The Business of College Sports

In this episode, I'm joined by Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Commissioner Dr. Dennis E. Thomas to chat about the MEAC's new partnership with Syracuse University and how his conference is approaching name, image and likeness for its student athletes.

Dr. Thomas is the third full-time commissioner of the conference and entered his 20th year this summer. He's retiring in December, but he's made some big moves for the conference ahead of his exit.

In this episode, we discussed:

• His approach to NIL at the conference level for MEAC student athletes
• What he thinks makes MEAC, and other HBCU, student athletes uniquely marketable
• How HBCUs will benefit from their student athletes landing NIL deals
• How the MEAC's partnership with Syracuse came to be
• What he hopes MEAC student athletes, staff and professors will get out of the partnership with Syracuse
• How partnerships like this one and the SWAC's with the Pac-12 can drive change

You can also follow me on Twitter and Instagram to discuss further, ask additional questions or suggest future episodes.

You can find more of my analysis on the business of college sports at BusinessofCollegeSports.com and Forbes.

You can follow Kristi on Twitter and Instagram to discuss further, ask additional questions or suggest future episodes.

You can find more of her analysis on the business of college sports at BusinessofCollegeSports.com and Forbes.

I'm joined on this episode by Trevor Bechtold, Director of Sports, Recreation + Entertainment at HOK. He's an architect who has worked on projects like the expansion to the Penn State University Lasch Building and Clemson University’s new Allen N. Reeves Football Complex.

After hearing the news that Clemson is developing a new student athlete branding institute as part of their Poe Indoor Practice Facility renovation, I asked Trevor if other athletic departments are starting to think about how to adapt facilities to assist student athletes with their NIL activities. He gave a resounding "yes," so I asked him to come on the podcast and tells us more about how he thinks facilities will be impacted by student athletes' new NIL rights.

In this episode, we chatted about:

• How athletic departments are starting to factor NIL into facilities planning
• The types of spaces, tech, graphics and other features that can enhance NIL opportunities for student athletes
• What features seem to be most popular right now in these discussions
• How spaces might be adapted with recruiting in mind
• How even departments with smaller budgets can take NIL into consideration

You can connect with Trevor on LinkedIn or by email.

You can also follow me on Twitter and Instagram to discuss further, ask additional questions or suggest future episodes.

You can find more of my analysis on the business of college sports at BusinessofCollegeSports.com and Forbes.

You can follow Kristi on Twitter and Instagram to discuss further, ask additional questions or suggest future episodes.

You can find more of her analysis on the business of college sports at BusinessofCollegeSports.com and Forbes.

In this episode, I'm joined by Zach Beebe, the co-founder of NIL Management. Based in Columbus, Ohio, NIL Management has secured a steady stream of local deals for Ohio State student athletes, including cars for six football student athletes from one dealership.

After interviewing Zach for my piece on all of the car deals we've seen so far, I asked him to come on and talk more about the NIL economy in Columbus, Ohio. A few cities and schools have stood out to me while reporting on NIL, and Columbus and Ohio State are among them. Zach is at the epicenter of it all, so I wanted to learn more about how local businesses are embracing NIL and how it's benefitting Ohio State student athletes. 

We chatted about:

• The opportunities he's seen student athletes get the most excited about and the strategies they're building
• The reception around Columbus to the opportunity to work with student athletes
• How Zach got a local dealership to give cars to six different student athletes
• The comprehensive marketing plan he helped build with Coughlin Chevrolet
• How much content creation a marketing agency like his is having to do with student athletes to maximize deals
• How he thinks Ohio State has embraced NIL from an athletic department standpoint
• Opportunities for female student athletes

You can follow Zach on Instagram.

You can also follow me on Twitter and Instagram to discuss further, ask additional questions or suggest future episodes.

You can find more of my analysis on the business of college sports at BusinessofCollegeSports.com and Forbes.

You can follow Kristi on Twitter and Instagram to discuss further, ask additional questions or suggest future episodes.

You can find more of her analysis on the business of college sports at BusinessofCollegeSports.com and Forbes.

In this episode, I am joined by Dave Capitano, the Higher Education Practice Leader at Baker Tilly. Dave has worked with hundreds of universities on a variety of higher education matters, from finance and operations issues to esports and name, image and likeness.

I was recently on Dave's podcast discussing the first 50 days of NIL. In our time off air, he mentioned his passion for esports, and I jumped at the chance to have him come on and educate me because I've admittedly been sleeping on esports.

Did you know more than 175 colleges and universities have an officially recognized varsity esports program with more than 5,000 student athletes participating in esports? There's a whopping $16M in scholarships for elite esports players--a fact I was shocked to learn. In addition, more than 475 institutions have esports clubs.

Dave joined me this week to share what it takes to add esports, the revenue opportunities, and even the crossover opportunities with athletic departments. Sneak peek: he shared a fantastic idea I think all athletic departments should steal with regards to engaging donors!

