Collective

Many universities now have collectives. Bogey it is not ours, but it is for "our" student athletes. This is an outside entity that will provide opportunities for our student athletes to earn money for their name, image and likeness. Sometimes these collectives are provided by donors. Some things I have found in doing some research-

The first "collective," known as the Gator Collective, formed not long after that change at the University of Florida (though it's very important to note that collectives are not officially part of any school or university). The idea was basically, "Hey, let's get all these people who care about our university's athletics programs to pool their money and resources so we can provide the most opportunities for student athletes." The obvious undertone here is, "Let's create financial incentives so the best athletes want to come here and win championships."

Only a year later, more than 120 different collectives exist. Nearly all of the 65 "Power 5" schools have a collective. Members of collectives include famous former student athletes, wealthy boosters, local business leaders, brands, and more.

The Donor Collective
This kind of collective is probably the most straightforward. In this collective, members donate cash to a general pool. Then, the collective pays athletes in an NIL-compliant manner in exchange for things like social media posts, appearances at events, and other arranged perks.

This is one of the most common types of collectives. It's also pretty easy to understand. And in a pre-NIL world, we've all heard stories about how certain boosters would pay athletes under the table to go to their university. This gets rid of all those shady undertones and protects both the donors and players with a sense of transparency.

The Marketplace Collective
The marketplace NIL collective is a bit more hands-on with athletes. In this scenario, the collective is also connecting college athletes to different endorsement and NIL opportunities from third parties. This means they have a strong relationship with different local and national brands and companies. It also means the collective could even serve as an agent for the athlete, which is where the collective also starts to make money.

Additionally, these collectives may actually employ members to facilitate the deals. They'll take donations and divert them to operating costs in order to make it worthwhile for everybody involved.

The YOKE Collective
YOKE is a company that creates software enabling teams and student athlete bodies to pool together and split the revenue from NIL deals. YOKE participates either at the school level (meaning the university's athletic department pays to provide the software as a service to students) or as a revenue sharing model (reportedly 75 percent to the players and 25 percent to YOKE in some cases).

The premise behind YOKE is more community-based. The software provided for teams includes a website, mobile app, and admin dashboard. In a lot of cases, YOKE more or less provides a monetized fan club for the teams and players. The athletes usually exchange things like appearances, social media shout-outs, and 1-on-1 experiences. And the teams typically split the profits.

The Dual Collective
A dual collective performs the functions of both a marketplace collective and a donor collective. Essentially, they provide themselves enough flexibility to both accept donations and facilitate outside deals for athletes. The country's first collective, The Gator Collective, is an example of this.

Here is the link of the new collective with more information and how it helps ACU student-athletes.

www.striveoncats.com/

I know that this is the reality of where universities are now. If alumni want to see their schools be competitive, they are going to have to be willing to become more involved. In the past that meant breaking NCAA rules. At least Collectives have taken that out of the shadows and made a place for that to be handled in a businesslike manner. I want to support ACU sports across the board. We already do it with football and basketball season tickets, and Wildcat Club membership donations. I still can't do much, but decided that even small regular contributions to the Collective, on top of the others will help a lot if enough people do it.

In response to Texas48, I'd say: 1) that is inevitalbe, is it not? Not that I think that is necessarily good, but creating collectives doesn't increase the donor base; and 2) Absolutely agree. "Strive on Cats" is only marginally better than the "Scratch 'em Cats" cheer. Both are poorly thought out and basically weak.