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Last Updated on September 7, 2023
“Volleyball Day in Nebraska” to be held in Memorial Stadium at University of Nebraska is expected to attract more than 80,000 fans, which would make history as the largest crowd to watch an NCAA volleyball match. With the spotlight on them, Nebraska women’s volleyball athletes will be able to capitalize on this historic moment with a number of different NIL opportunities.
The Brandr Group, which coordinates group licensing opportunities for college athletes, pulled together four separate NIL opportunities with Athlete’s Thread, Campus INK, The Athletic Collection and ONIT. Each of these opportunities, described in more detail below, is available to every athlete on the team.
“Volleyball Day in Nebraska is going to be a major event,” said Kathleen Melvin, senior manager for licensing operations with The Brandr Group. “The Brandr Group communicated the opportunity to all of the licensees with product offerings that could align with the event. Local and national licensees were all excited and eager to provide offerings.”
Through Athlete’s Thread, fans can buy apparel featuring every member of the team, and through Campus INK there is athlete-specific merchandise available for each athlete.
The Athletic Collection has posters available featuring various members of the team, and all of the athletes also opted in for trading cards with ONIT.
Athletes will be compensated for the trading cards based on revenue share per pack, with partial payment made upfront. They can also earn additional compensation when they sell cards through their social or other platforms. One in every 10 packs will feature an autographed card, with the athletes participating in the autographed cards receiving additional compensation.
Melvin says all of the Nebraska volleyball team was already opted into The Brandr Group’s group rights program, so they were able to turn around these activations quickly. For fans, it means many different options to support their team.
“There will be something for everyone with products ranging from jerseys to team designs, caricature T-shirts, and trading cards,” said Melvin.
It’s one of the largest women’s NIL activations to date.
Volleyball Day in Nebraska will feature a doubleheader, beginning with the University of Nebraska-Kearney playing Wayne State College in an exhibition match at 4:30 p.m. and University of Nebraska playing University of Nebraska-Omaha at 7 p.m. (to air on Big Ten Network and stream on the FOX Sports app). Country music star Scotty McCreery will perform after the second match.
“This is going to be a special day for the sport of volleyball in this state,” Nebraska head coach John Cook said. “At Nebraska we’re always aiming to ‘Dream Big’ and raise the bar, and there can’t be a much bigger way to do that than to play a match outdoors in a 90,000-seat football stadium. We’re excited that we’re going to be able to include three other local schools as well to make it a statewide celebration. A Nebraska volleyball ticket is one of the hardest tickets in town to get, so we’re pumped that this match will give so many more fans an opportunity to come watch us play and be part of a historic day.”
Nebraska volleyball owns an NCAA sellout streak of 303 consecutive regular-season matches. The match in Memorial Stadium will not count toward the streak since it’s being played outside of the Huskers’ main home facility.
Updated to add: Star outside hitter for Nebraska, Harper Murray, has donated volleyball shoes to her high school volleyball team in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Each girl who participates in the Skyline High School Volleyball program received shoes, totaling more than 40 pairs. The shoes are from Avoli, of which Harper is a brand ambassador.
This piece originally appeared on Forbes
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