The Collective Association adds NIL entities at Alabama, Duke, Iowa, Oregon

The Collective Association has now grown to 24 NIL collectives.

The trade association launched this summer with seven founding members, with plans for immediate growth. Since then, the organization has rolled out a revenue-sharing model in meetings with the NCAA and SEC. Walker Jones, a leader inside the organization and the executive director of the Ole Miss-driven The Grove Collective, will testify at a legislative hearing on NIL next Tuesday with NCAA president Charlie Baker and Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti.

Through the first 26 months of NIL, more than 200 collectives have populated the college athletics landscape. They have become necessary to compete in college football and basketball, with wide swaths of donors coming together to pool funds. Collectives have been forced to evolve as donor fatigue continues to be a rising concern. Many have looked elsewhere to generate funds, coming up with e-commerce businesses and unique events for boosters. Overall, 80% of all NIL dollars come from collectives.

Now with a trade association, many have flocked to join the association to have a voice in the ever-evolving landscape.

Among the new members:

• Oregon’s Division Street – Division Street was one of the first NIL collectives to launch in September 2021. Since then, it has become one of the most highly-regarded organizations in the space. Some of the brightest sports marketing minds have played an integral role in the day-to-day operations of the Oregon-driven collective. 
• Iowa’s Swarm Collective – Iowa was one of the final Power 5 programs to launch a booster-led NIL collective in July 2022. But school administrators and coaches said the wait was worth it. The Swarm Collective is led by Brad Heinrichs, a four-year letterman in golf and a 1997 graduate of Iowa who runs an actuary firm in Fort Myers, Florida. Heinrichs, other Iowa Swarm Collective executives and executives from United Way of Johnson and Washington Counties are all heavily involved in the non-profit collective
• Duke’s Durham Devils Club – The collective recently launched as an LLC. Ninety percent of every membership dollar generated through the club will go directly to athletes. The remaining 10% will cover overhead costs.
• Alabama’s Yea Alabama – Yea Alabama was launched with the full backing of the Crimson Tide athletic department in early February. As the official collective of Alabama athletics, the organization describes itself as an “entity established to cultivate and harness name, image, and likeness opportunities for Alabama student-athletes.”

The Collective Association heads to D.C.

While Charlie Baker and Tony Petitti will surely share views that line up with the NCAA’s stance on name, image and likeness, Walker Jones will bring a different perspective.

After last month’s legislative hearing, a group of TCA collectives held a sit-down meeting with Sen. Lindsey Graham. Described as a “productive meeting,” the Senator was happy to take in the point-of-view of collectives. It’s the main reason why Jones will be at next week’s legislative hearing. 

TCA holds similar beliefs to the NCAA on what it would like to see in NIL legislation. Chief among them is an agent registry and standards, which would set some rules for how agents would be forced to operate in the world of college sports and NIL. Most of the frustration around agents in the space doesn’t come from the major agencies focused on marketing or contracts but instead on the representatives that set up shops only to represent college athletes.

A crop of collectives will be supporting Jones in the audience, too. Representatives from NIL entities at Tennessee, South Carolina, Cincinnati, Duke, Iowa, Florida State, BYU, Arizona State and Georgia will be in attendance. 

“Our objective is to enhance the quality of the dialogue with insights, data and perspectives that contribute to the development of well-informed and effective legislation that benefits all stakeholders while protecting the rights and interests of student-athletes,” said Hunter Baddour, who co-founded Spyre Sports Group and is viewed as a leader of TCA. “We look forward to the opportunity to share our perspective and real understanding of the importance of clear guidelines and policies in these legislative discussions.”