posting a column from The Athletic. Don’t usually post from a pay site, however there’s been so much discussion and misinformation I hope Jason will allow this.
Having concluded his national signing day news conference on Feb. 2 inside Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, Florida coach Billy Napier rode an elevator up to the fifth-story Champions Club for a meeting with boosters.
Football fundraising needed a new benchmark in order to recruit and retain talented players amid the exploding name, image and likeness market. The annual war chest required to field a contending SEC roster? Napier set the price at $20 million.
“I love that number,” said Eddie Rojas, CEO of the Gator Collective. “It’s a doable number, and we’re building for that.”
The crowdsourcing collective was a long way from that number, though. Fans support the Gator Collective through monthly pledges as low as $5.99. Founded last August, the collective has amassed 2,200 subscribers and raised more than $500,000. Fearing that his favorite school was falling behind other schools, one of Florida’s biggest donors decided to take matters into his own hands.
Two months ago, Hugh Hathcock plowed $1 million of his own money into a fund that would eventually be called the Gator Guard. Last week, he began contacting other high-net-worth donors with the hope of creating a select group capable of writing checks larger than the fan collective could amass in years. The Gator Guard was announced on April 21 and within 48 hours had produced commitments worth $5 million — 10 times what the Gator Collective had raised in nine months.
“We’re not doing the same thing Gator Collective is doing,” Hathcock said Wednesday, a few hours before visiting Napier at an appearance in Orlando. “I’m not part of Gator Collective. This is an exclusive club for high-net-worth Gators that want to be part of something a little more special, and their donations will merit that.”
“Hugh took matters in his own hands,” said sports attorney Darren Heitner, a UF alum who helped craft the state’s NIL law in 2021 and now serves as counsel to the Gator Collective and the Gator Guard. “What was happening in this NIL ecosystem necessitated that someone like Hugh be bold. I’ve quickly learned that when he wants to accomplish something, he’s going to do it. And he had a desire to ensure that Florida is not going to fall behind, but in fact, will be at the top.”
Hathcock recently broke the Florida record for a one-time gift to the athletic department when he pledged $12.6 million. Some of that is earmarked for renovating Florida’s basketball practice facility. But since Napier’s hire in December, Hathcock had been trying to determine how best to create a collective that could fill that war chest to fund NIL deals for players. By comparison, the high-dollar collective attached to Texas A&M began planning its structure and soliciting donations in May 2021.
But even that group, which Aggies boosters jokingly call “The Fund,” was concerned last weekend that collectives working adjacent to Tennessee, Oregon and several other schools had surged ahead in terms of fundraising and dealmaking. News of Hathcock’s creation was topic of discussion when that group met in College Station late last week.
Hathcock hopes to set up the Gator Guard as a 501(c)(3) non-profit, which is similar to the structure of the 1Oklahoma group that was announced Saturday to provide NIL deals for Oklahoma players. Ohio State also has a collective set up as a non-profit. The collectives attached to Tennessee, Oregon, Texas A&M and Georgia are set up as for-profit limited liability corporations. Hathcock said attorneys are currently working through the logistics of setting up the organization, but he is ready to start discussing deals if necessary. “If somebody calls me right now and wants to talk about that, I’m ready to go,” Hathcock said. Two different things
At first blush, the formation of the Gator Guard might have signaled that the collective isn’t producing.
“I knew people would jump to that conclusion,” Heitner said, “but Eddie, myself and Hugh had been in close contact. That Gator Collective model is not going to change — they’re going to continue scaling, to try to drive up numbers by going tens of thousands deep in subscriptions. The goal is to work harmoniously with the Gator Guard.”
Liken their relationship to a stadium on game day, where select donors splurge on expensive suites while tens of thousands of fans pack the bleachers. “It all works together to create the environment,” Rojas said. “They all want the same outcome.”
This is true, Hathcock said, but the Gator Guard intends to do the heavy lifting. “Gator Collective is a great organization,” Hathcock said. “It’s for the grassroots, for the average fan. Gator Guard is the elite, high-net-worth, high-power guys who are going to give a million.”
