Texas Collective Partners with Panini to Support Longhorn Athletes

Sports and entertainment collectibles company signs exclusive, multi-year agreement with Texas One Fund

Texas Longhorns take the field before they take on Colorado State at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium in Austin Saturday, Aug. 31, 2024. / Mikala Compton/American-Statesman / USA TODAY NETWORK

Following up on their recent launch of Panini College - a NIL platform that enables all student-athletes at a partner schools such as the University of Texas to have their own trading card - the sports and entertainment collectibles company is doubling down in Lone Star State. Panini announced an exclusive, multi-year agreement with the Texas One Fund, the official NIL collective for the Longhorns.

The collective and trading card brand will collaborate on engaging Longhorn athletes and teams to join the Panini College platform and will work to develop Texas collegiate NIL trading card products, provide co-branded marketing support for athletes around relevant trading card sets and the Texas One Fund and host select card signing events featuring Longhorn athletes.

“As a former student-athlete at the University of Texas, I’m thrilled to bring together two storied sports entities to empower student-athletes - past, present, and future - at Texas and beyond,” said Chris Ogbonnaya, Vice President, NIL Relations for Panini America and former Longhorn and NFL running back. “The NIL space is ever-changing and evolving, but is still in its early stages, and Panini is primed to help student-athletes everywhere seize this opportunity. Our new Panini College platform is an important example of that and will serve as a hub for student-athletes to engage with NIL opportunities at their respective schools.”

Panini currently has exclusive partnerships with multiple collegiate athletes, including Texas quarterback duo Quinn Ewers and Arch Manning plus incoming basketball star Tre Johnson, so this is a continuation of their massive footprint in Austin. Additional athlete partners include Nebraska All-American volleyball star Lexi Rodriguez and freshman quarterback sensation Dylan Raiola, Ohio State freshman quarterback Julian Sayin and USC All-American wide receiver/returner Zachariah Branch, among others. The brand previously launched a Caitlin Clark Collection, a multi-card set that celebrates Clark’s historic basketball career at Iowa.

“The partnership with Panini presents another best-in-class NIL opportunity for the student-athletes we serve at The University of Texas through the Texas One Fund,” said Patrick “Wheels” Smith, President of Texas One Fund. “We could not be more excited to work with Panini to bring our Texas athletes exclusive one-of-a-kind opportunities across a multitude of sports programs.”

The Panini College platform currently includes the football and volleyball programs at Texas, Nebraska and Ohio State, but will expand to more schools.

The No. 2 ranked Longhorns next host the University of Texas at San Antonio on Saturday.