The marketplace for college athletes to engage in Name/Image/Likeness (NIL) deals was created last year after the NCAA v. Alston case and now it seems like every college is ready to start spreading the wealth. There are already more than 100 “collectives” either in operation or being formed. They allow alumni/fans/whoever to donate money to assist a specific school in creating opportunities for student-athletes to make some money off of their celebrity. We have reached out to many collectives and will try to interview representatives from as many of them as possible to see how each of them operates. HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel continues our coverage with Stephen Ford of the Country Roads Trust NIL collective, who discussed what his group is about and what it has accomplished so far.
Former West Virginia athletic director Oliver Luck and Arizona Diamondbacks general managing partner Ken Kendrick co-founded an NIL collective called “Country Roads Trust” last January: how complicated was it to create (if at all), and why did they do it? It is a start-up so we had to get everything from an LLC to a website to a trademark. I had to finish the process while getting athletes on-boarded and raising money from donors. It was a pretty crazy process: we were building the plane while we were flying it!
You are the general manager/COO: what sort of responsibilities do you have? I manage a staff of 3 others. I work with brands on sponsor relationships and work with individuals on the donor side (anywhere from $5000 to 6 figures). I wear 100 different hats but so does everyone else in our office: accounting, putting together deals, etc. Our goal is to get every 1 of our student-athletes an NIL opportunity.
How much of your focus is on basketball compared to football? We focus just as much on basketball as football. We are lucky to have 2 storied programs here including a head coach in Bob Huggins who is top-5 in career wins. They are both huge sports in our state so we are lucky.
What kind of connection (if any) will your group have with former players like Jerry West or people like Coach Huggins/Athletic Director Shane Lyons? We have a good relationship with Bob and his current staff and Jerry is part of our athlete advisory committee.
What kind of deals have you been able to work out so far? We have an insurance deal and a big banking deal: they are both longtime supporters of WVU athletics. We do appearances at tailgates and community events at Ronald McDonald House.
People are obviously free to do whatever they want with their hard-earned money…but do you ever have any second thoughts about whether you should be encouraging your donors to do something else like fight cancer/reduce homelessness? My concern is with Country Roads Trust and helping our current student-athletes. Our donors support Children’s Hospital right across the street from us, but from a philanthropic standpoint when they donate to the basketball program it is to help our community efforts.
You are working with more than 100 student-athletes: why did you decide to “spread the wealth” rather than focus on helping 1-2 high-profile student-athletes? There are no other big-time/pro schools in West Virginia: we are the #1 focus for sports in the state. We have the #1 rifle program and a great women’s soccer program and a university fundraising team that allows donors to support non-revenue programs.
In June you hosted football camps for elementary/middle school students: how do you balance giving money to student-athletes with scheduling events that are open to the public? When we do these kinds of camps we have a company that sponsors it and provides an opportunity to market to the community and show some goodwill. We are providing camps to kids from 7 different states and having the sponsors underwrite all of the money for our student-athletes. We did a needs analysis of what is important: we will do camps for all kinds of sports and our student-athletes love that!
What kind of cool stuff do people get if they became 1 of your top donors? It depends: we want to give them access to our student-athletes that they might not otherwise get. We have signed memorabilia, exclusive content, pregame tailgates, suite invites, golf tournaments, etc.