Exclusive: Texas One Fund president Patrick Smith explains the nuts and bolts of the main UT NIL collective

As it pertains to Name, Image, and Likeness and the University of Texas athletics, the game changed in November.

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That’s when five separate NIL collectives that each focused on a different Longhorn sport united under one banner known as the Texas One Fund. Austin area attorney Patrick “Wheels” Smith became president of the collective upon the merger after previously leading the basketball-centric 40 Pack.

“This is a huge win for the contributors and donors as it will create a simple streamlined process for everyone and all sports,” Smith said in November. “We aim to do this the ‘Texas Way’ and to make NIL opportunities available for every student-athlete at the University of Texas.”

Smith had experience with the NIL landscape with the 40 Pack. Through a college friend, he connected with former head coach Chris Beard and current assistant coach Chris Ogden, both of whom espoused the importance of NIL in today’s college sports landscape. So Smith and a small group of others formulated a plan to enlist fervent fans of the men’s basketball program into a collective that helped meet the NIL desire of players at UT. 40 Pack was one of several sport-specific collectives. Others existed for golf, the Longhorn offensive line, and baseball.

Eventually, they decided to consolidate together into the Texas One Fund to create what Smith called a “one-stop shop” for any fan who wants to offer financial support to Texas’ NIL efforts. That announcement came right around the same time a change in regulation allowed for closer involvement with the collective from coaches and other UT administrators.

“Luckily for us, the NCAA right about the time we had consolidated it, came out with the new guidelines allowing Chris Del Conte, Steve Sarkisian, Rodney Terry, David Pierce, Andrew Hamor of the Longhorn Foundation, everybody associated with UT from coaches, athletic department, fundraising, to actively solicit on behalf of collectives,” Smith said Monday. “The timing worked out. We consolidated it. That was the origin of where we are today, which is a good place because we do have that ability for UT folks to effectively fundraise and solicit on our behalf.”

That’s evident in two recent developments. The first development is that the 2023 Orange-White Game, to be held on April 15 at 1 p.m., has the Texas One Fund as the presenting sponsor. The second is an upcoming T1F event in Houston where Del Conte and Sarkisian will be present.

Houston Horns! Meet and Greet opportunity with @CoachSark and the Boss man @_delconte, register with the link below: https://t.co/gjil76Zx8Q pic.twitter.com/MldVXmmCHQ

— TexasOneFund (@TexasOneFund) January 25, 2023

Smith now is president of a collective tasked with supporting every UT athletic endeavor, not just men’s basketball. What’s the advantage to everything being under one name?

Smith mentioned the one-stop shop aspect and compared it to the Longhorn Foundation. Fans who are accustomed to directing where their LHF donation goes can find a similar experience with the T1F.

“It’s like giving to a church,” Smith said. “You’re giving to a church, you can designate your gift to missions, you can designate your gift to construction, or a rebuild, or a building project. You can give it to whatever different ministry they have: a campus ministry, an underserved population ministry, whatever you want. That’s the advantage. Your average fan or your average person or an alum in Houston or Dallas doesn’t have to go to seven different cocktail parties and write seven different checks. You can write one check and designate it how you like.”

Plus, the donation is tax-deductible. The Texas One Fund has 501(c)3 status, which speaks to the organization’s DNA. The collective isn’t simply sending money to players no-strings-attached.

“In turn for that, we’re having our athletes that we’re contracting with or subcontracting with through Clark Field (Creative), for them to earn any NIL opportunities with us, they have to attend, promote, use their NIL for a charitable purpose,” Smith said. “The Texas One Fund is not paying someone to say ’here you go.’ To unlock the benefit, they have to attend, promote, use their NIL that’s tracked for a charitable cause that we’re going to partner with.”

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For an organization whose existence to rank-and-file fans appears to be solely for paying players, it helps create a reputation that any donation offered is more than just pay-for-play.

“People enjoy seeing Texas athletes in the community doing things, so that’s who we’re trying to target and partner with,” Smith said.

So why do Texas and the Texas One Fund need to appeal to rank-and-file fans? Isn’t there a tremendous amount of money at the university? Doesn’t Texas have an army of deep-pocketed boosters who can pay for players’ NIL as they please? Won’t UT athletes be able to benefit from working with local businesses or brand names without needing support from fans?

While Texas has a large endowment and is well-funded, the University of Texas itself cannot funnel money into the collective. It can promote it, but it cannot offer direct financial support. And while large sums of money are beneficial and Lamborghini deals are possible with superstars, Smith is trying to build a collective that taps into the massive UT fan base in order to support the entire athletic department.

“What we’re trying to do is get every person passionate about Texas athletics to partner with us, donate, come alongside us, to become the best NIL in the country,” Smith said. “We, right now, have arguably the best athletic department across the board in the country, and to maintain that for as long as we can we need to have the best NIL. If you talk to any coach at Texas, they’ll tell you the importance of NIL. It’s the new world and the new reality. At Texas, we have an advantage because we have so many fans, alums, and people who care about Texas. They’re passionate about it. They’re fans. This is the No. 1 way to make what you want to watch on TV or in the stands happen. You can have an active participation in this by giving to NIL.”

He added: “When you just start now at whatever level you’re comfortable with for your discretionary money, it has a massive impact. The more people who say ’you know what? I’m going to do this because I love Texas, I’ve always followed the Horns. I’m going to do this. They say it matters. I’m going to put it to a test and see if it matters.’ The more people who step up and say that to whatever degree they’re comfortable with, that’s going to have an impact.”

Smith explained the benefits aren’t limited to the arena or playing field. Members of the Central Texas and statewide community will be supported by Texas athletes in charitable action. One such example he offered that the Texas One Fund is working with is an organization called Pop-Up Birthday, which helps organize birthday parties for children in the foster system.

The community impact, the support of players, the charitable status, all of it, filed into Smith’s pitch for the Texas One Fund. He believes that if he can help generate wide support, it’ll have a massive impact on the Longhorns.

“If a large percentage of people passionate, reading message boards for Texas, simply say ‘yes I’ll do it to whatever degree I want to do it,’ we’re going to be so far ahead of every other school in the country. We’re going to be in a really good place,” Smith said.