D.J. Uiagalelei signs NIL deal with Candy Digital

CLEMSON — One of the top quarterbacks in college football has inked another NIL deal.

On Friday, Candy Digital announced the launch of its “Sweet Futures” initiative that will create NFT collectibles for premier college football players. Uiagalelei will be joined by three other quarterbacks in this new venture — North Carolina’s Sam Howell, Georgia’s JT Daniels and Cincinnati’s Desmond Ridder. The company plans to announce more NIL deals with players in the coming weeks.

NFTs are also known as non-fungible tokens and are essentially digital assets. Instead of trading cards or posters hanging on walls, NFTs can produce unique photos or video clips to use with today’s athletes that the consumer can buy online.

“What happened on July 1st in college athletics with Name, Image, Likeness rights was nothing short of a supernova,” said Gary Vaynerchuk, co-founding board member of Candy Digital, in a release. “College student-athletes are now able to market themselves in ways never imagined before, and together with a booming NFT marketplace, the interest in their first-generation collectibles has never been higher. ‘Sweet Futures’ is a very unique collection that brings tremendous long-term value to the end collector because of it potentially being many future superstars’ first NFT.”

Uiagalelei seems to be a quarterback on his way to stardom. Of all the signees, the Clemson Tiger was the only one who will not be draft-eligible at the end of the 2021 football season. The 250-pound pocket passer will still have one more season of school in the ACC. However, the expectation is for the sophomore to be one of the stars of college football this season and to compete for Heisman Trophy honors. The hype is that strong surrounding the former top-10 recruit per the 247 Sports Composite.

Known as Big Cinco by his friends and teammates, Uiagalelei brings a lot of value to the new NIL marketplace. This is a player who is nationally relevant and will get plenty of screen time from ESPN throughout the next two seasons. It’s no real surprise that brands venturing into the NIL scene are wanting to get Clemson’s starting quarterback on board.

“I’m really excited to be able to jump into the NFT marketplace,” Uiagalelei said in the release. “With NIL taking effect this month, we finally have the ability to share in the business of college sports. The vision Candy Digital has for college athletes like myself in creating these NFTs for fans and collectors is super exciting to me.”