Kentucky's NIL Deal with Morgan & Morgan: Behind the Scenes
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Morgan & Morgan, the nation’s largest injury law firm, has signed name, image, and likeness (NIL) agreements with the entire University of Kentucky men’s basketball team, the firm announced Monday.
The partnership includes new digital billboards, TV commercials and digital advertisements across social media and YouTube.
“Kentucky has always been at the forefront of our NIL,” Dan Morgan, a partner at Morgan & Morgan, who leads the firm’s NIL efforts, told KSR+. “This is our first time actually getting the full team to participate. In the past, we had four or five football players. Last year, in basketball, we tried to get the whole team, but due to some legalities in the NIL landscape, it wasn’t able to get done.”
Last year, due to NIL rules for international student-athletes, Kentucky forward Oscar Tshiebwe was unable to participate in the UK basketball team’s NIL partnership with Morgan & Morgan. This year, he will be able to participate in the promotion, giving each member of the team a spot in the partnership.
“Morgan and Morgan is America’s largest law firm and we have a Size Matters slogan,” Morgan said. “[Oscar] is the quintessential ‘size matters’ person you would want, especially in the college landscape. Who would you want to attach yourself to? It would be Oscar. Tied up with a Kentucky jersey, it’s an iconic pairing. That’s why we always gravitated towards Kentucky.”
While Morgan was unable to disclose the exact financials of the deal, he did provide some information regarding the overall cost.
“If you add in the full marketing spend behind it, the production, the players, and all of that, it’s definitely a six-figure campaign that we’re putting together here,” Morgan said.
Morgan said his father, firm founder John Morgan, grew up in Lexington, giving his family a foundation of Big Blue Nation fanhood.
“Kentucky was always on – the big games, Saturdays, and Final Fours,” Dan said. “ I definitely grew up hearing the chants, going to games, and things like that.”
Last year, the firm had an NIL deal lined up with Kentucky before the start of March Madness to do campaigns in the different cities in which the Cats would play.
“Obviously, it was a disappointing first round. That’s how it goes with the NIL campaigns,” Morgan said. “You’re hoping the team does well. We’re obviously hoping they play as long as possible to keep being able to market the Kentucky brand with them.”
When it came time to promote the law firm through name, image, and likeness, Kentucky was the first school to come to mind. Now, the firm is seeing the fruits of its labor.
“It’s been a good program that we’ve dived into and it’s paying dividends,” Morgan said. “We’ve seen our case counts and things like that going up in Lexington. That’s one of the things we attribute it to.”
Morgan’s thoughts on the 2022-23 Wildcats
Dan also shared his thoughts on this year’s Kentucky Basketball team, calling the Cats “one of the best teams in the nation.”
“If they’re really firing, playing to their abilities and guys are getting shots, I really feel like they can beat anybody,” he said. “Do they all go to the Final Four? I hope so.
“I think they’ve solidified themselves as a tournament team right now. It’s a historic program year in and year out. They’re always bringing in the top talent. They have Cason [Wallace] this year and [DJ] Wagner next year. They always have top, top recruits.”
Next, the firm is looking to push into more sports, including gymnastics and volleyball.
Morgan said the partnership began with football, but with John Morgan having a good relationship with Kentucky coach John Calipari, the partnership was put in motion.
“My dad put me in contact with Cal and Cal put me in contact with the person that does their NIL stuff because the teams can’t be directly affiliated with it,” Dan said. “We were able to go back and forth and came to terms on a whole team deal.”
Morgan & Morgan is uniquely positioned to capitalize on deals like this, having obtained the JMI rights to use Kentucky logos in its marketing.
“The only real asset that we had at the time NIL went [into effect] was the Kentucky deal with the sports program,” Dan said. “We were then able to compile them together and get players in uniform.”
As far as a team NIL deal, the greatest challenges came with getting every member of the team to agree on a contract.
“Some of these schools have players that are commanding high paychecks and high values,” Dan said. “In order to get a whole team deal done, players are getting less than they could get if they were doing a one-off deal because it is a group deal.”
Despite the partnership, Dan Morgan is not a UK alum; instead, he attended SEC rival Florida.
“At first, I still had my Gator hat on, but over the past three or four years, it’s definitely gotten more towards the Kentucky side just because of the relationships I have with some of these guys,” Dan said. “We still text back and forth with the players we do deals with, going to games and going to Rupp. It’s kind of infectious and it kind of takes over.”
