WILDCAT NIL DEALS
The Process of NIL at the University of Arizona
The University of Arizona (U of A) conducts their NIL business under the title of “Arizona EDGE.” EDGE stand for the learning for Employee Development, Growth and Engagement, as the U of A points out that it makes an effort to educate their faculty and staff these business matters as well.
The Arizona EDGE program is very similar to the Championship Life program at ASU. Both work to promote student-athlete financial literacy skills and the aspect of brand and business management as athletes look for NIL deals.
Figure 4: Graphic explaining the Arizona EDGE program and what is being taught and encouraged through this program. Courtesy of Arizona Wildcats website.
For athletes or student-athlete parents that may not know entirely while NIL entails, considering it is newer to Arizona universities, the U of A has a specific webpage that lays out exactly what the House vs. NCAA court case means for athletes being paid and what revenue sharing ultimately means. The website also provides the emails for Brian Rooney and Sammy Swiger who are from Arizona Sports Enterprises (ASE).
The ASE was created by the U of A to manage the “multimedia rights agreements and operations.”
After having the Arizona EDGE program in place since October of 2020, the U of A has since created an adaptation of the program in 2021 called the Arizona EDGE Marketplace. This being a specific platform for the student-athletes to be connected with businesses and learn more about NIL opportunities. This is similar to NAU’s Lumberjack Exchange platform.
According to the Phoenix New Times, the U of A has the top four sport for highest NIL earning athletes in Arizona. At the top is former Arizona Quarterback Noah Fifita. His NIL earnings have been calculated to be around $1 million from deals with a personal tech company and EA Sports.
With the number two and four sport also being taken by Arizona football players, spot 3 belongs to former Arizona basketball star, Caleb Love. He collected around $795,000. This being from deals with popular name brand like Ritz Crackers, Powerade, Outback Steakhouse and more.
Figure 2: Photo of Caleb Love, Courtesy of SportsKeeda.
REFERENCES:
Arizona’s Caleb Love announces new NIL deal after ... (n.d.-a). https://athlonsports.com/college-basketball/arizonas-caleb-love-announces-new-nil-deal-after-ncaa-tournament-loss
Caleb Love Nil Deals and NIL deal tracker. (n.d.-c). https://www.sportskeeda.com/college-basketball/caleb-love-nil-deal
Kleen, B. (2024, September 28). These 11 athletes are earning the most NIL money in Arizona. Phoenix New Times. https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/highest-paid-nil-athletes-in-arizona-20228532/
Life’s better in Red & Blue. University of Arizona Downloadable Swag. (n.d.). https://spirit.arizona.edu/#/print
NIL Arizona edge flyer 8X11 Digital Update (PDF) - University of Arizona Athletics. (n.d.-b). https://arizonawildcats.com/documents/2021/7/1/NIL_Arizona_EDGE_Flyer_8x11_DIGITAL_update.pdf
University of Arizona Athletics. (2024, June 20). Arizona Athletics announces Arizona Sports Enterprises as Multimedia Rights affiliate. https://arizonawildcats.com/news/2024/6/20/general-abor-story-1.aspx
University of Arizona Athletics. (2021a, April 26). Arizona Athletics announces Arizona Edge program for nil. https://arizonawildcats.com/news/2020/10/27/general-arizona-athletics-announces-arizona-edge-program-for-nil.aspx
University of Arizona Athletics. (2021b, July 23). Arizona edge: NIL Program for Wildcats. https://arizonawildcats.com/news/2021/7/1/general-arizona-edge-update
University of Arizona Athletics. (2021, August 19). Introducing the Arizona Edge Marketplace. https://arizonawildcats.com/news/2021/8/17/general-arizona-edge-marketplace