenes NIL content

Five Tennessee football players will provide weekly, documentary-style content this season in a program called Vol Access through an NIL-related partnership between the collective The Volunteer Club and the payment platform Honorarium.

Tennessee wide receiver Dont’e Thornton Jr., running back Jabari Small, defensive tackle Omari Thomas, defensive lineman Caleb Herring and linebacker Elijah Herring will participate in Vol Access. The Herrings are brothers. Elijah Herring is a sophomore and Caleb Herring is a freshman. Small and Thomas are roommates.

The episodes will be five to seven minutes long. The players will have “complete creative control,” according to a press release. The episodes will be available through the Honorarium app.

“We are thrilled to work with this established and pioneering program, showcasing the remarkable potential of our platform,” Honorarium CEO Dan Dykens said in a statement. “This potential reaches far beyond athletes’ financial gains and extends to their personal capacity to cultivate a robust digital brand.”

The series is available for $9.99 per month. According to the release, every Tennessee athlete who’s “utilizing” the app will share the revenue generated by Vol Access.

Another example of mandated NIL revenue sharing includes the Web3 fan engagement platform CougsRise.com that BYU announced with the developer Ocavu last fall. The parties announced a percentage of each athlete’s NFT sales would go to a team pool to be distributed among the players on a roster.

The sports marketing agency Spyre Sports Group runs The Volunteer Club.

“Pairing some of the most interesting athlete storylines with Honorarium in this way allows us to increase the media presence we’re trying to build via Spyre and Aspyre in stride with The Volunteer Club,” Volunteer Club co-founder James Clawson said in a statement. “These student-athletes will entertain and showcase the very best of Tennessee.”

NIL profiles for five Tennessee football players

Several of the players who will participate in Vol Access are new to Tennessee but are expected to make a big impact this season in Knoxville.

Thornton transferred from Oregon in the offseason. The 6-5, 214-pound wide receiver played in 11 regular-season games for the Ducks last season, including three starts. He logged 17 receptions for 366 yards and a touchdown. Thornton caught four passes for 151 yards against Utah, which bested his previous career-high in receiving yards of 90. As a recruit, Thornton ranked No. 71 nationally in the 2021 recruiting class, according to the On3 Industry Ranking. Thornton’s On3 NIL Valuation is $518,000. That ranks No. 68 among current college football players and it ranks No. 99 in the On3 NIL 100.

Caleb Herring ranked No. 90 nationally in the 2023 recruiting class, according to the On3 Industry Ranking. He has an On3 NIL Valuation of $144,000.

Additionally, Small is a Doak Walker Award preseason candidate. Last season, he rushed for 734 yards and 13 touchdowns. Thomas had 27 total tackles, including two sacks in 2022. Elijah Herring had 11 total tackles and two sacks.

Small’s On3 NIL Valuation is $143,000, while Thomas and Herring each have an On3 NIL Valuation of $133,000.

The On3 NIL Valuation utilizes a proprietary algorithm to calculate a high school or college athlete’s projected annual value in the NIL landscape. It incorporates a Brand Value Index and Roster Value Index.

The former factors in the role of regional and national sponsorships, while the latter incorporates NIL collectives nationally. The On3 NIL Valuation doesn’t act as a tracker of the value of NIL deals an athlete has signed to date.