Hathcock said his group intends to work within whatever system is in place. “This has been a work in progress since Billy was hired,” Hathcock said. “You try to communicate with the athletic department and do things the right way. But nobody really understands this yet. There’s not a right or wrong way.”
While some collectives, such as the one adjacent to Texas A&M, prefer to work in the shadows, Hathcock wants current Florida players and potential Florida players to know the Gator Guard is raising money that could eventually wind up in their pockets. “Some people say ‘We want to keep this secret so we have an advantage.’ You don’t,” Hathcock said. “Because the players need to know if they come to the University of Florida that they’re going to have the best opportunities NIL-wise as any school in America.”
Hathcock also said the donors who have committed money to the Gator Guard understand that the fund will need to be replenished. In fact, he already has some pledges that stretch annually for four years.
Writing the contracts
The Gator Collective writes contracts, schedules events and oversees day to-day interactions with athletes. It currently has 20 football players signed to five- or six-month deals and has compensated more than 60 players since its inception.
One of those is middle linebacker Ventrell Miller, the senior from Lakeland who recently considered transferring before receiving an enhanced NIL deal. “The transfer portal is live and active. Players are looking for NIL deals,” said Rojas, himself a former Gators baseball player. “What took place with the collective was instrumental to Ventrell staying home.”
Napier told The Athletic he foresees college football shifting toward a revenue-sharing model “where players get a piece of the pie and rightfully so.” The research firm Navigate projects the SEC’s 2022 payout of $54 million per school to double by 2029. “The game has exploded — it has transformed,” Napier said. “The fans show up to watch the players. They don’t show up to watch me.”
A deal such as Miller’s, paid out to a sixth-year graduate with All-SEC credentials, aligns with Napier’s preference for experienced players getting what they earned. The NIL money being dangled at high school recruits is a riskier investment, though no more so than the many instances of under-the-table payments provided to players across previous decades.
“I would venture to say the Gator Collective is paying more guaranteed money than any group in the country,” said Eddie Rojas, CEO of the Gator Collective, which recently helped keep linebacker Ventrell Miller with an NIL deal. (Mark LoMoglio / Icon Sportswire via AP Images)
“In college football for a long time, your integrity was challenged. At every moment, you had a corner you could cut,” Napier told an audience of Gators fans in Tampa. “One of the reasons I accepted this job and I’m here at this level is because I think name, image and likeness can level the playing field by bringing all these things that used to be done above-board.”
The above-board market can be lucrative: Tennessee quarterback commitment Nico Iamaleava is believed to have signed a four-year deal worth up to $8 million. The Athletic’s Stewart Mandel reported on a four-star receiver and a defensive lineman landing agreements worth $1 million, and a three-star recruit signing for $500,000.
As contracts increase transparency, all NIL deals aren’t guaranteed. Some players face hard-to-reach incentives and other contracts are being funded on speculative donations.
“I would venture to say the Gator Collective is paying more guaranteed money than any group in the country,” Rojas said. “When I write a contract I want to make sure that we actually have the money in our account.
“You hear that a player’s getting $500,000 or even a million bucks, but you found out that’s not happening unless they mint the NFT. There’s a lot of smoke and mirrors going on in the industry.”
In one case involving a current Florida football player, the smoke served as a red flag. The player, who was not in the transfer portal, received an oversized endorsement offer from a company tied to another school. He alerted the Gator Collective, which inspected the contract and learned the firm in question was only 15 days old.
“It was ridiculous money, so how could you trust it?” Rojas said. “Players are being approached before they ever enter the portal, and we’re fooling ourselves if we think that wasn’t happening long before. NIL didn’t create that. We just want kids to be protected against fraud.”
Thus far, the Gator Collective isn’t publicizing terms of its financial contracts — Rojas said it’s not his place to “share info about other people’s money.” But when recruits visit campus and ask about NIL opportunities, they’re encouraged to talk to players who are already earning compensation. “Ventrell Miller can share with the next linebacker what he makes,” Rojas said. “Talk to Gervon Dexter in private and he’ll tell you what he’s making here — and it’s really nice.”
With the involvement of the Gator Guard, those numbers should get larger. “We’re still putting all this together,” Hathcock said. “But the few I talked to were great. Once I get people on the phone, most of them are going to want to do this.
