It started as a conversation – or really a far-fetched idea – when Jon Cheney walked into Gary Veron’s second-floor office last October and proposed a new approach to name, image and likeness.
Cheney, CEO of an online NFT company called Ocavu, had been watching from the sidelines as the NIL developed into an arms race in recruitment. He knew BYU needed a bigger presence in the area to be competitive, especially as it entered the Big 12. But he also recognized that any development needed to fit the school’s mold.
Then to BYU’s assistant athletic director for the NIL, Cheney laid out a plan to create a marketplace where people could buy and trade BYU-related NFTs. Whenever the non-fungible tokens — essentially digital trading cards — were sold, players and the athletic department would receive a percentage of the money.
On August 16, the marketplace will be launched as the latest NIL effort at BYU. This time, Cheney predicts it’s a deal that could be worth up to $20 million in the first year of the five-year partnership alone.
“I’m a BYU alum,” Cheney said. “[I] understand the values associated with BYU in a different way. I hope to bring these things to the platform.”
While some athletic departments have welcomed donor-funded collectives to launch their programs to prominence, this is BYU’s preferred solution for the NIL: NCAA-compliant, closely monitored spaces where athletes can profit from their likeness and stay in line with the university’s values.
It’s a different approach, but one similar to a USC or Notre Dame. Both of these schools have discouraged high-dollar collectives in favor of easier-to-monitor third-party LLCs. Internally, BYU has made it clear that collectives are not the way the university prefers to go.
“The launch of CougsRise.com provides unprecedented access for the most loyal fans in the country and creates the opportunity for Cougar student-athletes to monetize in an NCAA compliant manner,” said Casey Stauffer, BYU’s associate athletic director for corporate sponsorships.
The marketplace will function similarly to NBA Top Shot, a marketplace for the league’s digital trading card collectors. People will be able to buy and sell BYU NFTs on a website called CougsRise.com.
An NFT is essentially a virtual trading card. The tokens on CougsRise contain a unique video from a specific time and play in BYU history. Some are more rare and valuable than others.
Fans will buy packs of NFTs, like they would a pack of baseball cards, and can choose to keep or trade them on the platform. However, Cheney wants most of the NFTs to be kept rather than traded. The point of the marketplace is for the fan experience, he says, and not so that people can buy NFTs and then turn them into a profit. Although, he said, some of that is bound to happen.
“Obviously, players will see less of the profits from reselling NFTs,” Cheney said.
By the time it rolls out, almost the entire football team has signed the deal. NFTs of a player’s image can only be sold if players sign. BYU must also be part of the agreement, since it is the owner of the recordings in NFT.
Cheney declined to say the percentage of profits kept by the players, the athletic department and Ocavu. However, the players will split the profits equally on a given team, so the walk-on and starting quarterback will have the same check.
“We have hundreds of NIL agreements with individual athletes,” Cheney said. “And we will sign more as their seasons approach.”
Ocavu will scale this to all teams at BYU. As fans purchase more NFTs and interact with the platform, they will become eligible for unique experiences. This includes driving the team out of the tunnel at football games.
The platform will slowly grow over the next five years. During that time, Ocavu adds old moments from BYU’s past. Those NFTs will be more valuable, like a Jimmer Fredette moment or a Tanner Mangum pass.
The platform also hopes to become a hub of communication for BYU fans. This includes player-generated content and a meeting place for fans to interact.
“I’m sure that what this platform is today will be very different than what it is a year from now,” Cheney said.
This is the second major NIL initiative at BYU. The first occurred last year, when Built Bar agreed to a team-wide agreement with the football program to provide each player with compensation. That included walk-ons earning paid tuition.
So far, BYU has only one collective, CougConnect. Provo NIL Club, an externally funded platform, was also launched last week.
But for now, it appears that BYU’s athletic department is continuing to push its own closely monitored NIL agreements over collectives.
