YOKE founder Mick Assaf discusses creation of Michigan football's Ann Arbor NIL Club: 'There's a perfect storm brewing'

Michigan football players have launched the ‘Ann Arbor NIL Club,’ an online community in which the Wolverine athletes will provide content for in exchange for financial support. The Wolverines partnered with YOKE, which has a software system that ”helps athletes receive fair compensation for their name, image, and likeness” by engaging and delivering content to the fan.

Over 110 Michigan football players have already joined, and YOKE founder Mick Assaf told TheWolverine.com that the number will likely be 120 by the end of Tuesday. Junior wide receiver A.J. Henning and senior offensive lineman Trevor Keegan have worked with YOKE in the past and helped get the rest of the team on board.

“That’s as team-wide of an NIL thing as any team in the country,” Assaf said.

Michigan has been unique in that respect, it seems. Led by Valiant Management, the Wolverines have held team-wide events and have an autograph signing scheduled for this Saturday at Crisler Center.

“I’m really happy that Michigan has done events and things for not just the starters on the team but for all players as well,” U-M senior quarterback Cade McNamara said at Big Ten Media Days.

“In my vision, that is the best of NIL — that not just the more popular guys get all of it. When the entire team can benefit from it, that’s the version of NIL that I like.”

Michigan players began hinting Monday at the big announcement for the following day, and fans have already committed their money to the club, with overly $8,000 pledged at the time of the 12:15 p.m. ET Tuesday launch.

Assaf has created similar clubs at 20-plus schools across the country, and he said the excitement for the Michigan launch was unmatched.

“I would say there’s a perfect storm brewing,” Assaf told TheWolverine.com. “You have a lot of players that are looking to connect with their fans, and they want to do something as a team that equally supports everyone. I think that’s probably something that their coach preaches to them, that’s a big part of their culture, is that the team should do stuff together.

“That can be challenging with NIL. That’s why we built the technology, though, because we saw that being a college athlete on a team, everything you do is together. To be able to launch an online community for your fans together, it’s really exciting for the players, but also for the fans.”

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Michigan players will participate in Zoom calls, Q&As and discussion with fans on the site’s message board, with the potential to host in-person events as well. The minimum commitment amount for a Michigan fan is $5. Fans can receive a free jersey by pledging at least $25 per month but, per the organization, “any commitment grants you complete access to the online community and digital experiences with the team.”

“For a lot of fans, NIL can be kind of like this black box, where it’s really confusing what’s going on,” Assaf noted. “A lot of people who are trying to help have made it really confusing for fans. I’ve seen Michigan has a few things out there, but what if you want to do what you already do, which is: read about the players, communicate with the players and then support them. We feel like Michigan fans feel really excited for more of a straightforward solution to what they want to do.”

The Ann Arbor NIL Club’s current goal is $50,000 per month, which, with over 100 players, would equate to roughly $500 per player on a monthly basis.

“The biggest thing that players look for in NIL — we’ve worked with a lot of athletes — is to help their families get to away games, because that can be really expensive depending on where you’re playing and where your family is from,” Assaf said.

“We know a goal that we think is reasonable … the biggest club would be 50,000 per month, and Michigan’s already at 3,000 a month and they haven’t launched yet. That would be significant. You’d have 100-something guys that are all making almost 500 bucks a month, which is pretty awesome when you think about it on an annual basis — each guy making 6,000 bucks that can cover a lot of expenses that cover your family going to away games, going to home games, staying in hotels, all that stuff.

“For us, it’s really exciting to be able to help the players, and the players are really excited about the opportunity.”

YOKE is currently set to take an 18-percent cut, but the company is working to lower their fee to make sure the Michigan players receive the maximum income.

“We started out with a 25-percent fee, but as we’ve added more universities and as the clubs grow, we’ve been able to lower that,” Assaf said. “I’d love to get it into the single digits, and I think we will be able to, but I think it’s going to take a little bit of time. The big thing the users want is an app and those type of things; the athletes aren’t paying for that, so that’s where we’re using the money — to develop an app and new technology to make it a better experience for the fans.”