The University of Florida has just become the first athletic department to have an NIL company as an official partner or sponsor.
Back in July, legislation was passed deeming it legal for college athletes to profit off their name, image, and likeness, otherwise known as NIL. Shortly after that legislation was passed, former Gator baseball pitcher Eddie Rojas moved quickly to capitalize by founding the Gator Collective, a grassroots organization that connects fans and student-athletes like never before- and gives Florida’s student-athletes ways to profit off their name, image, and likeness like never before.
Now, today, that grassroots organization has taken the ultimate step forward: effective today, the Gator Collective is officially a partner of the Florida Gators. You can become a member today by following this link.
So, what does this mean?
Well, as far as the partnership goes, the Gator Collective is going to be endorsed and promoted by the Florida Gators like any other company is. You know how, in the Florida Gators’ official game day programs for football games, you’ll see advertisements for AllState, or Visa, or Delta Airlines? You know how you’ll see advertisements for these companies on the JumboTrons in The Swamp? The Gator Collective will now appear in these game programs, or on billboards, on the JumboTrons, etc. just as these other companies are.
As for the Gator Collective itself? The way it operates is simple. Fans of the Florida Gators pay a membership fee of as little as $5.99 per month, which officially qualifies you as a Gator Collective member. That money that the Gator Collective receives from its members goes directly to funding NIL deals for Florida Gators student-athletes. In some cases, the membership fee money may also go toward helping Florida Gators student-athletes receive training and life skills that they may never have learned before, such as balancing a checkbook, or interview practice- in other words, critical skills that they will need to have going forward in life.
But the Gator Collective is not a charity organization; members get benefits in return for their membership fees. As a result of being a member of the Gator Collective, you will get access to all kinds of behind-the-scenes content. Among these types of content: in-depth interviews with some of the athletes of the Gator Collective, fan raffles for memorabilia (most recently, a football autographed by Anthony Richardson), and exclusive networking events, such as bowling with the athletes and hanging out with them.
Now, the minimum amount of money for a monthly membership is $5.99, but this was done as a way to include as many fans as possible. If you happen to be able to afford more than $5.99 per month, you can give more than that; there are no different access levels that different amounts of monthly payments to the Gator Collective will give you, but by giving more, you are doing that much more to help fund NIL deals for your favorite Florida Gators athletes. That’s the ultimate motivation at play here.
Along with all other descriptions of the Gator Collective that you may read, here’s perhaps the most powerful one: the Gator Collective is a major league recruiting weapon that no other school has. That’s right, no other school has a system in place where fans come together to fund NIL deals for the players- and that goes for all sports, not just football. Now, Billy Napier can tell a highly-touted prospect on his official visit that signing with Florida gives him access to hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of dollars’ worth of NIL deals… which by the way, to remind you, is now one hundred percent legal. Other schools don’t have that. Kirby Smart can’t use that to lure that highly-touted prospect to Georgia. This is a leg up on every other school in the country that Florida now has.
And we need your help. Yes, you, reading this. To date, the Gator Collective has gained over 1,700 unique members, who together have raised over $250,000 with their membership fees. Or, another way to write that: thanks to these 1,700+ fans, the Gator Collective has raised over a quarter of a million dollars to be distributed to Florida Gators student-athletes in the forms of various NIL deals, and teaching them crucial life skills.
By you joining the Gator Collective, you are making this operation one person stronger. One person more powerful. The “army,” as Billy Napier would put it, becomes one person larger. And that all doubles as motivation to tell a friend, a coworker, a colleague, a relative, etc. The more excitement you can help drum up about this organization, the more members you can help bring on, the stronger of a recruiting tool Florida has at its disposal.
(Lastly, a quick disclaimer: member funds were not used to fund this partnership with the Florida Gators.)
The Gator Collective isn’t about one person. It’s not about me, it’s not about the former athletes who have joined the Gator Collective’s advisory board, it’s not about the various media members joining forces to provide some of the content, and it’s not even about founder Eddie Rojas. Rather, it’s about the Florida Gators as a whole, their student-athletes, and the overall mission to help them take the next step forward in life- and oh, by the way, as a token of gratitude for your support, you just happen to gain access to all kinds of awesome content with the student-athletes.
Now that the Gator Collective has become an official partner of the Florida Gators, there’s no reason to wait any longer. Join our team today and become a member by clicking the button below.
