Michigan Vs. Everybody NIL program generates $30,000 in royalties for student-athletes
Valiant Management Group announced Monday evening that its Michigan Vs. Everybody initiative generated over $30,000 in royalties for Michigan student-athletes.
Through shirts, hoodies and knit hats sold at MDen.com, Valiant’s NIL program will evenly distribute its royalty pool amongst more than 200 student-athletes spanning 21 varsity sports. Valiant is responsible for facilitating nearly one million dollars in NIL deals for Michigan student-athletes and continues to look for innovative ways to spread the wealth around Ann Arbor. CEO Jared Wangler and his team have explored everything from group licensing apparel deals, signing events, autograph sessions, marketing partnerships (local and national), private training, NFTs and more.
Valiant’s mission
Via valiantofum.com: “To represent University of Michigan college athletes in name, image and likeness (“NIL”) opportunities which are consistent with the university’s high standards for ethics and compliance. To maximize the individual earnings for our athletes in opportunities which are consistent with their personal brand while providing an experience optimized for the student-athlete.”
CEO Jared Wangler: “I think in a perfect world we’re able to scale and bring on more agents and more resources so that we can bring NIL opportunities to more students on campus. We’d like to be able to find a way to get everybody compensated in some way. It’s going to take time, but I do think that’s feasible in the future. Best case scenario is being able to grow the company and being able to service the space for every student-athlete on campus.”
On what makes Michigan NIL special
Wangler: “When recruits are looking at ‘where am I going to get the best value from NIL?’…. Well, Michigan’s got the biggest brand in the country. Why not go to Michigan? Because then you’ll obviously get more deals than you would if you went to a school that has a smaller market share. It’s beneficial for us as a company, and it gives us the luxury of being able to pitch that to brands.”
“We’re not really supposed to be using NIL as an inducement for recruiting, but whenever I get asked questions about NIL from families or people that I know, I’m able to explain to them that if you come to Michigan and if you perform at a level that makes you marketable, I don’t think any other school in the country can beat what you’re going to see here in terms of what you’ll get from your jersey sales, what you’ll get from brand opportunities, what you’ll get from the support in the community — it really is a special atmosphere here.”
