The prospect of players getting paid is another concern for HBCU schools, where large NIL deals are still taking root

Marc Smith was relaxing in his basement when he got a notification on his phone. The athlete from his alma mater, Grambling State, had posted on social media about not having enough food and needing help.

The incident prompted Smith to found Icon 1901 Collective in April 2022 to assist Grambling athletes land paid sponsorships at the college best known for iconic football coach Eddie Robinson. Smith searched and couldn’t discover a single historically black college or university with a collective focused on name, image, or likeness compensation, so he expanded Icon 1901 to represent HBCU athletes elsewhere as well.

“These kids want to be included in the NIL space, and a lot of universities don’t have the resources to do that,” Smith said.

Outside of the biggest and richest athletic programs, the financial burden of offering solid NIL options to school athletes is a relentless concern, and it’s often especially evident at HBCUs. The 4 major HBCU conferences recently agreed to work together to extend the worth of HBCUs and send more athletes to the professionals, but now a brand new problem has emerged.

The massive $2.8 billion antitrust settlement agreed to by the NCAA and the nation’s largest conferences includes the prospect of schools paying athletes directly as early as 2025. The revenue split is a brand new and daunting factor for all schools with modest resources, including HBCUs.

“There may be some questions about how they’re going to handle this, but if past experience is any indicator, they’re going to find the will and the way, based on alumni unification, to figure out a way to move these institutions forward,” said Texas Southern professor J. Kenyatta Cavil, who studies HBCU sports.

Less money to spend

Only a handful of black colleges have NIL collectives that help secure deals for athletes, but those initiatives have intensified over the past yr or two, due to alumni mobilization and Deion Sanders’ time as football coach at Jackson State.

Many HBCUs don’t make as much money from sports as their Championship Subdivision counterparts. Of the 64 FCS schools, none reported less total sports revenue in 2023 than Mississippi Valley State’s $4.8 million, in line with Knight-Newhouse. Eight of the 11 worst were HBCUs.

Alcorn State, like Grambling and Mississippi Valley, part of the Southwestern Athletic Conference, reported $7.9 million. That in comparison with $68 million at James Madison, which topped the list (excluding Ivy League schools).

The overall picture

SWAC Commissioner Charles McClelland said he doesn’t know what the athletics landscape will appear like in the long run. But he knows the big-money schools and conferences don’t either, and whatever happens will ultimately affect his league and the remainder of the FCS.

The SWAC and Southeastern Conference are headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama. That gives McClelland and SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey a probability to satisfy and discuss potential changes.

“He told me one thing, he said, ‘Charles, we have the same problems. It might be just zeros at the end of the problems. We’re all in this together,’” McClelland said. “We have to share ideas. And what better opportunity to learn and grow than to share ideas with the SEC from a Southwestern Athletic Conference standpoint?”

Dollars and departures

Prairie View A&M football coach Bubba McDowell said his SWAC program lost a half-dozen top players to ZERO MONEY. His school didn’t have them, others did. He’s wary of what revenue sharing might do to HBCU recruiting and retention.

“It’s going to hurt a lot,” McDowell said. “That’s what these kids are looking for, and that’s what society has done for these young men. I’m not against it. I’ve said from day one that if we’re going to do this, let’s do it right. We just don’t know how to do it right yet.”

McDowell and his SWAC colleagues are realistic. Unless their last name is Sanders, now in Colorado, the perfect recruits probably went elsewhere anyway.

They’re also now more more likely to develop after which lose players who aren’t recruited or missed by greater programs out of highschool. Alabama State coach Eddie Robinson Jr. (no relation to Grambling’s former coach) went from the Hornets to the second round of the NFL draft at the identical school.

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Hornets star point guard Kisean Johnson left for Western Kentucky after last season.

“We’re still looking for the same type of kid,” Robinson said. “It’s just a matter of whether we can keep them once they develop into that type of player. That’s the part you don’t like.”

Rich in tradition

There’s no denying the tradition and passionate fans of HBCUs. The Bayou Classic between Grambling and Southern drew nearly 65,000 fans to the Superdome in New Orleans last season. The Magic City Classic between Alabama State and Alabama A&M drew greater than 52,000 to Legion Field in Birmingham.

“I think once you become part of the HBCU family, you go to all these big games and it’s more than just, ‘I moved 2,000 miles away from home, I got a big check and then I never went back to school,’” Robinson said. “Once you start coming to Alabama State, you come to the Magic City Classic, you’re 50 years old and you come back to the Magic City Classic. It’s just part of what you do.”

FCS Challenges

Black colleges aren’t alone of their uncertainty about share revenue with athletes. Athletic directors below the Power Four face three major financial concerns: Less annual money from the NCAA because of a portion of the settlement; determining how best to work with a limited donor base to offer their school a probability to sign athletes with NIL contracts; and determining how much they’ll take if their school decides to pay athletes.

“In general, FCS football programs struggle to retain talent because they don’t have established NIL collectives or partners,” said Blake Lawrence, CEO of Opendorse.com, a NIL marketplace. “I think there’s a growing need for these programs at HBCUs and beyond to have a real answer to the question of, ‘How do you retain talent using NIL?’ That’s going to become a growing need.”

HBCU Teams and Collectives

Opendorse works with dozens of schools in all three NCAA divisions which have or are attempting to develop NIL collectives. That group includes HBCUs Jackson State, Delaware State and Howard.

The Icon Collective website states, “For years, black athletes have built fortunes through their skills on the field, and some have made history through their college and national achievements.”

Smith said he and his team aren’t attempting to make HBCU athletes wealthy. He said his collective represents about 350 athletes from 45 black colleges, or somewhat lower than half of the 107, in line with the Department of Labor. He said contracts typically range from $500 to $1,000 per athlete and sometimes last three to 6 months.

“We’re not here to create millionaires or make college free for kids. I’m here to lighten the load,” Smith said.

His son, Jayden, signed a $20,000 contract with math tutoring company Mathnasium in October 2023. Jayden Smith plays baseball at Xavier University of Louisiana, an NAIA school, and does things like making promotional videos for YouTube.

Grambling basketball player Jimel Cofer signed a contract with the Buffalo Wild Wings after his layup sent the Tigers into additional time in a First Four victory over Montana State within the NCAA tournament. Marc Smith said the deal was value $5,000.

Krispy Kreme stores in Tallahassee, Florida, are offering a special “Dean Dozen” named after Florida A&M quarterback Kelvin Dean, who was named the Celebration Bowl offensive MVP.

Players perspective

Alabama State quarterback Andrew Body, a transfer from Texas Southern, said he had some interest from Bowl Subdivision schools while he was within the transfer portal. Going there could mean some NIL money, but he said he is patient and focused on a possible skilled profession, saying that “getting money in college now kind of takes away your appetite for the game.”

“It’s hard to compete (with NO money), but I think what kids miss the most is that if you do what you need to do on the field, some connections, some income, whatever it may be, will come your way,” Body said.

Grambling State quarterback Myles Crawley, the SWAC preseason offensive player of the yr, said in July that he had not signed an NIL contract but noted that “there’s nothing like the HBCU experience.”

“I grew up around HBCU coaches, so I always said I wanted to start at an HBCU and finish,” Crawley said. “I’m building a culture so the next guy knows he can have a career at an HBCU. The money might be different, but as far as culture goes, there’s nothing like an HBCU.”