Last summer, the NCAA approved college athletes to benefit from name, image, and likeness opportunities. Since then, we’ve seen various wrestlers taking advantage of deals with brands and local businesses. Now, there’s a new wave of opportunities for student-athletes across the country taking form in “NIL Collectives”. 

What Are NIL Collectives?

The concept of these collectives is fairly simple to understand - a group of alumni and/or fans of a school form a company to organize and provide NIL opportunities to student-athletes at that specific institution. Each collective varies in how they provide payment to the student-athlete, but there are a few stipulations for the collectives:

• They can’t be officially affiliated with the university
• They can’t be offered to prospective student-athletes for enrollment at the university
• They must comply with state, school, and conference-specific regulations
• They can’t be gifts - there must be an exchange of services

After the regulations and basic principles, the NIL Collectives seem to branch off into two different types of collectives. The first is a collective that "brokers" endorsement deals with businesses or brands. The collectives' purpose in this instance is to work on behalf of the athlete to negotiate beneficial contracts for the athlete that comply with all state and university regulations. The second type of NIL Collective combines brokering endorsement deals with crowd-funding from fans. This type of collective is similar to a subscription service in that donations are open to any and all donors. Each donation has an “incentive” attached to the gift based on the amount donated. For instance, fans will have greater access to a team, events, apparel, etc the more they give. Athletes who choose to benefit from these programs must register and sign a contract with their respective NIL Collectives. Most of these contracts are not exclusive, allowing athletes to secure NIL deals outside of the collective.

What Colleges Have NIL Collectives?

Universities have been adapting to NIL since it passed last summer so the landscape of the NIL Collectives is ever-changing. Business of College Sports has been tracking the formation of these collectives and currently shows 45 different schools that have collectives attached to helping their athletes take advantage of NIL opportunities. You can see a full list of universities with NIL Collectives here.

Of those 45 universities, only 10 of them have wrestling programs. It’s also important to note that not all the collectives will support every sport. For instance, Ohio State’s collective, THE Foundation, is currently only supporting the football and basketball teams. Take a look below at the wrestling schools with NIL Collectives:

• Indiana - Hoosiers for Good
• *Ohio State - THE Foundation
• Penn State - Success with Honor
• Illinois - Illini Guardians
• *Maryland - Turtle NIL
• Minnesota - Minnesota NIL (Launching this Summer)
• *Missouri - Advancing Missouri Athletes
• *North Carolina - Heels4Life
• Virginia - Cavalier Futures
• West Virginia - Country Roads Trust

*These collectives aren’t currently set up to support wrestling

Wrestling Schools Taking Advantage Of Collectives

Of the above six schools that have wrestling and a collective, there’s limited information made available to the public based on how much the collectives have raised and how wrestlers can benefit. However, Penn State, West Virginia, and Virginia all have notable aspects of their collectives that look promising for the wrestling programs.

Penn State
A Penn State-related NIL collective named “Success With Honor” launched in March 2022 and reportedly raised more than $120,000 (according to this Sports Illustrated article). Donors seeking to support the Penn State wrestling program can designate their giving so that 85%-90% of their gifts go specifically to all members of the wrestling team. Donors give on a monthly basis, with gifts ranging from $10 to over $500 per month (see subscription levels here). Notably, David Taylor is serving on the advisory board ensuring this collective will benefit Nittany Lion wrestlers.

West Virginia
The collective created to support West Virginia’s athletes, Country Road Trust, is currently supporting 48 student-athletes from 8 different sports with All-American Peyton Hall as the only WVU wrestler currently partnering with this collective. The unique aspect of the Country Road Trust is that businesses can go through the trust to work with specific athletes. The trust then ensures any NIL deals made for the student-athlete follow proper procedures and policies established by the university. 

Virginia
Cavalier Futures, the collective established to benefit the University of Virginia’s student-athletes, was started in March but has already raised over one million dollars in commitments from individuals and corporations (according to this release). Because it is newly established, there is limited information regarding what student-athletes might benefit from this funding. However, the amount already raised points to a bright future for University of Virginia athletes for NIL opportunities. 

Who’s Next?

Like everything else in college athletics, once one program or university adopts something to give them a competitive advantage, expect many to follow. Last month during a press conference, Iowa’s head football coach Kirk Ferentz said he believes NIL Collectives will be coming to the University of Iowa soon (according to this article). While details are limited regarding the timing and specifics of many potential collectives, expect many to enter the wrestling world within the next few months. As more are formed, expect this to shape the college wrestling landscape in huge ways and provide incredible opportunities for wrestlers across the country.