Having concluded his national signing day news conference on Feb. 2 inside Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, Florida coach Billy Napier rode an elevator up to the fifth-story Champions Club for a meeting with boosters.
Football fundraising needed a new benchmark in order to recruit and retain talented players amid the exploding name, image and likeness market. The annual war chest required to field a contending SEC roster? Napier set the price at $20 million.
“I love that number,” said Eddie Rojas, CEO of the Gator Collective. “It’s a doable number, and we’re building for that.”
The crowdsourcing collective was a long way from that number, though. Fans support the Gator Collective through monthly pledges as low as $5.99. Founded last August, the collective has amassed 2,200 subscribers and raised more than $500,000. Fearing that his favorite school was falling behind other schools, one of Florida’s biggest donors decided to take matters into his own hands.
Two months ago, Hugh Hathcock plowed $1 million of his own money into a fund that would eventually be called the Gator Guard. Last week, he began contacting other high-net-worth donors with the hope of creating a select group capable of writing checks larger than the fan collective could amass in years. The Gator Guard was announced on April 21 and within 48 hours had produced commitments worth $5 million — 10 times what the Gator Collective had raised in nine months.
“We’re not doing the same thing Gator Collective is doing,” Hathcock said Wednesday, a few hours before visiting Napier at an appearance in Orlando. “I’m not part of Gator Collective. This is an exclusive club for high-net-worth Gators that want to be part of something a little more special, and their donations will merit that.”
“Hugh took matters in his own hands,” said sports attorney Darren Heitner, a UF alum who helped craft the state’s NIL law in 2021 and now serves as counsel to the Gator Collective and the Gator Guard. “What was happening in this NIL ecosystem necessitated that someone like Hugh be bold. I’ve quickly learned that when he wants to accomplish something, he’s going to do it. And he had a desire to ensure that Florida is not going to fall behind, but in fact, will be at the top.”
Hathcock recently broke the Florida record for a one-time gift to the athletic department when he pledged $12.6 million. Some of that is earmarked for renovating Florida’s basketball practice facility. But since Napier’s hire in December, Hathcock had been trying to determine how best to create a collective that could fill that war chest to fund NIL deals for players. By comparison, the high-dollar collective attached to Texas A&M began planning its structure and soliciting donations in May 2021.
But even that group, which Aggies boosters jokingly call “The Fund,” was concerned last weekend that collectives working adjacent to Tennessee, Oregon and several other schools had surged ahead in terms of fundraising and dealmaking. News of Hathcock’s creation was topic of discussion when that group met in College Station late last week.
Hathcock hopes to set up the Gator Guard as a 501(c)(3) non-profit, which is similar to the structure of the 1Oklahoma group that was announced Saturday to provide NIL deals for Oklahoma players. Ohio State also has a collective set up as a non-profit. The collectives attached to Tennessee, Oregon, Texas A&M and Georgia are set up as for-profit limited liability corporations. Hathcock said attorneys are currently working through the logistics of setting up the organization, but he is ready to start discussing deals if necessary. “If somebody calls me right now and wants to talk about that, I’m ready to go,” Hathcock said. Two different things
At first blush, the formation of the Gator Guard might have signaled that the collective isn’t producing.
“I knew people would jump to that conclusion,” Heitner said, “but Eddie, myself and Hugh had been in close contact. That Gator Collective model is not going to change — they’re going to continue scaling, to try to drive up numbers by going tens of thousands deep in subscriptions. The goal is to work harmoniously with the Gator Guard.”
Liken their relationship to a stadium on game day, where select donors splurge on expensive suites while tens of thousands of fans pack the bleachers. “It all works together to create the environment,” Rojas said. “They all want the same outcome.”
This is true, Hathcock said, but the Gator Guard intends to do the heavy lifting. “Gator Collective is a great organization,” Hathcock said. “It’s for the grassroots, for the average fan. Gator Guard is the elite, high-net-worth, high-power guys who are going to give a million.”
Hathcock said his group intends to work within whatever system is in place. “This has been a work in progress since Billy was hired,” Hathcock said. “You try to communicate with the athletic department and do things the right way. But nobody really understands this yet. There’s not a right or wrong way.”
