Michigan launches VICTORS Exchange to boost, streamline NIL process

The Michigan athletic department made waves with its Wednesday morning launch of the VICTORS Exchange, a student-athlete NIL business registry, custom-designed for businesses, donors, alumni and other interested NIL dollars wishing to connect specifically with student-athletes at the University of Michigan. The university partnered with INFLCR, a content platform for athletes, to make it happen.

Registered companies can search, filter and initiate conversations with student-athletes to discuss an NIL deal. Once the NIL deal between a registered business and student-athlete(s) is completed, the business will use the VICTORS Exchange to create a transaction that directly pays the student-athlete (without any transaction fee) and automate a disclosure to the INFLCR Verified Compliance Ledger.

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“We are thrilled to partner with INFLCR as part of our comprehensive and unique Name, Image and Likeness program here at the University of Michigan,” said Kurt Svoboda, Associate Athletic Director and department spokesperson. “Our student-athletes have already engaged with a wide array of partnership opportunities in the first six months of NIL, and this addition to our program will more easily allow us to onboard additional businesses.”

“The VICTORS Local Exchange ties together the University of Michigan’s entire NIL strategy in one system,” said Jim Cavale, Founder and President of INFLCR. “We’re beyond excited to partner with Michigan and help empower their student-athletes with our core technology to help them build their brands as well as our NIL solutions to help them capitalize on those efforts.”

Michigan’s VICTORS program expands on existing U-M student-athlete programming in academic and career success, health and welfare, education, leadership development, Diversity Equity and Inclusion, and personal branding programs hosted by institutional experts, including professors at the Ross Business School as well as other educators and business leaders from what is the nation’s largest living alumni network.

The INFLCR platform brings expertise in specific areas while working closely with U-M’s internal team of experts to provide student-athlete resources in education, NIL marketplace exchange access, infrastructure, agreement disclosure, compliance, content sharing, and personal branding.

On3 Sports Helps Michigan Athletes, Players Across The Country Know Their True NIL Value

Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) has taken the collegiate athletics world by storm, and On3Sports has changed the game even further with its Jan. 7, 2022 release of the On3 NIL Valuation — an index that looks to set the standard market value for both high school and college-level athletes.

 The NIL valuation does not act as a tracker of the value of NIL deals an athlete has completed to date. It rather signifies an athlete’s value at a certain moment in time.

The NIL valuation is comprised of a number of dynamic data points that focus on two primary factors — an athlete’s social media presence and their level of athletic performance.

A base valuation is generated from the number of followers on each social media platform an athlete has (Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok). Each platform is weighted differently based on the number of marketing dollars that brands and advertisers typically spend on each.

With a baseline established through their individual social platforms, an athlete may also receive various boosts or penalties based on the following factors: Engagement, relative social media strength, college prestige, individual player rankings, position, gameday performance, prestigious achievements, legacy, media or existing NIL deals.

Michigan athletes are well positioned to cash in from NIL, with five Wolverines checking in on On3’s College Football NIL Rankings — the listing of the top 100 college athletes’ NIL valuations — last season.

On3 NIL Links

• NIL100

• CFB NIL Rankings

• CBB NIL Rankings

• HS Football NIL Rankings

• HS Basketball NIL Rankings