Ole Miss NIL: The Grove Collective officially relaunches under new leadership

The NIL game is an ever-changing one in the college athletics landscape and Friday saw an announcement that aims to keep Ole Miss student-athletes at the forefront.

In a press conference on Friday The Grove Collective, under the new leadership of former Rebel Walker Jones, announced its relaunch after restructuring and securing a full-time staff.

Jones made the announcement at the Inn at Ole Miss with Ole Miss athletics director Keith Carter in attendance. Nearly all of Ole Miss’ head coaches were in attendance, including Lane Kiffin, Mike Bianco and Kermit Davis.

The Grove Collective is a for-profit LLC that was founded to provide turn-key solutions for businesses and individuals that desire to utilize the publicity rights of Ole Miss student-athletes for advertising and promotion.

“Short-term challenge is long-term opportunities and I that’s what this is” Jones said of leading the collective. “The more I looked at it the more I could see that there was a need for a better model.

“One of the first things that we all talked about is that this is going to be 100-percent compliant and 100-percent legal by the NCAA and by the State of Mississippi.”

Related: #notcommitted: Former Rebel Walker Jones is leading the Grove Collective now. He has big plans.

An amendment to Mississippi’s NIL bill that was passed back in the spring allowed for the Grove Collective to make the change.

One change made clarified who can have the right to license the publicity rights of the student-athlete. It can be done on an individual basis or collectively — i.e. The Grove Collective.

A second amendment now allows for a university in Mississippi to communicate with legal entities that are engaged in NIL deals with student-athletes. The collective will not engage with any student-athletes unit they are enrolled at Ole Miss, according to Jones.

Bringing some clarity to the NIL landscape and explaining what Ole Miss can now do, within the law, to help their student-athletes benefit as much as possible.

“I think it’s big. NIL is something that’s not going away,” Carter told the Ole Miss Spirit exclusively. “I think for us when the state law changed in April we wanted to make sure we use we use it to our advantage from the standpoint of we wanted to make sure we know what’s going on out there.

“We wanted to make sure that it’s compliant, make sure it’s legal. I think with what Walker’s doing with the Grove Collective now, we want to make sure our student-athletes are getting the best opportunities and that it’s done the right way. I think we feel much more comfortable that that’s happened.”

Related: Ole Miss, NIL and the Grove Collective: An open letter to all Rebel sports fans

Now, the work begins for the collective to try and help Ole Miss catch up to the major players of the NIL game.

Currently there are 300 members of the Grove Collective but Jones announced a goal of 10,000 members to fuel a crowd-funding revenue model needed to compete with the current landscape.

That is a big jump and one that could be jaw-dropping to any fans who are considering helping with the NIL cause.

“I think today’s like today help,” Walker said in how to present that goal. “I think giving them a benefit plan where they can see a real tangible thing that they’re giving to it. I think knowing the university and the coaches are behind it and supporting it. Having Lane, Kermit, coach Yo, Mike in the room supporting it and answering questions on it gives our fans, ‘Okay, if it’s good enough for Lane Kiffin it’s good enough for me.'”

There is also the ongoing Champions.Now. campaign that includes multiple projects to renovate athletic facilities across all of Ole Miss’ sports programs.

“We know there’s only a certain amount of dollars out there in circulation and people have to figure out where they want to give,” Carter said. “Obviously facilities and what we’re doing with the Champions.Now. campaign, that’s always going to be important and that’s what our foundation will continue to focus on.

“I think our (donors) have stepped up in such a big way and I think there’s enough to go around. But I think communication now is going to be the big key because I feel like our donors were confused maybe over the last 12 months or so on how to give, where to give, ‘should we give?’ Those kinds of things and I think the communication and collaboration will be a lot better.”