Tennessee's Bru McCoy signs NIL deal with Volunteer Legacy

Tennessee wide receiver Bru McCoy is making sure to assist the Knoxville community during his time in college.

McCoy is working with Volunteer Legacy, the nonprofit arm of Spyre Sports Group. The sports marketing agency has established The Volunteer Club as one of the top NIL collectives in the nation.

Now, it is ramping up its work in the charitable side of the NIL landscape. McCoy marks one of the first athletes to publicly work with Volunteer Legacy. As part of his agreement with the registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, the receiver is partnering the Second Harvest Food Bank of East Tennesse. Spyre confirmed the news to On3. He could work with other charities, too.

Last month, Tennessee athletes were invited to a networking event at the Lauricella Center in Neyland Stadium with more than 20 charities. The hope was to create meaningful NIL opportunities between the Vol athletes and their charitable partners. Volunteer Legacy is trying to increase the number of charities involved.

McCoy found his charity partner in Second Harvest Food Bank. The food pantry is a member of Feed America. With more than 200,000 East Tennesseans at-risk of hunger, Second Harvest is working to change that statistic.

McCoy has the platform to draw attention to the charity through his social media platforms. He will be compensated for his work through Volunteer Legacy.

“We want to empower our athletes to do meaningful work that is near and dear to them and that starts with a deliberate and purposeful relationship with charitable organizations of their choosing,” Spyre’s director of fundraising Brandon Spurlock told On3.

Spyre co-founders Hunter Baddour and James Clawson have been working on the concept of Volunteer Legacy for months. They’ve also assembled a board, which includes former Tennessee quarterback Josh Dobbs and receiver Grant Frerking. Frerking is now On3’s Director of On3 Athlete Network Development. Chris Kinney, who has a background in investment banking and private equity, sits as the board’s president.

Frerking is now the director of the On3 Athlete Network Development.

Similar to other collectives across the country, creating nonprofits allows for donors to make tax-deductible donations. It’s also another avenue to create NIL opportunities. Volunteer Legacy is currently accepting one-time donations on its website.

Bru McCoy’s growing NIL opportunities

The former On3 Consensus five-star recruit did not have an easy start to his college career. Seventeen days into his early enrollment at USC, he left Los Angeles and transferred to Texas. But that stay was also short-lived. McCoy was back with the Trojans in June after going through spring practice with Texas.

He eventually took a redshirt, not making his college debut until the 2020 season. He was suspended indefinitely in July 2021 following an arrest. The charges were eventually dropped.

The move to Tennessee worked, though. McCoy finished this past season with 52 catches for 667 yards and four touchdowns. He also signed with Athletes First for representation shortly after the season, setting himself up for potential commercial success in the coming months.

The receiver has a $101,000 On3 NIL Valuation. With nearly 30,000 social media followers, his online brand is only on the rise. And with Jalin Hyatt and Hendon Hooker off to the NFL, he will be the face of Tennessee’s offense with quarterback Joe Milton.

The On3 NIL Valuation is the industry’s leading index that sets the standard market NIL value for high school and college athletes. A proprietary algorithm, the On3 NIL Valuation calculates an athlete’s NIL value using dynamic data points targeting three primary categories: performance, influence and exposure.

About On3 NIL Valuation, Brand Value, Roster Value

While the algorithm includes deal data, it does not act as a tracker of the value of NIL deals athletes have completed to date, nor does it set an athlete’s NIL valuation for their entire career. The On3 NIL Valuation calculates the optimized NIL opportunity for athletes relative to the overall NIL market and projects out to as long as 12 months into the future.