Knights Of The Raritan Collective closes down in latest readjustment of Rutgers NIL operation
Rutgers’ NIL market is undergoing changes significant changes today, as the Knights of the Raritan NIL Collective will be sunlit and all NIL operations will be moving in house according to an email from the collective’s President Jon Newman.
Newman, along with a group of highly respected individuals throughout the Rutgers community started the Knight of the Raritan Collective back in March 2022, and made some in-roads for the Scarlet Knights athletic programs on the NIL front when the athletic department was hesitant to dive into the space.
“As president of The Knights of the Raritan and on behalf of its board, I personally want to thank you for your support of Rutgers student athletes and our organization’s name, image and likeness efforts. As Rutgers coaches and staff members have told us, they don’t know where they would be without your support.
So once again, thank you so much.
It was never our intent to operate for as long as we have. Our hope was always to find a partner in the athletic department who possessed a strong, clear strategy and vision for student athlete NIL. An approach that could successfully take Rutgers forward as it navigates the ever-changing world of college athletics.
We finally have that partner, our new athletic director, Keli Zinn. She has our full support.
As a result, The Knights of The Raritan’s role as a NIL collective for Rutgers Athletics is ending. This is a change we’ve anticipated after meeting with Keli during the summer and have been working on for a while. All monthly recurring charges to KTR have been halted immediately.
Moving forward we encourage you to continue to support Rutgers Athletics in the ways that were recently communicated by RFund.
A final personal note, thanks to the KTR board who volunteered their time, and made donations both financially and in-kind. I would not have been able to do any of this without you.
We’re all looking forward to the continued success of our beloved Scarlet Knights and we’re excited about what the future holds.”
During a time where NIL was more important than ever, this group at KTR stepped up when others wouldn’t, signing deals with 140+ student-athletes to make sure they would stay Scarlet Knights.
Knights of the Raritan Accomplishments
Over the years, the Knights of the Raritan stepped up with several different fundraisers in an effort to increase the NIL piggy bank for the Scarlet Knights coaches, when the administration was hesitant to do so.
The most popular of all the events was the Scarlet Ticket, which was a giveaway strictly to members of the collective and guaranteed them two premium season tickets to just about every one of the Scarlet Knights athletics programs (football, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, wrestling) for a full season each. This initiative resulted in a significant increase in the amount of donors towards the collective.
On top of that, the collective also did several match donations, one of which was the YouKnighted campaign partnered with the RFund. Thanks to a generous anonymous donor who committed $250,000 to the campaign, the challenge was to raise another $250,000in on time contributions, but that number grew exponentially as they surpassed $1.3 million in total donations to help both current and future Scarlet Knight student-athletes.
There were several other giveaways throughout their time, as they gave away Knights of the Raritan members a chance to go into the locker room during pregame, signed memorabilia and merch, whiskey sets, mini-kegs and much more.
Athletic Excellence Fund + R NIL
On Monday, Rutgers announced the Athletic Excellence Fund, which will help support revenue-sharing with Rutgers student-athletes per the press release.
The Athletic Excellence Fund will provide critical support for revenue-sharing with Rutgers student-athletes. The investments will enhance the Scarlet Knights’ ability to recruit, retain, and develop top-tier talent across all sports. Gifts to this fund are tax deductible and supporters will receive Priority Points for contributions. The Athletic Excellence Fund will also generate the necessary resources to support the infrastructure of R NIL and to continue to build the Rutgers Athletics brand in the Big Ten and nationally.”
Along with that announcement, there was also an announcement for R NIL, which will be the new in-house collective of sort to help provide NIL to prospective student athletes per the press release.
This program will be made to secure partnerships and maximize any and all opportunities for Scarlet Knight student-athletes through Scarlet Assets Management Company (SAMCO), the foundational NIL program will allow Rutgers to compete in the national race for talent and excellence per a press release.
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