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In-depth look at UConn’s name, image, likeness plan
The world of name, image and likeness in college sports is rapidly changing. UConn is...
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-> UConn’s athletic department has rolled out initiatives aimed at boosting the platform of its 650 athletes, collaborating with the school’s Peter J. Werth Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation to provide resources relevant to one constant in the fluid NIL landscape — one’s ability to develop a public image and/or business plan.
“We want UConn student-athletes to know they are going to have to work to really make money in NIL, but it also sets them up for an entire career post-UConn,” said UConn professor David Noble, director of the Werth Institute. “We’re a $30-plus million institute funded from philanthropists to bring entrepreneurial opportunities — anything that falls on that spectrum of self-employment, family business, social media, social influence, product development, all of these things all the way out to hardcore technology. ... There’s a place on the entrepreneurial spectrum where our students have the ability to make money, make a living and build out their skill set. We don’t get paid to sit around and wait for the world to come to us, so we want to build.” <-
- >The idea moving forward is for UConn student-athletes to begin building a social media following best modeled by one of its most famous alums, Marc D’Amelio, patriarch of a family prominent in social influencing. His daughter Charli is the most-followed account on TikTok and daughter Dixie ranks in the top 10. “Marc D’Amelio is tweeting about a plan to support the robust development of social media for student-athletes,” Noble said. “We’re looking at media careers, the pathway to media careers. ... This program first in class, first deployed where you have an academic program developed to support social media influencers and their entrepreneurial dreams. That’s how you get paid, eventually. We see it starting with, you pay me to promote your product, then I start promoting my own products, and eventually I’m a partner in companies. In talking to Marc D’Amelio on this, that’s how they built, that’s what their family is — and it’s valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars.”<-
->Learfield IMG, UConn’s multimedia rights holder and licensing agent by terms of a contract that extends through 2033, will work with Opendorse to promote individual athletes in the way it currently promotes UConn athletics as a whole. The Opendorse-Learfield partnership was announced by the companies last week and will impact schools across the country.
In short, UConn student-athletes can now be more prominently pushed into the marketplace. “It’s my belief, especially with the news out of the Capitol, that we have people that understand the parameters and the usage of those [UConn] marks,” Benedict said. “So we plan to have someone in the marketplace selling on behalf of the student-athletes. They are already doing that for the university and our athletics program, so why not build that out further and have someone dedicated and their sole focus is to sell on behalf of the student-athletes? It will be good for our student-athletes and for people in the marketplace because they’ll know where to go if they want to engage with our student-athletes.”<-