Some things that Dave and I discussed on the podcast were:

• The popularity of esports at college universities ranging from the Division I to the club sports level
• The scholarship opportunities involved with esports
• The different revenue opportunities involved with esports
• Facility considerations for esports
• The challenges of policing your team in a competitive, virtual world
• A look at esports recruiting
• Crossover opportunities for athletic departments and esports programs

Check out Baker Tilly's esports evaluation guide for more information.

You can follow Baker Tilly on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube. As mentioned, you can also follow Dave on TikTok.

You can also follow me on Twitter and Instagram to discuss further, ask additional questions or suggest future episodes.

You can find more of my analysis on the business of college sports at BusinessofCollegeSports.com and Forbes.

You can follow Kristi on Twitter and Instagram to discuss further, ask additional questions or suggest future episodes.

You can find more of her analysis on the business of college sports at BusinessofCollegeSports.com and Forbes.

This episode I am joined by Katie Davis, a CPA, Partner, and Collegiate Athletics Practice Leader at James Moore & Co., an accounting firm that works with collegiate athletics departments, athletic associations, booster clubs, and other higher education-related organizations nationwide.

Katie has dedicated her career to providing accounting and consulting services to universities and advocating for the financial voices in college athletics. She helps to educate the sports business industry on relevant issues that impact us now and in the future. I was previously on Katie's News & Brews podcast discussing the first day of NIL.

In this episode, Katie joins me to explain the tax implications and questions surrounding NIL activity by student athletes. Some of what we discuss includes:

• Tax liability for a student athlete who is a resident of a different state than the state where their university is located, plus what happens if their NIL activity takes place in another state (like a commercial shoot)
• How a student athlete reports the value of merchandise, products and travel vs. cash payments
• Whether things like iPads provided by athletic departments to student athletes are taxable
• Tax implications of car deals
• How much student athletes should set aside from NIL revenue for taxes
• How NIL might impact need-based aid or dependent status
• Expenses student athletes might be eligible to deduct in relation to their NIL activities
• Paying quarterly taxes vs. annual as as student athlete

You can follow Katie on Twitter and check out her podcast, News & Brews.

You can also follow me on Twitter and Instagram to discuss further, ask additional questions or suggest future episodes.

You can find more of my analysis on the business of college sports at BusinessofCollegeSports.com and Forbes.

You can follow Kristi on Twitter and Instagram to discuss further, ask additional questions or suggest future episodes.

You can find more of her analysis on the business of college sports at BusinessofCollegeSports.com and Forbes.

This episode I'm joined by Oliver Luck, former WVU football student athlete, NFL player, NCAA administrator...and perhaps most important to this conversation, the former WVU athletic director who guided the Mountaineers through the last round of conference realignment. 

While Luck considered it an honor to be the athletic director at his alma mater, he was faced with challenges during his tenure. Not the least of those was Pittsburgh and Syracuse leaving the Big East in 2011, which necessitated a move for WVU. 

Luck chats about his career, the history of conference realignment, the challenges that an athletic director faces and the impact that television and other schools have in the realignment process.  

In this episode we discussed: 

• How Luck found out the Big East was in trouble
• Luck's first actions once he realized WVU needed to find a new conference and which conferences he called first
• The challenges realignment brings for an athletic director 
• The tight knit circle that an athletic director has when making decisions about realignment 
• The different factors that a school considers when weighing the options of realignment
• How schools can salvage old rivalries even when changing conferences 
• The lawlessness of conference realignment 
• The amount of stress involved for an athletic director during realignment

If you've ever wanted a peek behind the curtain of conference realignment, you've come to the right place! Strap in and learn all about what it was like to guide WVU through the last round of realignment.

You can also follow me on Twitter and Instagram to discuss further, ask additional questions or suggest future episodes.

You can find more of my analysis on the business of college sports at BusinessofCollegeSports.com and Forbes.

You can follow Kristi on Twitter and Instagram to discuss further, ask additional questions or suggest future episodes.

You can find more of her analysis on the business of college sports at BusinessofCollegeSports.com and Forbes.

I'm joined this episode by Rob Seiger, a partner in Archer & Greiner P.C.’s Sports Law Group, to talk about the issues facing international student athletes when it comes to taking advantage of new name, image and likeness rights. 

Rob represents college and university athletic departments in immigration and related compliance issues for their foreign athletes. So, we chatted about the advice he's currently giving to his clients when it comes to international student athletes and NIL.

In this episode, we discussed:

• Current rules for international student athletes on student visas
• Is there a difference for international student athletes between getting paid $50 for an Instagram post and getting free food from a local BBQ restaurant for your entire offensive line?
• Gifts vs. compensation
• What we can learn from the issues the NHL faced with visas for international athletes
• How and when the federal government might provide guidance for international student athletes re: NIL
• His advice for international student athletes right now
• How things would change for international student athletes if student athletes were considered employees

You can follow Archer & Greiner on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Some NIL trackers that may be of interest:

State-by-State Legislation Tracker

School Policy Tracker

NIL Marketplace Tracker

You can also follow me on Twitter and Instagram to discuss further, ask additional questions or suggest future episodes.

