Michigan highlighted as having one of nation's most ambitious NIL collectives
Michigan Wolverines football is “playing the NIL game” differently than some other schools around the country. The Maize and Blue — and their collectives — have vowed not to use NIL as a recruiting inducement. Instead, the focus in Ann Arbor has been to assist current student-athletes in making large sums of money — which, in turn, can prove to recruits that they’ll profit by coming to U-M.
The Michigan fan base has wanted more when it comes to NIL, but the Champions Circle collective, started by Valiant Management and a group of boosters, has made a big impact already after launching June 10, less than two months ago.
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On3 released its ranking of the top 20 “most ambitious” NIL collectives in the country, and Michigan’s Champions Circle checked in 12th. They were measured on their “vision, scale and financial resources.”
“Some knocked the Michigan fanbase for being seemingly a bit slow to react to NIL while rival Ohio State and other national powers pounced on it,” On3’s Jeremy Crabtree wrote. “Yet, once Wolverine boosters got on track, it didn’t take them long to make a major impact thanks largely to the Champions Circle collective.
“Valiant Management, run by former Michigan football player Jared Wangler, launched the Champions Circle collective in June 2022. Valiant Management is a successful Michigan-based sports marketing agency. The collective used connections from the marketing agency to quickly catch up with other national collectives. Plus, they pushed the envelope with creative deals throughout the Midwest, including a deal with 120 Michigan student-athletes with the Army National Guard.
“Wolverine coach Jim Harbaugh is adamant that he’s not going to pay recruits to sign with Michigan. But prospects can surely rest easy knowing they have an ambitious collective working to represent one of the nation’s largest alumni bases.”
“Champions Circle is currently focused on working with Michigan football players but has plans of expanding to other sports in the future. Valiant Management already works with student-athletes across many of U-M’s sports team.
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Michigan’s collective ranks second among Big Ten schools, behind Ohio State’s ‘The Foundation’ at No. 7. Michigan State‘s ‘East Lansing NIL Club’ is just behind at No. 13, and Indiana is the fourth league institution to be named at No. 14.
Transformational AND transactional?
A portion of the Michigan fan base wasn’t happy with Harbaugh’s comments when he said the Wolverines’ approach is to provide a “transformational, not transactional” experience. But many have failed to recognize the second part of that quote.
“But with the NIL, it can become transactional,” Harbaugh continued while speaking on the Bussin’ with the Boys podcast. “We’re not going to recruit players and be promising them money to come here. But, it’s been proven — you come here and you play well, then your jersey starts selling, you start getting these deals.”
Ohio State head coach Ryan Day recently told boosters that his team needs $13 million in NIL money to keep the roster intact. Harbaugh was asked about it at Big Ten Media Day, and responded that he thinks Michigan can do even better than that.
“I think we can do more,” Harbaugh said. “Maybe we can even double that at Michigan. I think that’s possible. I think it’s going in a terrific direction that way. You know me. I’ve always been for NIL. I believe players should have a share in the revenues, and I think that’s something that’s really possible at Michigan. So … I think that’s where we’re headed.”
