The 1890 Initiative is type of NIL collective Nebraska needs to land top coach

As Nebraska begins its search for its next football coach, athletic director Trev Alberts hits the recruiting trail with an ace up his sleeve to lure candidates to Lincoln. That ace is The 1890 Initiative, a newly launched NIL collective that’s well-funded and has strong ties to both the school and the business community in Nebraska.

The collective is founded by successful Nebraska businessmen Tom Peed and Shawn Peed, along with former Husker football player Matt Davison. The Peeds run Sandhills Global, a company that produces a diverse range of products and services from well-established trade publications and websites to hosted technology services. Davison will also build a team of employees for 1890 that will include Joe Selig as vice president for development. Selig announced earlier this year his planned retirement from his position as senior vice president for development for the University of Nebraska Foundation.

1890 says it will focus on Husker football and volleyball student-athletes and assist them with NIL opportunities in Nebraska through local charities, partnerships and networking with local businesses. NIL opportunities, according to 1890, will include camps and clinics, community outreach, autograph signings, public appearances, nonprofit engagement, social media promotions and other activities.

But more importantly, it’ll be massive for the Husker football team to maintain its roster during this transition period. The collective, supported financially by the Peed family, will also give Alberts a big carrot to entice quality football coaching candidates to come to Nebraska.

Collective will be home run for Huskers

As we’ve seen more and more since the launch of NIL, roster maintenance has become paramount in college football. And Husker fans have seen how NIL deals impacted roster management at Big Ten rival programs such as Ohio State.

“I think we need to get football right and keep volleyball rolling,” Davison told Steve Sipple of On3’s HuskerOnline.

HuskerOnline Publisher Sean Callahan said the timing of this new collective is big for Nebraska in so many ways.

“There are a lot of questions about the future of Nebraska football, and NIL is a big component of that,” Callahan said. “Having a new collective backed by the Peeds and led by Matt Davison and Joe Selig is a home run. Davison was responsible for raising $80 million for Nebraska’s new football facility project, while Selig is one of the most respected University of Nebraska fundraisers of all time.”

The 1890 Initiative will absorb Athlete Branding & Marketing

Another sure sign that the move by Davison and the Peed family is massive for the Cornhuskers is that 1890 will absorb Athlete Branding & Marketing. Athlete Branding & Marketing is the first and most prominent collective to offer NIL opportunities to Nebraska athletes. ABM, which has an office in the Haymarket district in Lincoln, has represented dozens of mostly football and volleyball players since August of 2021.

ABM intends to cease operations at the end of 2022. It had been headed by Gerrod Lambrecht, the former Nebraska football chief of staff under former head coach Scott Frost. When Frost was dismissed on Sept. 11, Davison said he at that point knew ABM “was going to wind down operations by the end of the year.”

Lambrecht will help 1890 with its transition, Davison told Sipple.

“I don’t think it’s a secret that I’m very aware of what ABM was doing,” Davison said. “Those people who have contributed to ABM over the last 15 months, I’m aware of all of them. I’ve been involved in that. That’s what is going to allow us to make a smooth transition from ABM to 1890.

“I know most of those folks. I feel like we have a lot of people who are going to want to support 1890 who were supporting ABM before.”

1890 Initiative enters crowded collective market

After Wednesday’s launch, there will technically be five known collectives supporting Nebraska. That number will slim down to four when 1890 and ABM officially merge. But 1890 joins the recently launched Big Red Collaborative, Big Red Fan Club and Lincoln NIL Club as Cornhusker-focused collectives.

Big Red Collaborative was launched in mid-September by Kris Brown, a 12-year NFL kicker and Nebraska football great and businessmen Matt Hickey, Bill Gerber and Joe Petsick.

The Big Red Collaborative says it differentiates itself by establishing a 501(c)(3) public charity arm that is geared to provide benefits to non-profit organizations. Student-athletes will leverage their NIL to promote and benefit these charities, bringing increased visibility and participation that would not have existed otherwise.

The Big Red Fan Club and Lincoln NIL club are player-led collectives that have been met with lukewarm success.

It will be interesting to see how these groups – especially Big Red Collaborative and 1890 – work in the same market with the same goals – helping Nebraska return to glory in football and maintain success in other sports.

The Nebraska athletic department didn’t go as far as other schools and call either group as its official collective.

Yet, it speaks volumes that Alberts was quoted in both groups’ initial press releases. Alberts knows the importance of having all the right NIL tools to win in today’s college sports – especially when the Cornhusker football program is going through an important transition.

“As I have said many times, Nebraska is positioned to be a leader in Name, Image and Likeness, and it’s a positive when there are many people and groups that want to help our student-athletes,” Alberts said.