South Carolina athletics launches in-house agency for NIL

South Carolina athletics is officially in an exclusive deal with Everett Sports Marketing to help Gamecock athletes capitalize on their name, image and likeness.

The governance committed approved a $1 million deal for the Gamecocks athletics department to use ESM and allow agents to begin brokering deals with athletes. The money has come, according to the board Tuesday, from money raised by the athletics department.

“We are excited to bring these opportunities to our student-athletes,” said athletics directory Ray Tanner in a university press release. “ESM is a leader in the field of sports marketing and has a tremendous track record in representing athletes in brand development.  I appreciate our staff and donors who helped us put this arrangement together.  I am confident it will be a tremendous Name Image and Likeness resource for our student-athletes.”

Here’s more on the agreement from South Carolina’s release:

With ESM’s background in data, analytics and the caliber of talent they manage, it was a no-brainer to seek their partnership and counsel to rethink NIL and develop an entity that will position our student athletes to be the leaders in NIL procurement and execution,” said UofSC Senior Deputy Athletics Director, Chance Miller.

In partnership with UofSC, ESM has created an in-house agency for all NIL activities, called “Park Ave”, which blends the expertise and talent via decades of sports management and representation and applies it squarely on Gamecock student-athletes and their brands.  These services will be available at no charge to student-athletes.

Park Ave will provide data and analytics to determine influence and brand partnerships, will leverage their extensive knowledge in deal negotiation and procurement, and will spearhead creative content development and execution.

“Chance (Miller) and Hilary (Cox) had the foresight to bring to fruition the first NIL firm in the country that partners with a sports agency to exclusively represent a single university, provide the service without fees to their student-athletes and is an ancillary service to athletes with current representation. Our teams at ESM and Park Ave are most well-versed NIL agents and talent in the sports marketplace. We have broken ground on novel deals with the largest brands-both domestic and globally. It is inspiring to see what UofSC is willing to invest in positioning their athletes to be able to maximize NIL at unprecedented levels. UofSC will become the leader for NIL in the collegiate space.”, said Dan Everett, ESM President.

“It can’t be underscored enough how valuable their services will be to our athletes. To have the top sports marketers without commissions and fees creates an enormous amount of opportunity and value for the student athletes’ brands”, Miller said. “This arrangement creates a marketplace of inclusive ideation and partnership across athletes even with existing representation. Park Ave is an ancillary service and can be tapped into or not, there is no competition for services as Park Ave is a service provided by the University. Ultimately this is about the university providing the very best and most experienced sports management talent to our athletes.”

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A South Carolina athlete doesn’t have to use the ESM agents but those resources will be available to them.

It’s a two-year deal with some exclusivity to it.

ESM will not be able to partner with any university during the first year of the deal. In the second year of the deal, ESM won’t be able to partner with any school in the state of South Carolina or in the SEC.

The governance committed approved the deal Tuesday afternoon and it will go before full board approval at a later Board of Trustees meeting in September.

The deal will go into effect Sept. 1 with the first payment due then.

The deal will allow players to begin really tapping into NIL opportunities with the help of a company the university is using.

This is not just a football deal but one that spans every sport at South Carolina.

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The Gamecocks have a few big NIL earners and could potentially have more as the seasons progress.

Spencer Rattler is one of them, and ESPN named GG Jackson, Zia Cooke and Aliyah Boston as some of the most influential players in the basketball sphere.

The South Carolina athletic department was recently able to begin helping Gamecocks student-athletes with deals over the summer.

Patrick DiMarco also recently joined the university in an NIL role, moving over from his role as an analyst with the football program.

South Carolina has had numerous NIL collectives arise, including Garnet Trust, which helps connects athletes and businesses for NIL opportunities.

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