Inking Ohio State's Zach Harrison, Limitless NIL roster expands

This week, Limitless NIL added another. The start-up NIL agency founded by Penn State quarterback Sean Clifford picked up a big one.

Ohio State senior defensive end Zach Harrison has joined the Limitless NIL family.

Announcing his partnership with Limitless NIL via social media platforms, the two-time second-team All-Big Ten selection became the latest in a growing roster of athletes for the young company. Also featuring teammates Ji’Ayir Brown, Curtis Jacobs, Keyvone Lee, and a host of others spanning multiple sports and universities, the addition puts Limitless NIL at 23 signed student-athletes on its roster. 

More than one year after the advent of name, image, and likeness legislation, and four months since the launch of Limitless NIL, Clifford’s business continues to grow. Stressing an athlete-first approach to forging NIL partnerships with businesses, the company is taking on a holistic approach to this untapped landscape in college athletics. 

“What’s real is there’s real money out there; 100 percent. When they say that the college sports marketing budget went from half a billion to a billion this year, that’s true,” Clifford told BWI last month. “There are a lot of issues still in the space. There’s no true solution yet. Now, we do it the right way, ethically, and that’s how we’re going to keep doing it. And that’s why we’re expanding. 

“We’re kind of growing exponentially now. But it’s because of how we’ve positioned ourselves. We started small, checked all the boxes, and made sure that it’s always centered on the athlete and really nothing else.”

Limitless NIL growth

Along with Clifford as the company’s CEO, he’s been joined in the venture by his brother, Liam, and former teammate Aeneas Hawkins on an executive team that numbers six people.

Having been through the NIL space himself, reportedly earning more than six-figures income off endorsements and other NIL opportunities before the launch of Limitless NIL, Clifford believes himself well-positioned to understand the tools required by student-athletes to do well in the space. 

In doing so, he’s sought to foster meaningful relationships between businesses and clients that extend well beyond a service provided for a fee.

“The moment that the business realizes that you’re in their court and it’s not just you taking money, now you want to grow them, they want to grow you. Now you’re talking not only monetarily getting profit, revenue,” Clifford said. “When you’re doing all these deliverables, they’re gonna start talking about equity. They’re gonna start talking about stock options. They’re gonna start talking about profit or rev share. All those things that nobody’s talking about yet because everyone’s just so focused on X coach giving out a million dollars.”

Next steps

Passionately working toward the growth of Limitless NIL this summer, with his sixth-year season at Penn State drawing near, Clifford is set to graduate in December. And whether his future after Penn State is in professional football or his budding entrepreneurship, or both, Clifford is confident that the underpinnings of the venture should serve as a model for how NIL agencies can operate.

“I think the problem is that not everybody is in it for the athlete. I think there are a lot of alternative motives around it,” Clifford said. “Not to say that I don’t want my business to be the greatest agency in NIL, I do. But I want it to be the greatest agency in NIL, not because it makes the most money, but because it makes the most money and we are helping athletes in the back end. 

“It’s not just about them making a million dollars. It’s not. That’s not what I’m trying to do. I’m trying to give them all the extra things that you don’t get through sport. We identified what it really takes to be a student-athlete, where are the holes, and how can an agency fulfill those holes now through NIL. And we kind of solved that issue.”