Altius Sports Partners’ Casey Schwab (left) and Oliver Luck develop on-campus strategy.Ryan Kuttler
When the name, image and lookalike era began last year, colleges took a knee-jerk reaction, mainly because that was what state and NCAA rules mandated. Athletic departments are focused on education and compliance, not on the merchandising of a fast-changing space.
2 years of NIL would seem too much.
While some state laws have loosened, schools are stepping up, saying they will be more involved in all aspects of the NIL, including making it easier to sign contracts for their players.
Another prominent player in the NIL space, Altius Sports Partners, which advises 30 schools, including about half of the Power Five, is taking a big step to help schools that want to bring the NIL in-house.
Altius has developed a new strategy on campus that will help schools adapt to the next level of the NIL by placing the general manager, as he calls the position, in athletics. The goal is to create a standing NIL in sports that will support athletes, coaches and staff.
“This is the future,” said Casey Schwab, Altius CEO and co-founder.
Altius Sports Partners
Altius Sports Partners
Founded: October 2020
Founding partners: Casey Schwab, John Entz, David Carter
Focus: Name, image and likeness advising and consulting
Clients: 30 schools, mostly in the Power Five
Senior leaders: Oliver Luck, chairman; Courtney Brunious, COO; Andrew Donovan, EVP collegiate partnerships; Brittney Whiteside, VP collegiate partnerships
Consultant: Gabe Feldman, Tulane Law School
Advisers: Jessica Mendoza, Kenneth Shropshire, Renie Anderson, Malcolm Turner, Jené Elzie, Michael Lynch
Established: October 2020 See the article : Students of the summer music school perform in a concert at the end of the camp.
Associates: Casey Schwab, John Entz, David Carter
Focus: Name, image and likeness advice and suggestions
Clients: 30 schools, mostly in the Power Five
Executives: Oliver Luck, president; Courtney Brunious, COO; Andrew Donovan, EVP corporate partnerships; Brittney Whiteside, VP collegiate partnerships
Advisor: Gabe Feldman, Tulane Law School
Advisors: Jessica Mendoza, Kenneth Shropshire, Renie Anderson, Malcolm Turner, Jené Elzie, Michael Lynch
The company first introduced the GM program earlier this summer and is set to launch six schools on board – Cincinnati, LSU, Northwestern, Oklahoma State, South Carolina and Virginia. The seventh grade is almost finished.
Each of these schools is expected to open the football season with an Altius general manager on campus who will have the benefit of being embedded in the landscape, rather than a school official with only one institutional vision. This includes the ability to connect players with tokens.
The consulting company organizes positions to suit the school. In some cases, the general manager will be facilitating local and national projects. At times, the GM will serve as the resident expert, taking questions from across the sport, including coaches, collaborating with the school on education and liability mitigation.
Altius hired Brittney Whiteside, a former athletic director at Missouri, Appalachian State and, most recently, Virginia, to oversee the on-campus GM program. Whiteside’s title is vice president of university partnerships, and she will work alongside Andrew Donovan, executive vice president of university partnerships.
The GMs will be Altius employees funded through additional investment from the school, and the position will function much like a NIL department head. Altius’ advisory deals typically cost in the low six figures a year.
The agency conducted NIL educational sessions at schools including Virginia.Altius Sports Partners
“One of the things we’ve heard over and over again is that schools want to be more involved, especially in terms of learning and protecting their players,” Schwab said. “They are in a different place than they were a year ago when it comes to NIL. This is the evolution of the space and the evolution of schools deciding that they need to intervene.”
Placing an Altius employee on campus marks a significant change for the company that launched in October 2020. Schwab, which started with two co-founders, John Entz and David Carter, started the company to educate athletes and sports departments on NIL subjects. Its business model is clear – they are paid by the school, not by the players or brands.
Schwab originally came from NFL Players Inc., the financial arm of the players’ organization, where his job was to generate revenue from player marketing rights.
Schwab and Altius President Oliver Luck, the former West Virginia athletic director and NCAA executive, deliberately stayed out of the deal in the first year of the NIL. But as they read the landscape and the NIL evolved, they saw that states that had previously barred schools from facilitating the agreement were pulling back.
In particular, Alabama, Illinois, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, South Carolina and Tennessee states have removed the ban on schools entering the NIL business by repealing the law, amending it or suspending it.
Northwestern is one of the schools that is releasing the GM program. Friends of Altius Games
“In most states, there are no restrictions on a university’s ability to enter the NIL,” Luck said. “Some of the schools we work with say, ‘Wait a minute, our state law doesn’t prohibit us from doing NIL at home.’
“There is no federal law on this. The NCAA was silent. Given all of this, schools are saying they need more help in-house to increase the value of players in order to recruit and retain them.”
Enrollment is not subject to federal law, state law or NCAA regulation. “Now it’s an official decision,” Schwab said.
The role of an on-campus GM will vary depending on the school’s needs. For example, Oklahoma State will hire a former football coach to be the head of the NIL department. Some schools may look for a former administrator, legal practitioner or someone with a sales and marketing background.
Regardless of qualifications and experience, the GM will serve as the head of the NIL department with support and training from Altius. Whether a coach, player or administrator has a question about NIL, they will go to one person for an answer.
“The NIL is still fresh,” Oklahoma State AD Chad Weiberg said. “They don’t really understand it and they want to make sure they don’t do anything wrong. So, we need more education about the programs and opportunities that might be out there, whether it’s the INFLCR, or the representatives ads that other players have, or other resources that we have like The Brand Squad,” which runs through. Spears School of Business.
The agency’s leadership team has grown its client base to 30 schools. Altius Sports Partners
South Carolina is one of those schools that stands to take advantage of the state law. When the NIL begins on July 1, 2021, the Gamecocks are prohibited from facilitating transactions. They can’t even open their sites to players for any kind of commercial use.
South Carolina was completely in year 1. Now, the state law has been suspended and the Gamecocks are free to help players make an agreement and use school facilities as a back.
