Valiant Management Group set to partner with national firm in a significant move for Michigan NIL
The Michigan Champions Circle collective, co-founded by Jared Wangler and led by a board of accomplished University of Michigan alumni, has played a huge role in keeping talent at U-M and bringing more to the athletic programs. There’s still plenty of catching up to do, but an imminent deal with a large national talent agency should help make up significant ground.
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Valiant Management Group, the sports marketing agency arm of the collective, now has a deal in principle to partner with this agency in June, Wangler informed us this weekend. They were close to a similar deal 18 months or so ago, as first reported here, but it stalled. Since then, other schools have been working with agencies and building their brands, making money for their schools.
“There will be a relationship between Champions Circle and this agency similar to what they have at Ohio State and Texas. The objective is to continue to bring a ton of marketing deals for Michigan student athletes,” Wangler said, noting he’d be working for this agency, technically. “There’s going to be a retainer relationship between Valiant, Champions Circle, and the agency, similar to what we nearly contracted with them about a year and a half ago. We’re going to use this retainer relationship to bring more marketing opportunities to Michigan student athletes.
“The retainer we sign with them is going to go toward support staff to be sourcing out deals, and it will tie into not just commercial opportunities, but unique events and different opportunities to bring more donors in, bring more fans in. It’s similar to what we’ve been doing but working with a professional national outlet to bring more opportunities to the market.”
While there’s been somewhat of a relationship with various agencies the last few years — some “blue chip brands” brought into the market — there will now be an official partnership that could have been there 18 months ago.
It’s one that’s been very beneficial for rival institutions and others, Wangler said, and should be for Michigan.
“My understanding is they are brokering significant deals,” Wangler continued. “People need to understand that dollars coming in from a collective are fungible. Dollars from local, regional national brands, high level donors, the fan base, crowdfunding … all that money that flows into one fund, that is how you win right now. If you have this large fund, you’re able to treat it like a salary cap. That is a critical component to staying competitive right now.
“It’s important to have a healthy mix of commercial dollars, dollars from your fan base, high-level donors, all flowing into a fund. That’s how national agencies are partnering with other collectives right now. They are brokering these commercial partnerships. Those dollars are going into a fund, a mixture of all these different sources, but that’s how you get to your so-called salary cap … or if you’re Texas, your 20 million fund. It might be comprised of 12 million from donors, fans, and people, and then 8 million from businesses.”
And there’s money out there. Memphis, for example, signed a 5-year, $25 million NIL deal with FedEx that opened eyes around the country. It stands to reason Michigan should have sponsors lining up for similar opportunities, and Wangler agreed.
“That’s what I want to be able to spend more of my time doing is sourcing that out,” he said. “We need to go get like General Motors, the official automotive partner of Michigan student athletes. We need to be able to work with Learfield to source out a 7-figure partner that the bulk of that is going to student athletes. That’s the next step of it, an dwhy I wanted to source out an agency partnership like a year and a half ago is because you can accelerate success working with some of those bigger shops.”
This agency’s NIL division, which focuses on supporting college athletes and university specific collectives, has been at the forefront of driving revenue into the markets they are servicing.
For the past few years, Wangler added, people have not been rowing in the same direction.
“That’s what paralyzes people from making big moves,” Wangler said. “For everything we’ve been doing, we’re a small, third-party company. Yeah, we’ve made somewhat of a dent, but it’s all relative at the end of the day. We can’t pat ourselves on the back for stuff we’ve done so far this year, because there’s still a lot of work to be done in the area.
“There needs to be somebody within Michigan athletics wearing the hat, saying, ‘hey … this is the strategy. This is how we’re going to utilize your expense. This is what Memphis did, how we’re going to do it here.’ You need someone connected to your high-level donors saying, ‘this is the need right now. The current climate requires athletic departments to reassess where donor funding is prioritized right now. With an emphasis on student-athlete compensation, we could very well fall behind.'”
But the new deal will be a nice step for Michigan, Wangler acknowledged, even if there’s more work to be done.
“It is a positive step, and it brings a ton of resources into the market,” he said. “But the reality is, the difference maker is people writing checks. That is something Michigan has had spurts of growth, times we see the momentum is growing, but it’s all relative. The 11.5, 12 million dollars we have for this year’s team is still far short of what Texas, Oregon, Notre Dame and these other schools are doing. The universities are actively getting their high-level donors to get involved.”
But there’s been progress. Michigan athletics, Altius, Learfield, and Champions Circle are all investing in the infrastructure needed to compete in today’s new era of collegiate athletics. Revenue from corporate sponsors, donors, events, licensed products, and — eventually — media rights are the fuel needed to keep the sports programs competitive until leadership in college athletics can create and enforce a sustainable system that addresses the problems still at hand (tampering, portal, inducements, etc.).
Watch for part II of this interview, including more from Wangler on the direction of the collectives in light of a new revenue sharing deal, what this means for recruiting prep athletes, etc., soon.
The post Valiant Management Group set to partner with national firm in a significant move for Michigan NIL appeared first on On3.
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