Pitt, Alliance 412 Change Football NIL Structure

The Pitt Panthers and Alliance 412 changed the football NIL Structure.

Aug 31, 2024; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Pittsburgh Panthers head coach Pat Narduzzi looks on against the Kent State Golden Flashes during the second quarter at Acrisure Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images / Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images

PITTSBURGH -- The Pitt Panthers have worked with Alliance 412, the NIL (Name, Image and Likeness) Collective that supports student-athletes at the university, for a few years now, but recently changed how they operate this past offseason.

Pitt football head coach Pat Narduzzi and Chris Bickell, who founded Alliance 412, both worked together after a 3-9 record in 2023, the worst in 25 years, to find a new strategy with NIL that would support those who performed at their best.

Ross Dellenger of Yahoo! Sports interviewed both Narduzzi and Bickell about their change to the NIL structure and what they did following that poor 2023 season.

Bickell, who also donated $20 million to the school in 2021 initially worked to give all 85 scholarship players a chance to sign with the collective. This led to players earning around five figures on average and the entire team costing around seven figures.

They changed the system from team-based to rewarding players who earned it, which Bickell wanted to do, hoping that it would incentivize the players to peform.

“You have to be hungry,” Bickell said to Dellenger. “If you want sponsorships and want to be paid like a professional, you have to earn it. This team is hungry.”

Pitt is one of the best teams in the country this season 7-0, their best start since 1982, 4-0 in ACC play and ranked No. 18 in the latest AP Poll.

They excelled in the winter transfer portal, landing redshirt freshman quarterback Eli Holstein from Alabama and starting center in redshirt junior Lyndon Cooper from NC State.

New offensive coordinator Kade Bell also used it to bring in some of his players from Western Carolina that would help integrate Pitt into his up-tempo, spread attack. This includes star junior running back Desmond Reid and wide receivers in junior Censere "C.J." Lee and redshirt junior Raphael "Poppi" Williams Jr.

These additions for the Panthers benefitted them, while some Narduzzi had to tell certain players, that came in demanding large sums of money after the 2023 season, to find another program.

Narduzzi understands NIL playing an important role in college football right now, but also wants the right players that will bring that success as well.

“Money doesn’t get you a championship,” Narduzzi said to Dellenger. “If it did, all these teams that have spent all this freaking money would be really good. Florida State. Michigan is spending a lot of money. I want hungry players."

Bickell and Alliance 412 will wait until the end of the seson before they chose to negotiate NIL deals with the current players and they will do their best to retain that talent in guys like Reid and Holstein.

“We are careful with our dollars,” Bickell said. “There are guys on this team that are not getting paid tons and they are producing. We know we have high-value players in the market. We’re going to have teams interested in Dez Reid, right? No one knew he could play. We are leaving the negotiating to the end of the season.”

He told Dellenger that he has strong faith in Pitt succeeding in the new landscape of college athletics and that the Pittsburgh market will play a role in doing so.

Bickell has a strong staff at Alliance 412, with talent evaluator Doug Whaley, who previously served as general manager for the Buffalo Bills, and John Pelusi, who has great local ties and experience fundraising, both of whom will help Pitt compete in football and men's basketball going forward.

“Trust me,” Bickell said to Dellenger, “what we’re doing at Pitt, we are going to compete on the national level in the revenue sharing. I’ve been in those meetings.”

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