UConn athletics announces additional NIL resources, partnerships for athletes
The UConn athletic department announced plans to increase resources for athletes in the name, image and likeness (NIL) space on Monday.
UConn partnered with Opendorse in July 2021 to provide education, marketing and compliance technology to athletes. Nearly a year later, the Huskies will have additional educational opportunities through a partnership with the Peter J. Werth Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, and the athletic department has hired Jason Butikofer as a special assistant to the director of athletics with a specific focus on NIL.
“There is an abundance of resources on campus that will help us navigate the NIL landscape, as we endeavor to provide our student-athletes with the necessary knowledge and tools to succeed in this space,” UConn director of athletics David Benedict said. “I want to thank David Noble and the Werth Institute faculty for their expertise and willingness to assist our student-athletes in monetizing their NIL. The skills they will learn from the programming available at the Werth Institute will serve them extremely well in both the short term and the long term.”
The Werth Institute and the athletic department have partnered to create Championship Labs. This subdivision will “provide support in creating a personal branding plan, mentoring through brand development, early-stage business coaching, and assistance with financial planning and evaluating brand partnership offers.”
“Name, Image, and Likeness provides student-athletes with an accessible means to entrepreneurial behaviors that will evolve over time,” UConn associate professor and director of the Werth Institute David Noble said. “UConn’s Werth Institute will provide the highest level of creative support, start-up structuring and mentorship for student-athletes while creating opportunities for many students to further enhance their skill set for careers in social media, content creation and entrepreneurship.”
Butikofer, who served as director of athletics at Southern Utah (2015-17) and deputy director of athletics at Purdue (2017-20) and Washington (2020-22), will have a direct hand in these new initiatives as the internal NIL contact for athletes, coaches and staff. He will assist athletes with further education and oversee partnerships with the Werth Institute, Opendorse, Learfield and potential collectives.
The partnerships with Learfield and NIL collectives are also new. Learfield, the multimedia rights holder for UConn athletics, will combine with Opendorse to form a branded marketplace in which athletes can identify NIL opportunities more easily.
NIL collectives, which are when supporters of a school’s athletic department generate funds to help create NIL programs for athletes through a wide range of activities, have been sweeping across college athletics over the past year. UConn stated in a release that the athletic department has been working to explore and identify such collectives that align with the best interest of student-athletes. This includes the recently founded D’Amelio Huskies Collective, in which Marc D’Amelio, a 1991 graduate, will help provide opportunities and personal branding expertise to athletes. There is additional interest from UConn supporters for collectives, according to the athletic department.
All of these NIL resources will be enhanced by the fact that the Connecticut state legislature recently passed a bill allowing college athletes to use institutional marks in NIL deals, in accordance with policies dictated by each respective institution. UConn has been finalizing such policies ahead of the law going into effect on July 1.
Over the past year, international athletes have been restricted in the NIL space based on their visa category. In addition to the announced resources, UConn will also work with the International Student & Scholar Services to assist international athletes so that they get the same opportunities as domestic athletes.
