‘Y Not?’ Wake Forest star Tyree Appleby inks NIL deal with Applebee’s

Back at ACC Media Days in October, Wake Forest super senior guard Tyree Appleby joked he needed a NIL deal with Applebee’s Grill + Bar. Three and a half months later, Appleby’s wish was granted.

Appleby and Applebee’s announced Thursday on social media they’ve partnered on an NIL deal. The terms of the deal were not revealed. But a commercial shared on social media is pure NIL gold for Appleby, a transfer from Florida, who’s become one of the top players in the ACC.

“I love this place,” Appleby says in the advertisement. “But they spelled it wrong.”

The commercial cuts to Appleby outside of an Applebee’s holding up a “Y” in front of the bar and grill’s iconic sign.

“It should be Y, not E, E,” he says. “But lucky for them, I have their backs.”

The spot then focuses on Appleby holding a T-shirt with Applebee’s logo redesigned to spell it the same way as his last name. There are also campaign-style buttons with the slogan “Y Not?” on a table in the commercial. Plus, Appleby is seen placing stickers over Applebee’s menus with the newly designed logo spelled “Appleby’s.”

Appleby then directs people to visit YnotApplebY.com and encourages people to change the name of Applebee’s. On that website is another commercial featuring Applebee’s servers asking Appleby where they got the T-shirts and who changed all the menus.

“Hey, Tyree do you know anything about this,” a server says in the advertisement.

Appleby denies his involvement with a big grin. When the server leaves the scene, he pulls a big pile of “Appleby’s” stickers and menus into the frame.

Sometimes you gotta take things into your own hands.. go to https://t.co/iaeVWcaXGd to vote. #Sponsored #Ad pic.twitter.com/8ElVaI5tpu

— LilApp✍ (@Lil_App04) February 9, 2023

NIL deals like this are wins for players, brands

Creative NIL deals like this are becoming more and more the norm in college sports. For example, this past October, Reese’s signed 12 football players across the country with the last name of “Reese” as part of the sweetest deal in NIL history. Then in January, Buffalo Wild Wings signed eight college football players to create the “first-ever All-Sauce team.”

Additionally, NIL experts say deals like this are win-win situations. Brands get exposure for coming up with creative ad campaigns. Plus, college student-athletes get rewarded for using their name, image and likeness to generate revenue in ways that might not be normally available.

“NIL deals that play off athlete names are fun, but they also make a lot of sense from both a brand perspective and an athlete perspective,” Mit Winter, a sports attorney and NIL expert at Kennyhertz Perry LLC, told On3 in late January. “They always generate a lot of good PR and media attention, which can lead to more business for the brand and potentially more deals for the athlete.”

👀👀👀 pic.twitter.com/cQ729u0HC3

— Applebee's Grill + Bar (@Applebees) February 8, 2023

Tyree Appleby’s become one of ACC’s best players

The NIL deal is a fitting reward for Tyree Appleby. After arriving from Florida as a graduate student transfer, he’s taken college basketball and the ACC by storm.

The point guard averages 19 points a game. He’s also dishing out 6.2 assists, which rank in the top six in the country. On Tuesday, he had his best game of the season in a Demon Deacon’s win over North Carolina. He scored 35 points, had 11 assists and grabbed seven rebounds. He event set an ACC record for made free throws in a game with 23.

Last season at Florida, Appleby averaged 10.9 points, 3.7 assists, 2.1 rebounds and 1.2 steals per game. He departed the program as a transfer following coach Mike White’s departure for Georgia, taking advantage of a free year of eligibility thanks to COVID-19. Prior to his two seasons at Florida, Appleby suited up for Cleveland State. He averaged 17.8 points per game there as a sophomore in 2018-19.

Appleby has seen massive On3 NIL Valuation growth

With his success this season, Appleby has seen massive growth in his On3 NIL Valuation. He now has an ON3 NIL Valuation of $93,000, which is up nearly 500% over the past 10 weeks. A lot of that growth can be traced to his success on the court and also a significant increase in his social media followers. He has more than 14,000 followers on social media now.

The On3 NIL Valuation is the industry’s leading index that sets high school and college athletes’ projected annual value (PAV).

A proprietary algorithm, the On3 NIL Valuation establishes the overall NIL market and projected 12-month growth rate by measuring two categories, Brand Value Index and Roster Value Index.  

The Brand Value Index measures the national licensing and sponsorship market. The Roster Value Index collects data from all school Collectives into a proprietary Roster Management software. Brand Value and Roster Value are combined to create the overall NIL market.

Using the overall NIL market size, the On3 NIL Valuation calculates an athlete’s Brand Value and Roster Value by using dynamic data points targeting three primary categories:

+ Performance
+ Influence
+ Exposure

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.

The On3 NIL Valuation is publicly available. Performance, Influence, and Exposure ratings along with the athlete’s personal Brand Value Index and Roster Value Index are available only to the athlete in the “Athlete Verified” private dashboard on the On3 Athlete Network.