New, unaffiliated NIL Collective launches at Towson for student-athletes
By: Jake Shindel, Sports Editor
To keep up with the ever-evolving world of Name, Image and Likeness, the Goh Collective has started for Towson University student-athletes. Unaffiliated with the university, the collective aims to make it easier for businesses and donors to contribute to student-athlete NIL at Towson.
NIL is a policy that allows student-athletes to profit off their name, image, and likeness. The National Collegiate Athletic Association passed the law making NIL legal on July 1, 2021, after decades of restrictions against student-athletes making money off their NIL.
Student-Athlete NIL (SANIL) works with Oklahoma, Notre Dame, Penn State, Rutgers, and other universities and is the third-party company running Towson’s collective. SANIL’s website currently includes 16 universities that it works with.
Towson is not allowed to help student-athletes negotiate NIL deals per NCAA guidelines, so that’s where SANIL comes in.
“When Goh Collective gets a NIL contribution, the donor or business usually has a specific team or player in mind that they want their contribution to go to,” Barlow said. “SANIL will then work with the business and donor to create an activation with the student-athlete or team. If the business or donor simply gives to Goh Collective, SANIL will create a NIL activation for the student-athlete in order to receive payment. There must be a quid-pro-quo between the athlete and an individual or business. Examples of NIL activations include appearances, autograph signings, and social media posts, to name a few.”
While SANIL is unaffiliated with Towson, the company’s Chief Operating Officer Alexis Henderson Barlow said that the two sides still have to communicate about some things.
“We’ve spoken with folks in their athletic department just about the process, how it works, those types of things,” Barlow said. “We’re an independent third party, not affiliated with the university. We work independent of the university, but obviously, we are very transparent, and we have to disclose what we are doing with the student-athletes. But we are not a part of Towson in any way.”
Before the Goh Collective started for Towson, student-athletes reported all NIL deals to the University through a software called INFLCR Verified. Towson’s Associate Athletic Director of Compliance Services, Terry Porter, said that would remain the same despite the new collective.
Porter thinks that the collective will help student-athletes at Towson find NIL deals.
“I think it’s important for student-athletes to be able to pursue NIL opportunities,” Porter said. “The collective would be part of that.”
In addition to understanding the collective’s importance in helping student-athletes earn NIL deals, Porter mentioned university athletic departments as an important part of supporting its student-athletes.
“I think it’s important for athletic departments and Towson athletics to continue to support our student-athletes through education, to continue to support them by providing resources like INFLCR for brand awareness. And it’s important for fans and donors to continue to support financially student-athletes,” Porter said.
The collective for Towson is new, so while there have not been any contributions yet, Barlow says she hopes they will have more data to report by next semester.
