Clemson Ventures Established to Generate Revenue for Tigers Athletics

The Clemson Tigers are establishing a new venture to help the program keep up with the changing face of athletics.

Graham Neff, Athletic Director, listens as Shawn Poppie, Clemson University Tigers women's basketball coach speaks during a press conference introducing him at Littlejohn Coliseum in Clemson, S.C. Monday, April 2, 2024. / Ken Ruinard / USA Today Network / USA TODAY NETWORK

The Clemson Tigers have plenty of bills to pay with the coming of revenue sharing with college athletes, which is expected to start next fall.

On Wednesday, Tigers athletic director Graham Neff announced the establishment of Clemson Ventures, which is designed to maximizing revenue-generation strategies for the department.

In a release, the athletic department announced that the search for a new chief executive officer is underway.

Recently, the long-form House vs. NCAA settlement was filed in court and is awaiting a judge to approve it or amend it for further negotiation.

Part of the settlement requires athletic programs like Clemson to pay back student-athletes that played from 2016-20 up to $2 million per year up to 10 years for their inability to access things like Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) opportunities.

Another part of the settlement is an agreement in the expansion of scholarships, an expansion that will require schools to opt-in to sharing up to $22 million per year to current and future student-athletes.

If approved, the roster limit for football would be 105. Men’s and women’s basketball would be allowed 15 spots each. Baseball would get 34 spots, softball would get 25 spots and volleyball would get 18 spots.

These changes will require money, and while much of the discussion has been around sharing of television revenue, Neff said that the creation of Clemson Ventures is designed to allow the athletic department to leverage its own brand to support those efforts.

The new venture designed with a true private-sector business structure and full-service marketing and NIL agency capabilities to drive revenue.

“By creating this integrated entity, we are not only advancing our revenue-generating capabilities but also fortifying Clemson’s position as a leader in collegiate athletics,” he said in a release.

Clemson Ventures will be designed to manage the school’s multimedia rights integration (the Tigers own their own internal rights and don’t partner with an external firm like Learfield), original media content, its own NIL agency, sales and marketing efforts and a business operations unit.

Neff told reporters on Wednesday that he’s not ruling out partnerships like naming rights, such as the one that the University of Tennessee signed with the Pilot gas station chain for Neyland Stadium or private equity, which at least one ACC school — Florida State — is strongly considering.

The Big 12 Conference is reportedly considering private equity partnerships, but those discussion are in the early stages, according to commissioner Brett Yormark.