Pocket presence
BYU’s latest NIL deal could create a competitive advantage
A deal BYU has made available to its football players could test how much allowing athletes to be compensated by outside companiesforname,imageandlikenesscanbeusedas a competitive advantage.
Earlier this week, BYU announced Built Brands — a Utah-based company that makes protein snacks — will give all 123 members of the Cougars’ football team the opportunity to be paid to promote its products.
Scholarshipplayerscanearn$1,000.Forwalkons,playerswhoarenotonathleticscholarship, the payment can be equivalent to the cost of a year’s tuition at BYU, which ranges from about $3,000 to $6,000 per semester.
“This is creative and different,” said Blake Lawrence, the CEO of Opendorse, a firm that workswithschoolsonNIL-relatedmattersfrom brand building to compliance. “The first-move advantage here for both BYU and Built is very evident.”
BYU’s arrangement with Built drew national attention for the joyous celebration it sparked among the players and because it seems to provide the Cougars a way to circumvent the NCAA’sscholarship-limitrules.Teamsthatplay inthehighestdivisionofcollegefootballcanonly have 85 scholarship players on the roster. BYU athletic director Tom Holmoe told the AP on Friday that he and football coach Kalani Sitake were searching for a way to provide an NIL opportunitytotheentireteam,nottryingtofind a workaround to the scholarship limit.
“The whole mindset wasn’t to try to get a recruiting advantage or anything,” Sitake said. “Itwasjusttodowhatwethoughtwasrightand to help the walk-ons on this team.”
But Holmoe didn’t refute the idea that this could benefit BYU.
“Are we saying that people in collegiate football these days are not looking for competitive advantages? That’s like the essence of athletics is competitive advantage,” said Holmoe, who played seven season in the NFL with the San Francisco 49ers in the 1980s. “Competitive advantage exists in life. It’s called creativity. You comeupwithgoodideasthatgiveyouacompetitive advantage.”
TosatisfytheircontractswithBuilt,BYUfootball players must wear a decal with the company’s logo on their practice helmets and make at leastoneappearanceatacompanyevent.Walkons are required to make two appearances and promote the company on social media.
Holmoe said BYU did not negotiate the deal with Built Brands CEO Nick Greer, who is a friendofSitake’s,butitwasvettedbytheschool’s general counsel and president.
TheNCAAhastakenahands-offandpermissive approach to NIL, allowing schools in states that do not have NIL laws to set their own policies. Utah has no law, but the NCAA still does notallowNILpaymentstobeusedasrecruiting inducements or pay-for-play.
“There are still, I’ll say, rules,” Holmoe said. Built Brands is not funding scholarships, but paying athletes directly.
“(The players) don’t have to pay for their tuition,” Holmoe said. “They can do whatever they want with that money.”
Formostwalk-ons,though,themoneycanbe a game-changer.
“Ittakesstressoffforsure,”saidNickBilloups, a walk-on quarterback.
The NCAA lifted its longtime ban on athletes being compensated for the use of their names, imagesandlikenessesonJuly1,openingthedoor for all kinds of endorsement opportunities for athletes.
Butrulesaroundwhatathletescanandcannot do differ from state to state. Some states passed NILlawsinanefforttopressuretheNCAAinto action and maybe give their schools a competitive advantage over those in states that did not.
Instead, states with laws might now be limiting their schools compared to those that are makingtheirownpolicies.ThedealBYUhelped brokerforitsplayerswouldlikelynotbepermitted under state laws in places like Florida and South Carolina, said sports and entertainment attorney Darren Heitner.
Heitner helped arrange for a Florida gym owner to pay $500 a month to scholarship footballplayersatMiamiforpromotinghisgymson social media. He said the arrangement at BYU looks like an evolution of that.
“Iwouldexpectthatwewillseemorebrands and more schools — either in states that allow fortheirinvolvementorinstatesthatdon’thave NILlaws—trytonowduplicatethistypeofNIL deal,” Heitner said.
Heitner called any competitive advantage BYU might gain from being able to attract a better quality of walk-on player “speculative.” BYU is an Opendorse client, but Lawrence said the company had no involvement in the Built deal.
The real value for BYU, he said, could be in the attention this deal brought to the program at a time when every school is trying to position itself as the best place for players to take advantage of NIL opportunities. Even if other schools steal the idea, Lawrence said: “It will always be known as the BYU thing.”