You can find more of my analysis on the business of college sports at BusinessofCollegeSports.com and Forbes.

You can follow Kristi on Twitter and Instagram to discuss further, ask additional questions or suggest future episodes.

You can find more of her analysis on the business of college sports at BusinessofCollegeSports.com and Forbes.

I'm joined this week by Malik Jackson, an associate attorney at Smith Hulsey & Busey in Jacksonville, Florida who is a member of the firm's sports litigation department.

A former Princeton quarterback, middle school teacher and football coach, Jackson has taken a particular interest in how NIL impacts student athletes prior to their arrival on a college campus.

Although we used Florida's law as an example in some of this discussion, it has broad applicability based on where most states (except California) and their high school sports associations have come down on NIL thus far.

We discussed:

• Advice for the parents of elite high school student athletes
• How the advice might be different for high school basketball athletes versus other sports when it comes to NIL
• What questions high school student athletes and their parents should be asking relative to NIL during the recruiting process
• How the early NIL deals we've seen impact recruiting
• The complication of everyone not playing under the same rules right now for NIL
• What parents need to watch out for when it comes to NIL and their high school student athlete
• How parents might become the problem for some student athletes
• When student athletes should engage an attorney for NIL

Mentioned in this episode:

High school basketball student athlete Mikey Williams signing with Excel Sports Management

High school QB Quinn Ewers considering bypassing senior year of high school because of NIL

You can follow me on Twitter and Instagram to discuss further, ask additional questions or suggest future episodes.

You can find more of my analysis on the business of college sports at BusinessofCollegeSports.com and Forbes.

You can follow Kristi on Twitter and Instagram to discuss further, ask additional questions or suggest future episodes.

You can find more of her analysis on the business of college sports at BusinessofCollegeSports.com and Forbes.

This week, I'm joined by a former U.S. Navy Seal and Purple Heart recipient who now serves as a D3 athletic director. Mike Wisecup  is the AD at Colby College and joined us to discuss his background as a Navy Seal and how he applies it to his athletic department. Wisecup also discussed the challenging aspects of his job--one of which is maintaining cohesiveness within an athletic department.

Colby College recently opened the Harold Alfond Athletics and Recreation Center, a facility with more than 350,000 square feet, making it the largest athletic facility in D3. The complex includes the only Olympic-sized Myrtha pool in Maine, an ice arena with year-round regulation ice, the Margaret M. Crook Center with three regulation-length basketball/volleyball courts and so much more.

Some of the things we discussed included:

• His unexpected journey from Navy Seal to Athletic Director and the surprising similarities between the two positions
• His college experience as a student athlete at the United States Naval Academy
• The challenges of his position
• How departments can eliminate the “silos” inside a department and create cohesiveness
• What went into the building of D3's largest athletic facility
• Things he wished he'd known about building and opening the facility

Following his graduation from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1998, Mike Wisecup served as a Navy Seal for 20 years and was awarded a Purple Heart before moving into college athletics and working his way to becoming the athletic director at Colby College.  

With a passion of molding students into better citizens, Wisecup discusses his journey, some challenging aspects of his position and how schools can eliminate siloed departments inside an athletic program and increase universal cohesiveness within the department. 

You can follow Kristi on Twitter and Instagram to discuss further, ask additional questions or suggest future episodes.

You can find more of her analysis on the business of college sports at BusinessofCollegeSports.com and Forbes.

I'm joined on this episode by Drew Butler, EVP of Collegiate at Icon Source, a platform where student athletes (and professional athletes) can connect with brands for partnerships. We recorded on the second day of this new NIL Era and talked all about how it's going so far.

One of our main focuses in this podcast is how female student athletes will fare in this new system. Drew talked about why some of the women are even more valuable in the marketplace than the male student athletes and what they're hearing from brands so far.

We also talked about why Icon Source was already in a great position to serve student athletes and why Drew wanted to join the company.

Drew is a former NFL punter for the Arizona Cardinals & Pittsburgh Steelers. While at UGA, Drew was twice First-Team Academic All-American. He is the host of the highly popular “Punt & Pass" podcast and additional shows.

Some trackers I mentioned that may be of interest:

State-by-State Legislation Tracker

School Policy Tracker

NIL Marketplace Tracker

You can follow IconSource on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or LinkedIn.

You can also follow me on Twitter and Instagram to discuss further, ask additional questions or suggest future episodes.

You can find more of my analysis on the business of college sports at BusinessofCollegeSports.com and Forbes.

You can follow Kristi on Twitter and Instagram to discuss further, ask additional questions or suggest future episodes.

You can find more of her analysis on the business of college sports at BusinessofCollegeSports.com and Forbes.