Trojans' NIL efforts take further shape with the newest collective

A new collective entered USC's crowded NIL landscape Friday, hoping to bring some clarity to the Trojans' efforts in this relatively new frontier of college sports.

House of Victory was announced Friday, making it the third USC collective. It actually is the second iteration of USC's first NIL initiative, BLVD LLC., with some of the same leadership.

BLVD was an attempt to be an agency for USC student-athletes looking for NIL opportunities, and was USC's official and exclusive NIL partner. But new NCAA guidelines in October made it illegal for a school's official NIL partner to provide representation.

Six months later, House of Victory will function as a standard NIL collective, partnering with deep-pocket USC alumni to provide marketing opportunities for student-athletes and paying them to use their name, image and likeness. In this way, it is similar to other USC collectives the Tommy Group and Victory Formation, which launched earlier this week.

But House of Victory has made an early effort to differentiate itself from the pack.

House of Victory is the first NIL collective to become a “proud sponsor of USC,” negotiating an arrangement with USC and its media rights holder Playfly Sports, much like other USC sponsors such as United Airlines and Audi.

The non-exclusive deal allows House of Victory to use the traditional cardinaland-gold color scheme in its branding and feature USC logos in its videos and marketing. The collective will also be featured during USC's spring game today, showing its announcement video featuring current and former Trojans like Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Caleb Williams, former star quarterback Rodney Peete and and former running back great Anthony Davis.

This partnership with USC is important to House of Victory's vision toward connecting with donors, many of whom are hesitant to give money that had previously gone directly to USC's athletic department. House of Victory's nonprofit status will likely ease similar concerns.

But House of Victory will also rely on its network of committed donors to attract others into the fold. Wellknown USC patrons Patrick Jones, Eric Holoman, Matthew Christensen and Wil Smith are already on House of Victory's alumni advisory council.

“Over the last six months, an executive team and advisory council made up of passionate, selfless Trojans meticulously created House of Victory,” Christensen said in a statement. “The mission is to provide the best NIL opportunities the student-athletes deserve by uniting the Trojan Family while impacting our community and future generations.”

There are still limits to what House of Victory and other USC collectives can do as they try to stay in line with the university's conservative NIL approach, which is still evolving.

USC collectives, including House of Victory, are not involved in the recruitment of individual players. They can only enter into agreements with enrolled students and cannot provide inducements for recruits to sign with USC, unlike when Florida's NIL collectives offered a $13 million deal to quarterback prospect Jaden Rashada.

That doesn't mean a collective can't work hand-in-hand with USC in certain matters. For instance, head football coach Lincoln Riley can approach a collective and ask for data on what USC's starting offensive linemen made in NIL the previous season. He then can provide that data to a recruit to give him an idea of his market value at USC.

While football will always be king at USC, House of Victory hopes to work with athletes from all 21 varsity sports. Its first signing was women's soccer player Simone Jackson, and athletes from volleyball, track and basketball are already in the fold. Donors can choose which sport their funds are designated toward.

And a collective can also help with player retention. One of House of Victory's partners is men's basketball guard Boogie Ellis. The Trojans' leading scorer last season, Ellis made clear his intentions to enter the NBA draft through much of the year. But Ellis made the surprise decision to return to USC and was a part of House of Victory's announcement video. While a collective can't make promises to Ellis before he's decided to return to school, it's not hard to see how NIL opportunities could offset or even outweigh the $40,300 minimum G-League salary for a prospect like Ellis who is unsure if he will make an NBA roster.