No three letters have changed the college sports landscape more than N-I-L. The opportunity for college athletes to benefit from monetizing their name, image and likeness has not been exactly what many thought. One thing it has changed is the elimination of the gatekeeper between the college athletics program and the media. If shows are willing to pay the bucks for NIL deals, the access and exposure can be priceless.
Our show in Birmingham, The Next Round, has now negotiated ten NIL deals over the last 18 months and have found great success in the relationships. In each deal, the player is compensated for a regular appearance and the results have often been an insight from the locker room not yet available to the masses.
Never has this been more beneficial to our show than our two NIL deals with Auburn football players. To say there has been massive unrest over the last two years in the Auburn football program would be a massive understatement. That unrest led to some awkward, but revealing, visits with 2021 Auburn quarterback Bo Nix and 2022 Auburn tight end John Samuel Shenker. In both cases interviews led to more attention for our show and an increased audience.
In the case of the now Heisman contending Oregon quarterback Bo Nix, his weekly appearance as the Auburn quarterback was almost always newsworthy. In just one season, Nix was benched, won his starting job back in miraculous fashion, navigated a tricky locker room with a new head coach, accused SEC officials of being biased against Auburn, accused SEC officials of always favoring Alabama, had a season ending injury and transferred to Oregon. All of that happened on our show or our show was the first extended period he addressed any of that.
With Auburn tight end John Samuel Shenker, almost each weekly visit has led to some pointed question about the status of his now former head coach Bryan Harsin. Harsin was a surprise hire by Auburn and appeared to have flown from Boise sitting on a hot seat. The seat never cooled for Harsin and he was fired Monday after a 9-12 start.
The relationship was complicated from the beginning. He was an out of left field hire by a now departed athletics director, Allen Greene, and a group of boosters not considered among the power group that has traditionally run Auburn athletics. Harsin’s 6-7 first season would actually be smoother than his subsequent off season. The power boosters that didn’t get their way the first go around attempted a failed coup in the summer.
It was with that backdrop that our visits with John Samuel Shenker began. We were able to get insight from him on how he and his fellow teammates responded to the offseason coup. Then, as the season unfolded, and the pressure on Harsin mounted, his weekly perspective as a team captain was invaluable.
I can’t stress enough the value this can add to a sports show. This can absolutely be appointment listening or viewing. If an NIL athlete is an entertaining guest and is willing to be honest, the return you can get off the deal is incredible. It allows for a very sellable product that, at the same time, builds an audience. It also allows you to get around the normal gatekeepers to get valuable insight from key players that might not be available to everyone.
I would like to quickly point out our relationship with both the Alabama and Auburn Media Relations Departments could not be any healthier. Our deals with their players hasn’t hurt that relationship, they have appreciated us keeping them apprised of our dealings. This doesn’t have to be something that drives a wedge between your show and the local school’s media relations team.
There are some obvious potential drawbacks to these deals. You have no idea the type of chemistry you’ll have with a player until you actually begin a weekly interview with them. If it is not good, it could be a long season. Your player could get hurt or benched, leaving you talking to a player that isn’t contributing on the field.
In many states, and our state of Alabama is one, NIL deals can not legally be contingent on performance. That means the player that is benched or averages three picks a game is locked into your deal no matter what. Those interviews can become difficult and awkward. It is certainly a buyer beware relationship.
NIL deals with your outlet or show can be very beneficial. Like anything, it isn’t one size fits all or guaranteed to be successful. But, when it is, everyone wins; the show makes money and builds audience, the player gets money in their pocket and the audience gets a great segment. Who doesn’t want everyone to win?
Ryan Brown is a columnist for Barrett Sports Media, and a co-host of the popular sports audio/video show ‘The Next Round’ formerly known as JOX Roundtable, which previously aired on WJOX in Birmingham. You can find him on Twitter @RyanBrownLive and follow his show @NextRoundLive.
