How Mizzou aims to be ahead of game in preparation for ‘name, image, likeness’ changes
The collegiate sports landscape is on the edge of reformation as one rule change will shake the industry for years to come. The NCAA will vote in January 2021 on the name, image and likeness (NIL) rule, which could be implemented as soon as the 2021-22 season.
If the NCAA approves the NIL changes, it will allow players to shop and profit off their brands in a landmark shift for collegiate athletics. While they won’t be directly paid by the universities like employees, sponsorships and paid appearances will be fair game, adding an entirely new dimension to recruiting and student life.
The Missouri athletic department hopes to be a leader in educating athletes while also giving them resources to maximize potential profit through their their brand, which will follow them even after they graduate.
Mizzou took that step Thursday, announcing its partnership with Opendorse to create TradeMark, a platform that will “provide its student-athletes with tools to enhance their personal brands.”
“We are behind the scenes of the biggest athletes in sports when they’re monetizing their audience,” said Blake Lawrence, CEO and co-founder of Opendorse. “When they’re making money for using their NIL, we are the technology behind the scenes that’s making all of that possible.”
MU is working with the Nebraska-based company to also implement Opendorse Ready, an NIL-specific training program that aims to teach athletes and MU officials how to not only grow an audience but about the intricacies of the NIL process.
In other words, Opendorse Ready is the how, teaching athletes the tools to cultivate their brand and MU’s brand. TradeMark is the means by which they get their content to the audience, whether via a certain hype video, image or whatever else might be beneficial.
“Missouri athletics is ready for the future,” Lawrence said. “They have it planned. Being the first in the SEC with a program of this depth, it gives them an advantage in the recruiting conversation.”
Opendorse was created by Lawrence, a Shawnee Mission, Kan., native, and former Nebraska football teammate Adi Kunalic in the early-2010s. Partnering with Mizzou is special for Lawrence, who earned his first collegiate offer from MU’s Gary Pinkel and Andy Hill.
Opendorse started when former Huskers teammate and first-round NFL draft pick Prince Amukamara asked Lawrence and Kunalic how to navigate social media and maximize its value.
That’s when they realized how many athletes lack training to promote themselves — especially on, and especially at the time, burgeoning social platforms. Today, Opendorse offers further advantages, said Shawn Davis, MU’s assistant athletic director for digital media strategy.
Davis said Opendorse’s technology is a huge perk. Behind-the-scenes data gives MU and its athletes a massive advantage. Opendorse can assess how much value there is in a player’s social media following, Davis said, and pinpoint areas of improvement and growth.
“We want every individual athlete that comes to Mizzou to end up having a brand that’s impactful on a national level and be able to leverage that,” Davis said. “That’s how we came up with the name (TradeMark).”
Lawrence said getting ahead of the NIL shift should also prove dividends in a key area: Recruiting.
Schools have always sold high schoolers on their potential fit with the university and team. But in the NIL era, coaches such as MU’s Eliah Drinkwitz can pitch hopeful pledges on the concept of telling their story, with the added bonus of making more money.
Columbia is two hours from either of two major metropolitan areas, Kansas City and St. Louis. MU is also the lone Power Five school in the state, increasing the spotlight on both school and athlete. Mix in the SEC’s exposure with television deals and national appeal, and Mizzou provides some unique opportunities.
“NIL and student-athlete brand-building solutions are the recruiting battle of the next decade,” Lawrence said. “It’s starting right now because it will have a major impact on the earning potential for student-athletes. The NIL era will come down to how marketable they are.”
Mizzou’s new initiative doesn’t focus only on the two revenue sports of football and men’s basketball. Athletes don’t necessarily need to be a Michael Porter Jr. or Drew Lock to amplify their time at Mizzou, Davis said.
MU can magnify an athlete in any sport, whether women’s basketball’s Sophie Cunningham, distance runner Karissa Schweizer, wrestling’s J’den Cox and a slew of other athletes. They don’t have to be stars. Former MU basketball forward Reed Nikko wasn’t a starter until the final stretch of his career, but his passion for wildlife and fishing made his background and story unique.
In that way, the TradeMark platform should extend to every corner of the athletic department, Davis said.
“We want athletes to know that, when they come here, their brand is as big as our brand,” Davis said. “What’s good for both brands is if we bring each other up. We can leverage our brand to help enhance them, then the player’s brand can help enhance Mizzou’s brand.”
While MU is still in the early phases of implementing TradeMark — the NIL rule hasn’t been passed yet — Lawrence said the Tigers will be better prepared to deal with college athletics’ new paradigm than many of their peers.
Clemson, Louisville, TCU and others are using Opendorse’s training, but Mizzou is the first SEC program to do so.
Lawrence said the training is based on three pillars: Education, assessment and performance. It starts with educating the players on how they can grow their market. Then the player’s brand value is assessed. From there, it’s up to the performance of the student-athlete and university to determine the impact of his or her name, image and likeness.
In Columbia, emphasis on social media is nothing new. The Mizzou athletic department has kept a steady eye on analytics and reaching new audiences. Davis and his fellow MU officials believe this collaboration with Opendorse is the program’s logical next step.
“There’s a chance, everywhere you go, if you do it right as a student-athlete, for your story to get ‘out there,’” Davis said. “The easiest way to leverage your personal brand is to tell your story.
“We’ve got so many different platforms to do that. Opendorse gives us a way to now put the content that we’re creating for Mizzou athletics channels directly in the hands of our kids through a text.”
This story was originally published November 6, 2020 at 10:23 AM.