How one University of Miami booster is leveraging NIL

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How one University of Miami booster is leveraging NIL

Post by AuricGoldfinger »

https://www.miamiherald.com/sports/coll ... 11798.html

"Bring Back The U, the new company founded by (Hurricanes superfan Dan) Lambert, is designed with name, image and likeness (NIL) as the sole focus. His goal is to connect local business with Miami players so those athletes can take advantage of new NIL rules, and make money off their talent and celebrity status. The first deal being brokered by Bring Back The U: a series of contracts, potentially worth upward of more than $500,000, to sign every scholarship Hurricanes football player to a sponsorship agreement with American Top Team, Lambert’s Coconut Creek-based mixed martial arts team and gym with more than 40 affiliates worldwide."

Here's the "loophole" Lambert is exploiting: "Although Lambert is a Miami booster, Florida’s NIL law don’t prohibit Bring Back The U from facilitating endorsements because it’s a new business that has never donated to the university."

And the average fan can participate, too: "Lambert also envisions fundraisers for Bring Back The U, letting fans donate money, which can then be used by companies to pay for the sponsorships they may not be able to otherwise afford."

It amounts to $500/month per player, which isn't a lot of money on an individual basis. But it's definitely just the start. As Lambert told ESPN, "I'm not looking to profit from this. I want to try to bring people together and make our team better. I've got too many Gator and Seminole friends that have been s------- on me for the last 20 years. I want to reverse it."

I don't see how this is anything but a recruiting inducement, even though it's being positioned as something other than that. I support the ability of student-athletes to generate revenue from their NIL, but I don't see how anyone can view this as something other than a Trojan horse which will fundamentally reshape college athletics.