Money in College Sports: NIL, Part 2 with AJ Vaynerchuk and Laine Higgins

This episode is Part Two of our Money in College Sports: NIL series. Until last year, college athletes were prohibited from collecting any compensation. But today, thanks to Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) deals, the stakes are high and getting higher. To make sense of this issue, I speak with Mr. AJ Vaynerchuck from Vayner Sports and Laine Higgins from the Wall Street Journal.

AJ Vaynerchuk is the co-founder of sports management agency, Vayner Sports where he has been a part of several NIL deals for some of the top athletes in the country. We talked about what brands are looking for when they partner with college athletes, how big the deals have gotten, the specifics of the deals he's done with Dr. Pepper and Kool-Aid, and we go down the road and think about just what college sports are going to look like in the next five to ten years.

Laine Higgins is a former college athlete and is now a sports reporter for The Wall Street Journal where she covers, among other things, college sports. She and I discuss Title IX and its implications for the NIL deals, and what responsibility schools have for ensuring equal access for both men and women to these kinds of deals. We talk about how and why brands are structuring deals with athletes from non-revenue sports like volleyball, swimming, and track and field, and to what degree attractiveness and sex appeal drives followership on social media and thus, the potential value of an NIL deal. (Be sure to listen to that part because–even though I ask the question sincerely–I still manage to come across like a complete creep!)

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Follow AJ Vaynerchuk:

Twitter - https://bit.ly/3SZtPjt (@ajv)

Instagram - https://bit.ly/3Vq0Rec (@ajv)

Website - https://vaynersports.com

Follow Laine Higgins:

Twitter - https://bit.ly/3EJJWxh (@lainehiggins17)

WSJ Articles - https://on.wsj.com/3VwSRrW