How Jesse Edwards’s deal with West Virginia NIL collective developed
West Virginia center Jesse Edwards, who transferred from Syracuse and ranked as the No. 14 player in the transfer portal this offseason, promoted the NIL collective Country Roads Trust this week on Twitter.
Edwards was the centerpiece of West Virginia’s No. 1-ranked transfer class, which also includes former Arizona point guard Kerr Kriisa and former Montana State shooting guard RaeQuan Battle. Edwards was named a third-team All-ACC selection last season after he averaged a career-high 14.5 points and 10.3 rebounds.
In Edwards’ tweet that promoted Country Roads Trust, he included a video that was filmed in Amsterdam. Edwards is a native of Amsterdam, Netherlands, and Syracuse.com previously reported Edwards has an F-1 visa.
An F-1 visa is common for international students but limits the ways in which they can earn income in the U.S. The issue at hand is what’s called active income versus passive income and international athletes who have an F-1 visa and participate in the former in the U.S. could jeopardize their visa status.
On Wednesday, U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) and Congresswoman Lori Trahan (D-MA) reintroduced a bill to allow international athletes to enter into NIL deals without jeopardizing their visa status. However, for now, many athletes are forced to leave the country to perform the activities required in their contracts.
Country Roads Trust President Stephen Ford said Edwards is currently in the Netherlands preparing to play for the Dutch national team.
“He’s going to be in Latvia. He’s going to be in Denmark,” Ford said. “Going to be, I think, in Poland at some point over these next two or three months. So, we’re going to be able to do a few activations with him while he’s over there.”
Ford credited the collective’s legal counsel at Bowles Rice LLP, plus assistance from attorney Paul Saluja. Ford said Saluja provided guidance regarding the NIL activities for former Kentucky forward and 2022 Naismith Men’s College Player of the Year Oscar Tshiebwe, who was born in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Edwards’ father, David, told Syracuse.com in April that “Edwards wanted to return to Syracuse for a fifth year, but a “satisfactory” NIL deal could not be worked out to keep him here.”
New Twitter account for NIL activities
Jesse Edwards’ tweet was just his third tweet ever from his current account.
“He did start that up solely for this purpose,” Ford told On3 Tuesday morning, after leaving the bank to initiate the first payment to Edwards.
The video received roughly 35,000 views in the first 18 hours despite Edwards having just over 1,000 followers.
“Once Jesse was here on campus, we sat down with him. We said, ‘Hey, here’s our plan for this year,'” Ford said. “We’ve only got him for a year. We want to be able to utilize his audience the best that we possibly can. Yes, most of them are going to be Syracuse fans. Yes, most of them are going to be from overseas but we want visibility across the globe. There’s nothing better than that.
“And then when we were talking about Twitter, he said, ‘Well, I don’t really do a whole lot on Twitter.’ We said, ‘Look, that’s fine. That’s going to be totally up to you. If you want to activate a Twitter account,’ and he just said, ‘You know what, let’s just activate it. Let’s see how it works.'”
Ford said Country Roads Trust wanted to tell a story through Edwards’ video.
“His background, how he got there and obviously all done in Amsterdam,” he said. “So, we contracted out a company out there that’s very well-known over there in the Netherlands and we spent about two or three weeks collaborating on it.
“Like, ‘What’s it going to look like? What’s the story that we’re going to tell?’ And then once they shot it, it took them a while to cut it up. And just yesterday, Jesse signed his deal. And that’s the process that has to happen.”
Jesse Edwards: ‘Join me as I start a new chapter’
In Jesse Edwards’ tweet, he provided a link to where new members can join the collective.
“Join me as I start a new chapter in my journey with [West Virginia men’s basketball],” Edwards tweeted, tagging the program’s Twitter account. “Mountaineer Nation, I invite you to face this upcoming season head-on with [Country Roads Trust].”
In addition to one-time pledges, members can join at monthly rates of $6.99, $18.67, $30, $100, $250 or $500. Country Road Trust’s website says the $30 monthly option is a “featured plan.”
“I’m sure we have had an uptick but doing that video, our purpose was not necessarily to grow memberships,” Ford said. “Yes, we wanted to put our name out there. Yes, we wanted to put the website out. Our goal there is to change the narrative with basketball. It has been so negative lately – so down –and all we’re trying to do is change that narrative.”
West Virginia’s turbulent offseason
The men’s basketball program experienced a turbulent offseason because of the situation surrounding former coach Bob Huggins.
Huggins and West Virginia agreed to a suspension and salary reduction after he used a homophobic slur and denigrated Catholicism during a radio interview. Huggins was later arrested on suspicion of DUI, which led to Huggins announcing his resignation.
That was followed by an attorney who said he represents Huggins claiming that Huggins didn’t actually resign. However, West Virginia had already announced that Josh Eilert, a longtime staff member within the program, will serve as the interim head coach for the 2023-24 season.
Following all that, forward Tre Mitchell transferred to Kentucky and guard Joe Toussaint transferred to Texas Tech. Last week, shooting guard Jose Perez, who transferred to West Virginia from Manhattan in October 2022 but didn’t play last season, announced his decision to withdraw from the transfer portal to remain in Morgantown.
“I think we’re in a really good spot,” Ford said. “Me being here in West Virginia since the end of 2014, the beginning of 2015, the relationships that I’ve been able to cultivate over these years. We had some attrition. But for the most part, we had to make some phone calls just to say, ‘Hey, look. Here’s where we’re at. Yes, the roster value then, where we’re at then is completely different now obviously with that window, transfer stuff, losing some guys, adding some guys and having to change some agreements up.
“But I will say this. Our supporters stepped up big time. They weren’t going to let this whole thing fall apart over one [coach]. Now albeit he’s extremely loved in the state, very well thought of, very sad what’s going on. But they’re not tied to one guy. They’re tied to West Virginia because when he’s long gone from WVU, they want to have a program that they can be proud of. So, we were able to secure more commitments given everything that had gone on and then some. We’re actually in a really, really good spot today.”