South Carolina is becoming the first college athletic department to partner with a sports marketing organization to establish a home brand, image and brand, where Gamecocks players will have free access to marketing, content creation and branding services.
The school hired Everett Sports Management (ESM) to launch Park Ave, a unique program that provides NIL services for Gamecocks players. South Carolina’s board of trustees on Tuesday afternoon approved the two-year, $2.2 million contract. Everett Sports Management, based in Greenville, SC, represents NFL players such as Jalen Hurts, Mac Jones and Jonathan Taylor, and handles NIL marketing for several college players, including Miami basketball players and social media stars Haley and Hanna Cavinder, Georgia quarterback Stetson Bennett. and Coastal Carolina quarterback Grayson McCall.
“There have been a lot of different approaches (toward the NIL), and none have gone this way,” South Carolina athletic director Ray Tanner told ESPN. “We are confident that this will be the environment for our young men and women to play sports and be recognized at the highest level.”
South Carolina state law allows schools to help players secure NIL contracts. Some states place restrictions on how schools may be involved.
According to the agreement, ESM will not represent South Carolina players who are still in school, and will be an “additional service” to players who already have NIL agents.
“Park Avenue will bring the contracts to the student-athletes, who would help facilitate these contracts through us, and then the student-athletes will get the entire contract,” South Carolina assistant athletic director Chance Miller told ESPN. “(Players) don’t pay a commission to any representation firm. We’re paying them that fee. You can have an agent, you can have a marketing agent, that’s fine. You can work with them, and (Everett Sports). Management) can bring you deals.”
ESM hired five new staff members to oversee the South Carolina program and cannot join another school during the first year of the contract. In Year 2, ESM cannot join other schools in the SEC or within the state.
“That was a big thing, the fact that they have a staff ready to support us in a unique way,” Tanner said.
Miller, who has known ESM president Dan Everett and his partner Jeff Hoffman for more than a decade, began working in the union ahead of July 2021, when college players were allowed to profit from their name, image and status. South Carolina has privately funded the initial agreement, which could eventually be included in its sports budget.
ESM’s proximity to campus played a key role in the deal, Miller said. The five new employees assigned to South Carolina will work with all players on campus and at the company’s studio and office in Greenville.
“College sports doesn’t have the ability to represent college athletes in name, image and image; it’s a complete 180 from what we’ve done throughout history,” Miller told ESPN. “Dani and Jeff and their team have done this year after year for professional athletes, and they’ve done it at a high level, especially with their NFL clients. This team will say, ‘You have 1.2 million fans. This is what you should be targeting businesses. This is what you should be asking for each sponsored post.’
“They looked over our records, they looked over our student-social actors. They’re ready to really take it down.”
South Carolina has several notable athletes, including Wooden Award winner Aliyah Boston from the school’s women’s basketball team; quarterback Spencer Rattler, a 2021 preseason Heisman Trophy candidate at Oklahoma; and G.G. Jackson, an upcoming men’s basketball player ranked by ESPN as the sixth player in his class. ESPN recently ranked Boston, who has 117,000 followers on Instagram, as college basketball’s most marketable player, followed by the Cavinder twins at Miami.
“This is allowing them to advertise themselves in a more creative way, and not just another camera shooting an ad on an iPhone,” South Carolina football coach Shane Beamer told ESPN. “South Carolina is as well positioned as any school in the country from an NIL standpoint because of where we’re located, the capital, the SEC, we don’t compete with athletics. This is just another way to capitalize on that and allow our guys to be successful.
“My biggest question was, ‘How soon can we get started?’ Because you see the benefits from it in so many different areas.”
Tanner said Park Ave will greatly benefit South Carolina’s 25-35 players, but the goal is also to get other players involved in their teams. Last season, ESM brokered a NIL contract for North Carolina star quarterback Sam Howell that also included his Tar Heels teammates.
“Well, not just for the big-name guys, but even the guys who aren’t as well-known as they should be,” Rattler told ESPN. “This will help the boys to get titles, help the boys in the team in various sports. It is exciting because we are the first school in the country to do it with a big organization. They will come and help us, so we will be very happy.”
South Carolina has two outdoor NIL leagues, which the athletic department negotiates with on a weekly basis. In 2021, the school partnered with Altius, NIL’s consulting and education company, and INFLCR, NIL’s social sharing platform.
The difference with ESM, according to South Carolina officials, is its direct marketing expertise and existing relationships with brands such as Eastbay and Champs Sports.
“Many donors give to groups, but many are reluctant,” Tanner said. “I don’t have a single partner who didn’t accept the idea of a national commercial company that has been successful in this area. For us, this is very different. We still have two groups that are supporting us. But this has the potential to take it to another level.”
Miller regularly attends meetings with South Carolina football and basketball recruiters, who often ask what amount of money the school can guarantee with NIL contracts. The ESM partnership is designed to create a stable income for Gamecocks players.
“We’re trying to get people close, where they’re not going to try to get you to that number and then move on,” Miller said. “Not only can you get that number, but you can probably get more than that number, and you get it all the time here, and then you walk out the door and you have those brakes that will continue to work with you. .”
