Two Circles taps Missouri NIL collective leader to lead college sports vertical

For the last year and a half, Nick Garner has been tasked with creating a forward-thinking NIL model at Missouri.

As the chief executive officer at the Missouri-centric Every True Tiger Foundation, Garner helped run the collective in Columbia after overseeing Learfield’s first foray into NIL and spending more than a decade in multimedia rights. Most donor-funded collectives have opted to raise the majority of their dollars from boosters, but thanks to Missouri’s state law, Garner could think outside the box.

Specifically, the law allowed the NIL collective to receive institutional funds for distribution to athletes. So Every True Tiger shifted from working as a donor-driven collective to a marketing agency, partnering with Missouri to have athletes promote the Tiger Scholarship Fund. The international sports marketing agency Two Circles, with the help of Let It Fly Media, which Two Circles acquired in March, stepped in to provide content creation assistance.

Garner is now tasked with taking that model nationwide.

He’s joining Two Circles as an executive vice president to build out the agency’s NIL and college sports vertical. Every True Tiger will continue to partner with the agency on content, and the collective is actively working to find a replacement for Garner.

“That’s really the foundational piece of what we spent creating, over the past year at Mizzou, developing that marketing agency model,” he told On3 in a phone interview on Tuesday. “Working to see how effective that could be partnering with the school. That’s what really spurred the Two Circles college piece.

“What we did [at Mizzou] is shift really into that agency model, which became effective. It really created a unified vision between the administration, the coaches, the student-athletes. When everybody knows the direction you’re headed, it can be very successful in how it’s executed.”

Institutions need help dispersing revenue share

The decision for Two Circles to jump into college athletics comes at a pivotal time. The NCAA and power conferences recently signed off on a settlement agreement in the House, Hubbard and Carter lawsuits. As part of the multibillion-dollar settlement, schools will have the opportunity to opt-in to a revenue-sharing agreement, with the option to share roughly $20 million per year with players.

Garner shared with On3 that he envisions Two Circles setting up marketing agencies at campuses nationwide to help universities activate revenue sharing. That could mean promoting the institution on social media or another type of activation. Two Circles’ clients include the Premier League, NFL and Wimbledon.

Two Circles would assist in staffing the agencies, while also supporting the athletes and institutions through the NIL activation. Garner said the work would include providing an understanding of fair market value, creating promotional strategies and content creation.

As On3 recently reported, NIL collectives will become crucial to create a competitive advantage to complement revenue sharing. But some of those organizations are opting to go in-house, most notably Ole Miss’ Grove Collective, which is shifting to a school-financed third-party agency on July 1. 

“NIL is always moving fast, but this all of a sudden just slapped everybody in the face, like ‘Geez, now we got to think about how we’re going to distribute [revenue sharing],” Garner said. ” A lot of them know they’ve got to get involved. They have to be doing something, but maybe don’t quite know what that solution is. And that’s why we want to be here and say, ‘Hey, we can help you build this right.’

“From a dollar standpoint, we’re an activation agency, and so we want to help the schools activate the campaigns that they have. And so in the summer or fall of 2025, when these schools are line itemizing a certain amount of money on revenue sharing, they’re going to need a partner or a third party to help them distribute and help them to activate with the athlete.”

Two Circles can ‘professionalize NIL’

In simpler terms, Garner believes Two Circles can help “professionalize NIL.” Garner declined to get into specifics but said the agency has already had extensive conversations with universities. NIL collectives could potentially become clientele if they wished to switch to a marketing agency and work hand-in-hand with universities.

The NIL marketplace Opendorse will play a role, too, supporting Two Circles with back-end technology for brands and athletes to connect on marketing deals.

“So we’ve got our revenue for the $15 million that we’re going to share, but now, how do we get it to the athlete, and what are they going to do for it?” Garner said, implying that’s the question universities will be asking themselves in the months to come.