UCF Kingdom NIL: How and Why It Matters
How does an NIL collective work? Why does it matter? Why should I or my company donate to sponsor student-athletes?
Those have been some of the questions that people have asked about the new Name, Image, and Likeness era, regardless of the school they follow and love, that’s seemingly engulfed the college athletics landscape.
This topic encompasses basketball and football for sure, the true money makers for college athletic department budgets, but it has also changed how each sport operates.
NIL can literally impact any given college program, as players transferred to other schools in search of financial opportunities. With that in mind, UCF has made major strides in an attempt to stay competitive prior to joining the Big 12 Conference this upcoming July.
Here’s what UCF has published on its own NIL collective, Kingdom NIL:
Proud to be an official sponsor of UCFAA and support our student athletes with NIL. #kingdomNIL #ChargeOn pic.twitter.com/nbz8ZUULwa
— The Kingdom NIL (@KingdomNIL) January 13, 2023
From the talking points that came from UCF athletics director Terry Mohajir, the Kingdom NIL does indeed hope to help the Knights be competitive. Discussing the topic, the following quote from Mohajir was an important one that Knights fans need to think about.
“While the statutes in each state vary, updated guidance from the NCAA now allows UCF athletics to promote collectives who represent our student-athletes with NIL opportunities. Knight nation’s financial support to these collectives is imperative to remain nationally competitive.”
Simply put, to be a team that can go out and beat the best in the Big 12 Conference and across the national landscape, there needs to be consistent and considerable financial support from UCF donors and boosters.
The Knights can certainly win in any particular sport moving forward, but that takes financial backing. The collective will be a way to keep athletes at UCF once they enroll, as well as a new way to give credibility to why recruits should consider coming to Orlando in the first place.
The next year to two years will be important for UCF to establish that its collective can be one that offers considerable support to its student-athletes. UCF did a good job of setting it up and doing it the right way. It was just the beginning, however.
UCF has openly made it clear that's interested in businesses and donors working athletes that represent the Knights. How fast that grows will likely help determine final win-loss records.
Today’s article was the bare bones of what’s happened with UCF and NIL, and what it hopes to achieve moving forward. Tomorrow, I will personally openly discuss the realities of NIL, in Part II, as it relates to how it’s completely changed college football recruiting.
That upcoming commentary will help to further define why Mohajir’s quote above was absolutely correct.
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