Volunteer Club raising NIL funds by capitalizing on Rocco's Jello Shot tradition at College World Series
Friday night, Tennessee will play its first game of the College World Series against Florida State. As is tradition in Omaha, though, Volunteers fans are also playing a game of their own – and The Volunteer Club is capitalizing by raising NIL funds.
Rocco’s Pizza and Cantina started its Jello shot contest in 2019, and that tradition is continuing this year. Friday night, the bar shared its 5 p.m. CT update with Tennessee shooting out to the lead with 2,358 Jello shots taken before the Vols even throw a pitch.
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Rocco’s is charging $5 per shot, but The Volunteer Club is running a fundraiser. Tennessee fans can pay $10 per Jello shot during the weekend, with $5 going to the bar for the shot and the other $5 going to the NIL collective.
Tennessee fans stepped up their game in a huge way Friday. As of noon CT Friday, the Vols faithful took 491 Jello shots, according to Rocco’s first update of the day. Over the next five hours, they came out in full force to take another 1,867.
Volunteer Club co-founder James Clawson teased the collective could be looking at a big day as the contest went along. According to On3’s Pete Nakos, the organization brought in $1,750 Friday after purchasing at least 350 shots.
Volunteer Club continues to capitalize on CWS run
As Tennessee made its way to Omaha for the CWS this week, the Volunteer Club announced a team-wide NIL deal with the baseball program. Players wore special-edition t-shirts as they left Knoxville on Wednesday.
The shirts featured “The Volunteer Club” with No. 24 on the front, alluding to 2024, and the same number with “Omaha” written on the back. It’s a unique endorsement deal with players wearing the collective’s name while participating in an activation.
“To have the entire team wearing the collective’s name across their chests really shows the synergy and the total buy in from our team, our donors, the coaches, the players and the administration at Tennessee,” Brandon Spurlock, a partner with The Volunteer Club, told On3. “It’s a place we haven’t, not just at Tennessee, but even in the NIL world the last three years, it’s a place we haven’t necessarily been able to go. We’re proud of the recognition as the as the nation’s No. 1 NIL destination.”
Tennessee’s first game of the College World Series is coming up Friday night at 6 p.m. CT against Florida State.