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Basepath, an NIL operations software, has announced partnerships with a number of NIL collectives and athletic departments to help organize and manage the vast amount of transactions, paperwork and tracking required to operate efficiently and compliantly in the NIL space. Partners now include:
- MGoDao (University of Michigan collective)
- Micconope 1851 (Florida State collective) (announcement here)
- Pack of Wolves (NC State collective)
- Runners Rising (UTSA collective)
- St John’s University
- The Boiler Trust (Purdue collective)
- Think NIL (TCU collective)
- United Wholesale Mortgage
- University of Detroit Mercy
See our tracker of all known NIL collectives
“A single NIL transaction, in a vacuum, while complex, is manageable. You have a student-athlete connecting with a brand or sponsor, they strike up a deal, write up a contract, if they’re lucky, they have someone to review it with, they then disclose the deal to a compliance office, they receive the blessing from the institution, sign the deal, do the work, and get paid… Managing five of those can be tedious. Managing 100s and 1,000s, is near impossible,” said Thomas Thomas Jr., co-founder and CEO of Basepath.
“That’s where Basepath comes in. We automate and ensure all of the operational backend, from contract set up to payment and 1099 reporting, is automated and seamless – allowing the organizations that we support to focus on the things that matter most – supporting their student-athletes and organizations.”
Haze Lancaster, one of the founders of North Carolina State collective Pack of Wolves, says Basepath will allow the collective to fulfill its goal of setting athletes up for success after graduation.
“Our primary goal is to prepare these student-athletes for life beyond college athletics. While we help generate and facilitate NIL deals for our student-athletes, we equip them with the right legal, financial, and networking resources to ensure that we’re setting them up to succeed both now and in the future. And we do that through and with Basepath, our operations software partner.”
Eddie Benningfield, Executive Director of UTSA collective Runners Rising, says he chose Basepath to make both paying athletes and submitting compliance documentation efficient.
“This is the next step in the evolution of what Runners Rising hopes to provide to UTSA’s student athletes—a functional marketplace to foster engagement between athletes, sponsors, and San Antonio’s business community. Basepath’s platform and its streamlining of processes associated with payment and most importantly, compliance, will make it that much easier for sponsors and UTSA’s student athletes choosing to utilize our resources to find each other and grow NIL opportunities,” said Benningfield. “Bottom Line: Basebath will help UTSA’s student athletes and San Antonio become a leader in community-driven NIL.”
“We chose Basepath because it makes it so easy to pay athletes. We’re excited about the possibilities for sponsoring Michigan athletes,” said Reece Kurdyla of MGoDao.
Beyond collectives there are also a number of athletic departments that have taken proactive steps to deliver unique value to their athletes. The University of Detroit Mercy and St John’s University, both in Division III, view NIL as a gateway to bring new opportunities to their student-athletes beyond simply generating deals.
“We have the ability to educate and support our student-athletes’ growth in areas that we seldom touched before. From reading contracts to networking and personal finance education, we are offering our student-athletes a new set of life skills that will set them up for success far beyond their time with us. Basepath makes it easier for us to connect with and engage our student-athletes,” said Steve Corder, Assistant Athletic Director of Detroit Mercy.
As the name, image and likeness economy continues to grow, scalability and efficiency will continue to be important for universities, collectives and others in this space. Basepath hopes to take the operational burden off of organizations as they navigate this new and ever-changing space.
Disclosure: Basepath is a sponsor of Business of College Sports
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