Collectives that help student-athletes benefit from their names, images and likenesses represent a new option for donors to support.
There is a challenge, however. University fundraising arms have relationships with the same pool of donors. The universities can express support for the collectives but there’s an ongoing debate over how much they could coordinate with them.
The Mountaineer Athletic Club is the professional fundraising arm for the West Virginia University Athletic Department. But now there’s another, less official arm raising money for name, image and likeness opportunities, Country Roads Trust.
Priorities for donations are largely decided by donors themselves, Michael Fragale, WVU’s senior associate athletic director for communications said in response to MetroNews’ questions about coordination and competition for limited dollars.
“Per current permissible guidelines, we are allowed to promote NIL opportunities like the Country Roads Trust to our fans just like we can promote the Mountaineer Athletic Club and its many fundraising opportunities,” Fragale said in an emailed response.
“In the end, donors/fans have their individual interests like capital projects, scholarships, seat locations and now NIL. Ultimately the donors/fans and only them decide how they want to spend/donate their money.”
Former West Virginia University Athletic Director Shane Lyons alluded to this push-pull on donation priorities during an interview on MetroNews’ “Talkline” after he abruptly parted ways with the university.
Lyons suggested disagreement over more direct involvement with the NIL collective was one of the reasons he lost his job last fall. He concluded university leaders wanted more direct support, but Lyons said only general statements of support would avoid crossing the line.
“The trust was started, but the trust actually needs more people for fundraising aspects. I believe the trust wants us to be more involved in the fundraising. And they want us to be involved in a variety of different areas that we just can’t be,” Lyons said on “Talkline.”
He continued, “My speaking engagements, I would talk about the trust. You have three different pots: You can give it to scholarships, you can give it to the trust, or you can give it to operations expenses and capital projects.”
The entities that have formed to support name, image and likeness opportunities for student-athletes are called collectives. They can be set up in a range of ways, including as for-profit or nonprofit organizations.
For example, last month, Michigan Athletic Director Warde Manuel sent a letter to supporters pointing to four different collectives with four different missions and structures: Champions Circle, MGoDAO, Ann Arbor NIL Club, and Stadium & Main.
Michigan has an in-house NIL registry, Victors Local Exchange, for businesses, donors and alumni to connect specifically with student-athletes. Those who register can search, filter and initiate conversations with student-athletes to discuss an NIL deal.
Michigan employees can direct student-athletes to the exchange but they cannot negotiate deals or contracts.
Universities like South Carolina and Southern California also have in-house support for name, image and likeness exchanges. South Carolina partnered with a marketing company to establish an NIL presence in-house.
Marshall University in Huntington has established “The Herd Exchange” that allows businesses or donors to connect with student-athletes. University employees cannot negotiate deals or contracts, but they can direct athletes to the exchange. Once a deal is registered, the transaction produces a direct payment to the athlete and an automated disclosure.
Marshall announced last summer a partnership with Athliance to assist student-athletes with name, image and likeness opportunities. Much of the emphasis is on the approval, monitoring and reporting process.
Then the university announced in November that it would partner with The Brandr Group to combine team logos and player names and numbers as a name, image and likeness initiative.
At West Virginia University, the collective is Country Roads Trust, which is external and has no contractual relationship with the university.
Fragale characterized it as a licensed corporate sponsor of WVU Athletics through an agreement between Country Roads Trust and Learfield, the university’s third-party multimedia rights provider.
“However,” Fragale said, “there are no exclusive or contractual obligations between the university and Country Roads Trust.”
Country Roads registered as a limited liability corporation in West Virginia under the management of businessman Ken Kendrick, principal owner of baseball’s Arizona Diamondbacks, and Ten Mile Consulting of Colorado.
Ten Mile Consulting, in turn, is registered with Mary Luck, a former Stanford volleyball star who is the daughter of Oliver Luck, businessman and former West Virginia University athletic director.
Kendrick and Oliver Luck are joined by other investors at Country Roads Trust.
“Both Kendrick and Luck are volunteering their time and receiving no compensation,” wrote Stephen Ford, general manager and chief operating officer of Country Roads Trust in response to MetroNews questions.
“Our hope was to get ahead of the other 130, 140 other collectives (whatever it may be) now around the country and be a leader in the field. We think we’ve done that and have many more goals ahead of us.”
Although Country Roads Trust is not registered as a 501c that would designate it as a nonprofit, Ford said the money generated from investors, corporate deals and subscriptions directly benefits Mountaineer athletes.
Athletes who want to work out name, image and likeness relationships some other way are free to do so. The pitch from Country Roads Trust is that “in those cases, Country Roads Trust cannot help the athlete assure that the proper rules and policies will be followed.”
For student-athletes who do want to sign on with Country Roads Trust, Ford said, “we facilitate through a wide variety of platforms, including interactive virtual interviews, in-person fan events, autographs, etc.
“Our goal is simply to be here to help facilitate opportunities, provide guidance and make the process easier for the athletes.”
