BY SAMANTHA MOLL.
After years of controversy, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) granted college athletes the right to benefit financially from their name, image, and likeness (NIL). Saint Bonaventure University (SBU) student athletes have used this opportunity to allow fans to wear their merchandise, support friends’ businesses, and jumpstart their post-graduate life by building sponsorships.
The first bonnie to jump into the NIL world was senior men’s basketball star, Osun Osunniyi. Earlier this summer, Sports Locker offered Osunniyi a design that looked familiar — the “Shoon Squad” logo that a young local fan had created for Osunniyi when he was a freshman, three years before. When Sports Locker released his merchandise, Osunniyi’s friends and family immediately sent him photos of them wearing his new gear. Osunniyi said, “I’ve never thought about having my own merch. My family would make t-shirts with my face and name on them to wear to my games. So to see my family — and even now kids — wear my merch is a blessing, honestly.” Osunniyi said he receives a little under 10 percent of the profit on each item sold.
The New Jersey native’s merch isn’t limited to just the east coast, the west coast is getting behind him too. Notably, Bonaventure alum and current National Basketball Association (NBA) insider for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network (ESPN), Adrian Wojnarowski, has bought a couple of Osunniyi’s shirts from Sports Locker to show support for his alma mater.
As basketball season is rapidly approaching, Osunniyi will be pairing up with Sports Locker to do some in-store autograph signings, commercials, and voiceovers to endorse his merchandise.
Sports Locker also struck a deal with Tori Harris on the women’s basketball team. Similar to Osunniyi, Harris will also be making a little less than 10 percent of the profit on each item of her merchandise sold. However, Harris wanted to differentiate her merchandise with a touch of pink.
Unlike the men’s basketball team, the women’s basketball team jerseys are brown, white, and pink.
Sports Locker has created brown, gray, and white shirts thus far with the men’s basketball merchandise that match their uniforms. Sports Locker had intended to do the same colors with Harris, but she said she wanted to do a pink shirt for merchandise that would match her third jersey.
Harris said, “We have pink jerseys, so when I see a pink shirt in the stands, I’ll know that’s someone supporting me. I have something different than the boys on the basketball team.”
Harris also considered how young children would feel when they walked through the doors of Sports Locker. Harris explained, “If a little girl, or little boy too, wanted the option to get the pink jersey as opposed to the men’s brown or gray jersey. I wanted to give them that option.”
Sports Locker agreed with Harris, and her merchandise has recently been released just in time for basketball season.
Christian Chapman, a grad student on the men’s golf team, is building a foundation with his sponsorships. Aspiring to play professionally after SBU, Chapman has agreed to become a clothing ambassador for Rhoback, an athletic clothing brand that encourages customers to always “be ready for the next adventure.” Rhoback gives Chapman a promotional code on his choice of performance polos, tees, and hats. Chapman then is required to post to his personal Instagram account the clothing item and links the code for his followers to use on that item at checkout to receive a discount. Chapman is then compensated by receiving a percentage of what sells when his code is used.
Chapman said, “A lot of people in the golf world know of this brand. So to be able to have my name attached to it and be a sponsor is incredible.”
Rhoback has paired up with Major League Baseball players (MLB) and other professional athletes. For the college program, they’ve actively searched for athletes like Chapman who aren’t necessarily big-time football or basketball players. Chapman takes on the title of “Rhoback athlete” and hopes to pair up with major golf brands like Titleist with his dream of playing professionally.
The NIL has also allowed student-athletes like men’s swimmer Nick Nakaya to promote their friends’ start-up businesses. Nakaya, a Hawaii native, has partnered with Mana Athletics, an athletic clothing and gear store based in Honolulu, Hawaii. Nakaya’s friend, Jacob Fernandez, has created this brand and paired up with him in order to get some recognition by using the NIL. Nikaya said, “I didn’t think I’d really benefit from the NIL since swimming is such a small sport and I go to such a small school.” However, he found an excellent opportunity by pairing up with Fernandez’s rising brand.
Nakaya promotes his high school friend’s business almost 5,000 miles away in Olean, N.Y. “I think it’s a great way to have local or smaller brands reach out to athletes that aren’t super big,” he said. Nikaya is not being paid, but receives free merchandise just by posting his gear from the company. The only requirement is that he had to switch his Instagram profile from a private account to a public account so anyone is able to view his posts.
Since he has made the change, his account has been gaining more followers. By growing his account and increasing engagement, Nikaya sets himself up for greater opportunities for future sponsorships.
Women’s soccer is also getting in on the action. Alexa Martinos has paired up with two brands. Martinos’s first sponsor is Celsius, a pre-exercise supplement drink; she receives packs of her favorite flavor Celsius when she posts on social media and uses the hashtag #celsiusambassdor. Additionally, she paired up with HumanN, a vitamin and supplement brand. Martinos said, “I have been drinking beet juice from this company before my games since my freshman year of high school.” Similar to Celsius, the more she posts on social media, the more products she receives. With both brands, she does not make profit, but each sends her free shipments. The sophomore forward has chosen brands that fit into her athletic lifestyle.
When the opportunity arose, Martino said, she felt she was ready to dive into the NIL world. She said, “Honestly, I didn’t feel like I was at a disadvantage being at a small school because Bonaventure provided us with great tools and ideas to reach out to companies.”
Scott Eddy, in SBU’s athletics communications, said the NIL is long overdue for student-athletes, although it’s uncertain what the NIL world would look like long-term. Eddy announced SBU’s new partnership with INFLCR, the leading content platform for elite athletes. Any content posted to SBU’s media will instantly become available to student-athletes through INFLCR. Eddy said “If we post a picture of an athlete they can instantly receive and use it for NIL purposes. Athletes can use our images to apply for NIL deals or post current NIL deals since they will have them at their disposal pretty quickly.”
This offers athletes the opportunity to quickly strike up deals. Before INFLCR, athletes would have to wait until post-season to receive those photos.
SBU’s been able to give athletes the tools they need if they do decide to earn compensation for the use of her or his name, image and likeness.
molls18@bonaventure.edu
