The marketplace for college athletes to engage in Name/Image/Likeness (NIL) deals was created in 2021 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 Aaron Whaley of the Omaha Bull Market NIL collective, who discussed what his group is about and what it has accomplished so far.
You are the chairman of an NIL collective called “Omaha Bull Market” that was formed last year: how complicated was it to create (if at all), and why did you do it? It was fairly complicated and not an easy process: the hardest part was to make sure we were in line with the NCAA/university. We wanted to partner with the university without infringing on any trademarks. The administration has been really great to deal with and they understand the value in it.
You own a real estate inspection and consulting business: how helpful is your background to running the collective (if at all)? That is 1 of my many businesses. I previously owned a real estate development company before selling it and have sat on several committees at UNO. Various UNO supporters that I have worked with in the past inquired whether I had any desire to do it: I did not at 1st, but my partner Matt Smith helped convince me to do it the right way. We heard some rumblings in town about people who were doing things that we did not like, which put me over the edge. I consider this my full-time job because the real estate manages itself. I was looking for a way to give back after having a great academic/athletic experience.
You played football at Simpson College in Iowa: how would your experience have been different if there was NIL money back then? We probably would not have received any money in D-3! I love that NIL is available but hate the way that some of the big schools are doing it,
Do you think the NIL model will be as effective at a WAC school, and what is the biggest difference between your collective and those at high-major schools (if any)? A lot of the numbers you are hearing are not actual numbers. I have been told that most schools are not filling out the compliance forms, so I do not know if the numbers you hear on TV are real. We have hockey players making enough money that they decided to return to school rather than go pro. I wish there was a database that everybody contributed to so that we could evaluate everything clearly. Is the 2nd-string lineman at a D-1 school making $100,000? I doubt it. We are doing deals that make sense and provide ROI to the businesses or our charitable partners in the community.
What kind of deals have you been able to work out so far? Most of our deals are tiny but we are doing some bigger deals. We do small deals of $500- $1000 or below, which helps because ⅓ of our athletes are not on scholarship. 1 of the biggest parts of my job is educating people. We are working with 1 athlete who does not have dental insurance, so we are trying to find him a couple of NIL deals to help him pay his dental bill. This is real-life NIL: I facilitated a deal with 1 female athlete who needed gas money to get home to see her family. I cannot get behind some of the 6-figure deals that some of the collectives at the biggest schools are doing. I’m a businessman at heart and if the deal provides ROI and the athlete and the business are happy it makes sense but that isn’t always the case. I am actively working on 14 deals that are sitting on my desk. We are working with doctor’s offices to car washes to local restaurants. The deal flow has definitely picked up and it is starting to come full-circle after people hear that we can do a 3-figure/4-figure deal. 1 company we are working with wants to bring awareness to mental health and is working with a few athletes on that.
In addition to basketball you work with hockey/women’s soccer athletes: why did you decide to do non-basketball sports? We are not specific to 1 sport: our very 1st deal was with a woman’s soccer player, and we also have a couple of basketball deals. The outdoor volleyball game at Nebraska last month brought a bunch of deals to our women’s volleyball players. I just wanted to make sure that everyone was included: I have 2 younger kids and we go to as many different UNO sporting events as we can. I like to be inclusive: I realize that the smaller sports are not getting deals as big as men’s basketball, but I like to spread the wealth when possible.
Your collective’s logo/brand contains a bunch of fascinating elements: what makes it so special? I cannot take any credit for that. We have a great graphic designer named Bob Lausten helping us out and Matt/I also strongly believe in bringing in students to help us out. We adopted the phrase that “we are doing NIL for all of UNO not just athletes”. We wanted everyone to know that we are Omaha-centric, so I love the fact that our website says it is “for athletes for fans for Omaha”. We separated the UNO “O” logo to make horns on our bull so that we would not infringe on any trademarks: it is still striking enough to be recognized as UNO. The “Bull Market” references spending and evokes a sense of strength and confidence which is how we want Omaha fans to feel about our athletes. We are here for Omaha and our logo certainly shows that!
You offer several membership levels ranging from $25/month to $10,000/year: what kind of extra perks do people get for being at the highest level? Access to athletes/special tailgates is the biggest perk. We have a silent partner who donated a suite to us at certain times throughout the year for basketball/hockey parties, and I sometimes give up my courtside tickets if we have members who want to attend a game. For $50/month we do “Bull Market Exclusives” which gives our members exclusive access to different players so that you really get to know them in a more personal way than just watching them on the field. We are getting the most reaction to that, which only requires a minimal investment: we try to drop 1-2 exclusives/week and will start our basketball content in the weeks ahead. We are different from most places and are pretty passionate about what we are doing even though it is pro bono.
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? I do a lot of charitable things and do not take any salary but am passionate about sports. I would never pressure anybody to donate because I know there are plenty of great charities out there, but we are doing this for the right reasons. We had a men’s soccer player who felt terrible about getting $500 so he went out and treated his entire team to dinner. My family has always taught me to give back and there are multiple ways to do so. We have our boots on and are working hard to do NIL for Omaha athletes the right way that benefits our athletes, charities, and business partners.
Earlier this year we saw a basketball team’s season suspended (New Mexico State) and a football team’s coach fired (Northwestern) due to hazing: how concerned are you about entering contractual relationships with teenagers who might end up behaving badly? It is a big concern so we do the best we can to vet everyone. All the athletes have to provide their social media accounts/information. I do not know if we will run into that (and I hope we do not) but we try to do our due diligence. I am a huge believer in everyone being nice to everyone else but there is no certainty in the world and will deal with it as it comes.