Newsstand: Michigan DT Mason Graham a semifinalist for two major awards
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Michigan junior defensive tackle Mason Graham has been named a semifinalist for the Chuck Bednarik Award, presented annually by the Maxwell Club for to the best defensive player in college football.
Graham leads Michigan defensive linemen with 36 tackles and ranks second on the team with 7 for loss. He’s added 3.5 sacks with 1 blocked kick and 1 pass breakup. He has 32 pressures, the seventh most among interior defensive linemen nationally.
Graham has also been recognized as a semifinalist for the Lott IMPACT Trophy, presented to the defensive IMPACT player of the year. IMPACT stands for Integrity, Maturity, Performance, Academics, Community, and Tenacity.
Passes, a direct-to-fan engagement and monetization platform, has partnered with Michigan Wolverines athletics to create NIL value across 29 sports, recruit and retain student athletes and provide “unprecedented” fan access. The multi-year partnership through Learfield “empowers Michigan student athletes to sell exclusive content and merchandise and empowers fans to play a role in the retention and recruitment of athletic and academic talent through a new NIL fund,” according to a press release.
The partnership includes the use of the Michigan logo and trademark. It offers fans the opportunity to follow, support and engage with Michigan teams and athletes, and it will “enhance fan engagement and connectivity, while providing student-athletes with powerful tools to develop their personal brands.”
The Michigan Content Hub will be the home for fans to receive different tiers of access to exclusive content, merchandise and experience.
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“All Michigan student athletes are uniquely positioned to benefit from Passes, which currently features several On3 top 10 athletes earning 6-7 figures on the platform,” the release said.
“From exclusive merchandise and signed memorabilia to post and pre-game livestreams, Passes’ versatility allows for total customization to best reach the unique interests of diverse audiences.
“For example, fans and donors can subscribe to the Team 146 Tier. Proceeds from this tier will be directed towards ensuring that the football team, through recruiting, retention, and portal transfers, will remain in contention for national championships year after year. The goal of the Team 146 Tier is to demonstrate that individual donors of any size can have a meaningful impact on Michigan’s ability to be successful in today’s dynamic college landscape.”
Highlights from Michigan players in the NFL in Week 10.
Quote Of The Day
“We are going to be launching our official Michigan page, where you’ll be able to subscribe to Team 146, to be able to directly donate toward the football team, which is super exciting. We’re going to be dropping merchandise, limited merch drops. Fans can buy merchandise and actually get something out of it while donating directly to the athletes. And hopefully, we’ll have a few athletes up by then. We have to set up the page. It’s a content hub, so we’re hand-holding athletes through being able to create the best pages for their audience.”
— Passes CEO Lucy Guo on what Michigan fans can expect from the new partnership, which launches Friday
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