I work for the company, The Brandr Group, that did the deal with UVA allowing school + player IP usage in commercial programs. Here's the press release. We are not some wildcat NIL company. We have managed these same rights in college for 5+ years for pro athletes for the NFLPA, NBPA, MLBPA, etc., so if you have bought a player-based UT jersey over the past 5 years, we did those deals.
We have similar agreements with over 45 schools, including more than half of the SEC schools like Alabama, Georgia and Florida. I would be happy to talk to you more about the deal, which is a great opportunity for student-athletes to earn money in a mostly passive way.
I wanted to clarify a few things about the UVA deal:
We have similar agreements with over 45 schools, including more than half of the SEC schools like Alabama, Georgia and Florida. I would be happy to talk to you more about the deal, which is a great opportunity for student-athletes to earn money in a mostly passive way.
I wanted to clarify a few things about the UVA deal:
- The agreement is for group licensing only, meaning 3+ players from a specific team or 6+ players from a school. Individual players may not use university IP in commercial programs
- It covers all student-athletes in all sports, not just football and basketball
- Our partner schools have review and approval rights over all deals using their marks in any program, so there is no potential ambushing of school partners
- These group programs enable schools and their student athletes to compliantly participate in jersey/apparel programs, video games, NFTs, trading cards, stadium cup programs, etc.
- We have reached out to UT's athletic department multiple times (I'm a Knoxville native, UT fan and alumnus), but have not had any traction. UT is currently managing these rights on a case by case basis, allowing apparel deals with a few players and focusing their efforts on individual deals via Spyre.
