College athlete NFTs are on the market, starting with the Illini
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (WCIA) – A new company wants to connect fans to the world of college sports – digitally. They also give student athletes a way to monetize their name, image and likeness.
If it weren’t for scholarships, college athletes would be playing for free — until last year.
“Every year, they [athletic programs] make billions of dollars off the talent that’s not making anything,” said NextName president and co-founder Steven Thayer.
But then Illinois lawmakers changed the game. They started allowing players to earn money using their name, image and likeness.
“We are in a new world of college sports. And if you want to attract talent to your teams, you have to support those teams, he said.
U of alum Steven Thayer and his son wanted to give fans a unique way to support their favorite teams and players.
“As a lawyer, it struck me as, ‘Oh my God, that’s the solution.’ We can sell NIL to a player by selling the NFT player,” he said.
NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, are digital collectibles. Thayer co-founded “NextName” — a company that sells NFTs for athletes — and started with some Illini.
“Buy a pack of baseball cards. There is a picture of the player with some stats and information about him. That’s really all we’re talking about – digital trading cards,” he said.
He said some NIL business deals can be complicated and athletes may not see much profit. But through NextName, over half of the profit from each token goes directly to the players.
“A lot of times it’s businesses that want to get something back from athletes, so this seems like a real, genuine way for the fans to show their support for us,” said U of I volleyball player Kyla Swanson.
The platform aims to support any Division IU of I team that is interested. Swanson said it’s nice to be recognized along with football and basketball.
“It was eye-opening to see how many people really support us,” Swanson said. “Now people can walk around and have Kyla Swanson on their phones.”
Thayer said this is just the beginning – there’s a digital world of opportunity ahead. He hopes to partner with more schools that have a large fan base.
“Far down the road, you’ll buy tokens and put them into a fantasy football league, or basketball or volleyball league,” Thayer said.
Fans can already purchase some Illini NFTs. To find out how, visit the NextName website.
