Built Brands co-founder Nick Greer, left, and BYU soccer coach Kalani Sitake greet each other on Friday, August 13, 2021 during a press conference at the BYU Student Athlete Building in Provo to discuss the name of Built Brands. Image and likeness agreement with BYU. (Scott G. Winterton, Deseret News)
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PROVO – Was BYU’s groundbreaking name, image and likeness built a pay-for-play program with the Utah County’s protein bar company?
That is the question of an investigation launched by the NCAA, Sportico reported on Friday.
It is investigating whether BYU’s deal with Built – which offers guaranteed football players worth a semester’s tuition in exchange for social media, marketing, and advertising for the Utah County-based protein bar company – violates the tentative rules of the Association in relation to. violates new personal branding and marketing rights for college athletes, according to Sportico, a leading global sports business news outlet.
BYU has been in contact with the NCAA from the summer – when the deal was announced – through Friday afternoon over every NIL deal signed by an athlete on campus, a spokesman for KSL.com confirmed. That includes the Built Bar deal, which provides up to $ 6,000 for walk-on players and up to $ 1,000 for scholarship players, and a department-wide deal with any female athlete who wants Provo-based address verification service SmartyStreets .
“We have communicated with the NCAA regarding the Built Bar NIL agreement,” the university said in a statement. “You have informed us that you have no further questions at this time. We will continue to monitor and comply with the NCAA Interim NIL Policy.”
At the top of the BYU program is Built 4 Life, the name, image, and likeness initiative that aims to educate athletes to sign meaningful, impactful, and legally sound compensation packages to capitalize on and gain from their personal brands monetize.
The program is led by former BYU Compliance Officer Gary Veron, who served as the Cougars’ Compliance Director prior to his promotion to Associate Athletic Director of Student-Athlete Experience. A 2008 BYU graduate, Veron earned a Masters in Public Administration and Law from the University of Wyoming and previously served as Chief Compliance Officer at Charles R. Drew University in Los Angeles and Associate Athletic Director of Compliance and Operations at BYU-Hawaii.
HBO reporter Jon Frankel with BYU booster and entrepreneur Nick Greer on the Provo campus for an episode of Real Sports starring Bryant Gumbel. (Photo: Courtesy: HBO)
Sportico also reported that the NCAA is investigating Miami for a similar team-wide deal with Dan Lambert, a Hurricane alum and celebrity booster who has recruited Miami football players to promote his MMA training facility, American Top Team. The owner offered soccer players $ 500 a month to promote their gyms on social media.
But Lambert insisted to the Miami Herald that his deal in no way violated the NCAA’s new guidelines on name, image, and likeness, an area the association recently declined to pursue under recent amateurism laws after a Series of Supreme Court rulings various rules of the highest level of college athletics in the United States.
“I’d like to sue those bastards,” Lambert told the Herald. “I hired the country’s pre-eminent attorney at NIL (Darren Heitner) and he crossed every T, dotted every me, and they still want to investigate. Maybe (the NCAA is) afraid they’re losing their power. They ‘are.” all parts of (strong expression). “
BYU and Miami aren’t the only university sports departments that have allowed athletes to sign with the NIL representation. In many cases, they’re not even the biggest.
The University of Utah has a team-wide naming, image, and likeness deal with CW Urban, a Salt Lake area real estate agent specializing in “unique properties for Utah residents” from the mid-range of $ 400,000 . Like BYU, the U. even promoted such a deal through the team’s official channels and social media.
TEAM WIDE‼ ️
Thanks to CW Urban for liaising with our student athletes on a team-wide NIL deal.
Visit https://t.co/GxR8fEPmBA to learn more. # BuiltByCWpic.twitter.com / 5S4Tdn1eGl
– Utah Football (@Utah_Football) November 23, 2021
HBO’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel recently showed off top NIL brands across the country for an in-depth look at the changing landscape of college athletics.
“There are thousands and thousands of athletes,” said Dan Everett, a marketing agent who represents Georgia quarterback JT Daniels. “It’s fast becoming a billion dollar industry.”
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