In the NIL era, the NFL is working with college athletes from 100 universities

Now that amateur athletes can profit from their name, image, and likeness (NIL) rights, college sports are changing, and the pros are changing right along with them. The NFL is ramping up its collegiate marketing program by forging new partnerships with universities and their resident student-athletes.

Through the marketing program, college athletes get face time on NFL social channels and receive access to the football league’s valuable IP, which they can utilize in NFL-sponsored content. Not all of the creators in the marketing program play football. One individual who has appeared on the league’s channels, according to Digiday, is gymnast Olivia Dunne (pictured above) from Louisiana State University. Dunne, who has emerged as one of the biggest NIL stars in the nation, showed up on an NFL-run hub called The Checkdown.

The NFL tapped its own execs as well as college sports big-shots like University of Colorado coach Deion Sanders to speak at a collegiate marketing program summit on July 26. Per Digiday, the number of universities participating in the program has gone up from 60 to 100 year-over-year. All 32 NFL teams are part of the initiative as well.

“The strategies and ideas come from both directions, ensuring that we’re covering everything from key collegiate matchups and storylines to combine performance, draft, rookies’ first games and so much more,” NFL Senior Director of Club Social Strategy Sana Merchant told Digiday. Merchant added that the league is in “constant” communication with its collegiate partners.

These types of deals existed before the onset of the NIL era, but the NFL is ramping up its activity to make sure it stays active in an exploding sector of the content industry. Everyone from media companies to TV networks to management agencies is eager to work with student-athletes as they harness the money-making and channel-building potential of their NIL rights. The NFL already had connections to iconic college sports creators like Deestroying. Now it’s moving the proverbial chains to make space for more partnerships of that ilk.