While some collectives, such as the one adjacent to Texas A&M, prefer to work in the shadows, Hathcock wants current Florida players and potential Florida players to know the Gator Guard is raising money that could eventually wind up in their pockets. “Some people say ‘We want to keep this secret so we have an advantage.’ You don’t,” Hathcock said. “Because the players need to know if they come to the University of Florida that they’re going to have the best opportunities NIL-wise as any school in America.”
Hathcock also said the donors who have committed money to the Gator Guard understand that the fund will need to be replenished. In fact, he already has some pledges that stretch annually for four years.
Writing the contracts
The Gator Collective writes contracts, schedules events and oversees day to-day interactions with athletes. It currently has 20 football players signed to five- or six-month deals and has compensated more than 60 players since its inception.
One of those is middle linebacker Ventrell Miller, the senior from Lakeland who recently considered transferring before receiving an enhanced NIL deal. “The transfer portal is live and active. Players are looking for NIL deals,” said Rojas, himself a former Gators baseball player. “What took place with the collective was instrumental to Ventrell staying home.”
Napier told The Athletic he foresees college football shifting toward a revenue-sharing model “where players get a piece of the pie and rightfully so.” The research firm Navigate projects the SEC’s 2022 payout of $54 million per school to double by 2029. “The game has exploded — it has transformed,” Napier said. “The fans show up to watch the players. They don’t show up to watch me.”
A deal such as Miller’s, paid out to a sixth-year graduate with All-SEC credentials, aligns with Napier’s preference for experienced players getting what they earned. The NIL money being dangled at high school recruits is a riskier investment, though no more so than the many instances of under-the-table payments provided to players across previous decades.
“I would venture to say the Gator Collective is paying more guaranteed money than any group in the country,” said Eddie Rojas, CEO of the Gator Collective, which recently helped keep linebacker Ventrell Miller with an NIL deal. (Mark LoMoglio / Icon Sportswire via AP Images)
“In college football for a long time, your integrity was challenged. At every moment, you had a corner you could cut,” Napier told an audience of Gators fans in Tampa. “One of the reasons I accepted this job and I’m here at this level is because I think name, image and likeness can level the playing field by bringing all these things that used to be done above-board.”
The above-board market can be lucrative: Tennessee quarterback commitment Nico Iamaleava is believed to have signed a four-year deal worth up to $8 million. The Athletic’s Stewart Mandel reported on a four-star receiver and a defensive lineman landing agreements worth $1 million, and a three-star recruit signing for $500,000.
As contracts increase transparency, all NIL deals aren’t guaranteed. Some players face hard-to-reach incentives and other contracts are being funded on speculative donations.
“I would venture to say the Gator Collective is paying more guaranteed money than any group in the country,” Rojas said. “When I write a contract I want to make sure that we actually have the money in our account.
“You hear that a player’s getting $500,000 or even a million bucks, but you found out that’s not happening unless they mint the NFT. There’s a lot of smoke and mirrors going on in the industry.”
In one case involving a current Florida football player, the smoke served as a red flag. The player, who was not in the transfer portal, received an oversized endorsement offer from a company tied to another school. He alerted the Gator Collective, which inspected the contract and learned the firm in question was only 15 days old.
“It was ridiculous money, so how could you trust it?” Rojas said. “Players are being approached before they ever enter the portal, and we’re fooling ourselves if we think that wasn’t happening long before. NIL didn’t create that. We just want kids to be protected against fraud.”
Thus far, the Gator Collective isn’t publicizing terms of its financial contracts — Rojas said it’s not his place to “share info about other people’s money.” But when recruits visit campus and ask about NIL opportunities, they’re encouraged to talk to players who are already earning compensation. “Ventrell Miller can share with the next linebacker what he makes,” Rojas said. “Talk to Gervon Dexter in private and he’ll tell you what he’s making here — and it’s really nice.”
With the involvement of the Gator Guard, those numbers should get larger. “We’re still putting all this together,” Hathcock said. “But the few I talked to were great. Once I get people on the phone, most of them are going to want to do this.
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