Mattress Mack inks $1 million NIL deal with Houston basketball team

Collectives and high-profile donors have been a defining piece of the first two years of the NIL Era. A major player in the Houston market is making a return to the NIL space.

Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale has signed another team-wide NIL deal with the Houston basketball team valued at $1 million. It’s the second time in less than a year the owner of Houston’s Gallery Furniture and notorious sports bettor has committed upwards of seven figures to the Cougars.

He won about $75 million, believed to be the largest payout in sports betting history, last November when the Houston Astros won the World Series. He also had upward of $3.5 million riding on Houston winning the NCAA men’s basketball championship.

Mattress Mack is now using his funds to benefit the Cougars again. Facilitated by the Houston-driven NIL collective LinkingCoogs, the NIL campaign will take place when the team makes their trip to Australia next month. This will allow redshirt freshman center Cedric Lath, a native of the Ivory Coast, to participate in the partnership. Contracts have been signed by 14 athletes.

“The reality is, obviously, in a large, large thanks to Mack, we were in a great spot last year for NIL for last year’s team,” LinkingCoogs co-founder Landon Goesling told On3. “Had a lot of success, obviously, this year moving forward, going into the Big 12. That’s kind of the biggest piece of this whole NIL thing. How do we build sustainability? And the reality is, you need year in, year out support to be able to do what you need to do and to be able to win at a high level and compete.”

The full terms of the agreements were not disclosed, but Goesling said the deliverables will include social media promotion and attendance at Gallery Furniture events. The brunt of collectives that have emerged in NIL’s first 21 months has opted to raise funds while others have registered as nonprofits. Unlike most, LinkingCoogs does not accept donations on its website. Instead, the collective facilitates deals with local businesses.

The Cougars were a No. 1 seed entering March’s NCAA tournament, eventually falling in the Sweet 16 to Miami. They finished 33-4 on the season, however, and were the top-ranked team in the country for seven weeks. Despite losing All-American Marcus Sasser, Houston added transfers LJ Cryer and Damian Dunn. Both signed with LinkingCoogs just days after the duo transferred to Houston.

Mattress Mack has now executed four partnerships in the NIL era. Along with his two seven-figure investments, each member of the 2021-22 team received $3,000 for an autograph signing at Gallery Furniture.

This past March, McIngvale provided funds for Florida Atlantic‘s athletes’ families and friends to make the trip to the Final Four.

LinkingCoogs surpasses $5.1 million in NIL deals

Back in March, the Houston-focused collective had facilitated more than $2 million in NIL deals. That number has now surpassed $5 million. Since March, LinkingCoogs has facilitated another seven-figure deal with Mattress Mack and a $1 million partnership to the Cougars football team through Daspit Law Firm.

The sportswear brand Actively Black inked a team partnership this past season, too, which was also facilitated through LinkingCoogs.

With the jump to the Big 12, Houston has had to compete in the ever-evolving NIL landscape. The NIL arms race has emerged as the biggest theme in college football and basketball since the NCAA allowed athletes to begin monetizing their publicity rights back in July 2021.

While the University of Houston does have a school-specific NIL marketplace with Opendorse, LinkingCoogs has become one of the largest deal facilitators for Cougar athletes. Austin Elrod, Troy Kyle, Norman Stalarow and Greg Ralph founded the venture, bringing on Goesling to help run the operation. Goesling was formerly both a Houston guard and grad assistant. Athletes are compensated by partnerships procured by the collective. On LinkingCoogs’ website, businesses can fill out a form to set up an NIL deal.

“This will put us right about $5.1 million since our launch 11 months ago,” Goesling said. “And that’s money through the door. I think that’s massive. But to see how far we’ve come and the momentum we’ve gained in 11 months, obviously speaks a lot to our university and everyone on staff at the university, all of our student-athletes and great membership partners. But most importantly, our hard work.

“It’s kind of a snowball effect, right? One turned into three that turned into seven. Now this thing is really, really rolling.”