Miami’s two biggest star football players took advantage of the ability to make endorsement money off of their name, image, and likeness on July 1st.
According to ESPN’s Jordan Schultz, quarterback D'Eriq King and safety Bubba Bolden each inked deals with College Hunks Hauling Junk.
Schultz reports that the deal will net King and Bolden each with $20k.
The deal was the first dollar amount named publicly that a college athlete signed.
King also released a website that sells fan apparel and signed memorabilia that features his logo, which you can see here.
It was later announced that King and FSU quarterback McKenzie Milton partnered with Dreamfield in a venture that will offer NFT (non-fungible token) opportunities to market via digital cards. Milton’s NFT will go to auction on Tuesday. King’s NFT is set to debut in July.
The ability for college athletes to make money via endorsements officially went into effect on July 1st.
The state of Florida already had a NIL bill in place and UM head coach Manny Diaz made it clear that he is excited to see the athletes take advantage of the opportunity that is ahead of them.
“I’m excited for our guys,” head coach Manny Diaz said. “I’m hoping we have a competitive advantage with that. I think that’s one of the great advantages we can use here with our community in our city here in Miami.”
With the University of Miami campus in a large metropolitan area known internationally, Diaz is hopeful players will be able to take advantage of more opportunities such as endorsement deals or sponsorships.
“Obviously being where you know there’s a great economy like what we have here,” Diaz said. “As we tell our guys, they don’t put professional franchises in small towns and there’s a reason for that. So if you want to maximize your brand, you generally want to go where the people are. I think that can be a great advantage for our guys and hopefully we’ll get off to a great start on that on the first.”
Director of athletics Blake James believes the time the university and its athletes have had to prepare for Thursday’s change will prove beneficial.
“I think you’ll see a lot of things happen on Thursday,” James said on Packer and Durham on Tuesday. “We’ve had the benefit that kids at the schools in the state of Florida have known for over a year now that this was going to happen on July 1. So they’ve had time to be planning and preparing and getting ready to take advantage of it. Obviously with the news Monday the NCAA came out with—all of the students in the country are going to be able to have some type of name, image and likeness program that their institution puts in place, but our kids have that benefit of knowing for a year there’s an opportunity.
“In Miami, an international city, I think there’ll be a number of opportunities. With that said, I don’t think we’re going to see 400 kids signing major endorsement deals and sponsorships or anything like that, but I do think that the law that was put in place in Florida will do a good job in letting kids capitalize on their name, image and likeness.”
King is one of the top returning quarterbacks in college football going into the 2021 season, having thrown for 7,611 yards with 73 touchdowns and 15 interceptions during his career. King has also rushed for 1,959 yards with 32 touchdowns during his career.
Bolden returned to Miami in 2021 after leading the Hurricanes with 74 tackles. He is considered one of the top safeties in the country going into this season and is a Thorpe Award semifinalist.
The Miami athletic department is making a program named ‘ignite’ to help their athletes navigate the new NIL space. Ignite will help athletes build, protect and maximize their personal brands with the industry’s leading education, marketing, and compliance technology. UM student-athletes may use Miami Athletics related marks and logos by securing agreements with approved University licensees and/or sponsors. Sponsorship rights are managed by Hurricanes Global Partnerships and licensing/retail rights are managed by Fanatics Licensing Management.
Miami stars D'Eriq King, Bubba Bolden land the first reported, big money NIL deals - 247Sports
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