OU creates new NIL division with Altius, hoping to give Sooners leg up in NIL
OU athletic director Joe Castiglione is always trying to think a couple of steps ahead. And right now for Castiglione — and at athletic departments across the country — that is pivotal in the Name, Image, Likeness world.
That’s why Oklahoma is launching the “Athlete Services Division.”
This is a new NIL division within the OU athletic department that will expand OU’s current NIL infrastructure. Its intention is to invest in “more personalized resources for student-athletes.” To accomplish this, OU is partnering with Altius Sports Partners, one of the leaders in NIL advising. They currently work with 29 Power Five schools, including Texas, Oklahoma State, Kansas, and Cincinnati in the Big 12. Altius is led by former NCAA executive Oliver Luck, who is now the chairman of the company.
Oklahoma believes this new division, which will include several new specialized roles, will make it one of the leaders in NIL by helping athletes understand how to land NIL deals, grow their personal brand, and ensure they are educated on the rules of NIL.
“This is taking what we’ve been doing and putting it 10 notches up,” Castiglione told SoonerScoop.com. “It’s built to educate and empower our athletes to maximize their own potential… We can’t pay them. That’s not part of what we’re doing. We’re just looking at using our resources to help them drive their own opportunities.
“The way you’re going to see the impact is you’re going to see more and more athletes who are interested in availing themselves of these resources become aligned with businesses that have similar interests. The other side of it is there are people out there who are going to educate the businesses on what they can do.
“This just gives us a much more efficient and comprehensive way to be strong in the (NIL) space.”
Oklahoma’s NIL operation is currently overseen by Executive Associate Athletics Director for NIL and Operational Advancement Toby Baldwin. OU, Baldwin, and Altius have been working together since March 2022, but under this new division, OU will create new roles in conjunction with Altius.
This will include working with an Altius executive general manager, who will be “entrusted with the oversight and implementation of current and future strategic initiatives related to OU student-athlete NIL.” It will also include an “athlete revenue analyst” who “will focus on analyzing and identifying how to optimize athlete revenue streams while supporting the executive general manager as a liaison to coaches and other key OU stakeholders.”
These roles will work directly with businesses, as well as OU coaches, to help connect athletes to local, regional, and national businesses for potential deals. This will also allow Baldwin to focus specifically on athlete-facing issues, helping athletes solicit opportunities on their own.
In the end, this is all a long way of saying Oklahoma is expanding its current NIL operation in hopes of giving athletes more opportunities to earn NIL deals. And with Altius’ help, this should create a more effective way to do so.
“It’s a more commercially focused approach. What I mean by that is not depending solely on the collective landscape,” said Andrew Donovan, the executive vice president of Altius. “OU obviously has a partnership with Learfield and has corporate partners. And then there are many, many businesses in Norman and regionally and nationally that are not corporate sponsors of Oklahoma. Those are all prospects to do NIL deals with athletes.
“So having a very strategic approach in how you educate those entities and create awareness – both in concert with Learfield for corporate sponsors but separately for non-corporate sponsors – is what is going to lead to a volume of new commercial NIL opportunities for athletes.”
How will this help recruiting?
Let’s cut to the chase.
The most frequent question most fans want to know is how will this help OU recruit top talent to Norman? That was a part of Oklahoma’s intentions with this model. With Altius’ help, OU will be able to better present their NIL opportunities to potential athletes. Altius will be working directly with Oklahoma coaches to help simplify NIL deals for players.
“They will better define the NIL story that we can tell on behalf of our athletes as well as use that in the recruiting of future athletes as they ask questions about the growth and opportunities of NIL at Oklahoma,” Castiglione said. “We can’t facilitate any deals — you know that. But we have more and more businesses asking how they can get involved. (Altius) can go out and help develop the business strategy so those particular businesses could pursue their interest in NIL.”
For example, if Johnny Fivestar is visiting campus and asks about potential NIL deals, Altius will be able to relay to coaches what businesses they might be able to partner with as well as how much they might potentially make based on previous NIL deals and relationships OU has built with current or past athletes.
“We can’t necessarily say to Brent (Venables) or another coach, ‘Hey, we can count on deals with these three companies for when these athletes come in’ because that would be against the rules to guarantee them anything or for us to technically facilitate that deal,” said Donovan, who worked in compliance at Tennessee, LSU and Marshall. “But what we can do is we can be very aggressive about getting in front of all these different businesses and getting them to understand the value of working with an OU athlete and getting them to turn around and say, ‘We want to do a deal, how do we do it?’ And then we can coach them along the way, which can lead to the same outcome you described. So it’s just a nuanced way of getting there.
“And the last thing we’re going to do is put OU and its athletes in a bad place with the NCAA. We’re going to be very buttoned-up in how we approach that. But I do think we can get to the outcome you described in a very nuanced way.”
So, according to Donovan, when Johnny Fivestar comes to Norman, OU should have one of the better NIL presentations in the country compared to other schools. It’s a way to essentially side-step the issue of directly offering money, which is not allowed. And instead, paint a picture of what OU can potentially offer.
“Part of our job is to craft that pitch, craft that narrative,” Donovan said. “And so some of that will be surrounding the resources that are available to (recruits) if they come to Oklahoma. Some of that will be doing a very effective job in telling the story about NIL deals that have already taken place on Oklahoma’s campus. It’s basically leading them to water of factual information that has taken place or may take place in the future versus what would violate the rules and saying, ‘If you come to Oklahoma, you will get this (insert money).’
“The reality of it is there are a lot of people out there that are breaking the rules — doing it the wrong way. No different than it’s always been. We think, and I know Joe thinks and the whole Oklahoma department thinks, we can achieve some of the same outcomes. But we can do it the right way.”
What about new state laws?
Oklahoma believes this new division is going to give it a leg up in recruiting when potential athletes see the amount of deals OU athletes are receiving. Schools across the country are currently trying to find any advantage it can get in NIL. That has shown to play a major role in landing top recruits and transfers — especially in football.
Politics has come into play, too. State legislatures have inserted themselves, with state NIL laws allowing their state institutions to perform NIL deals with less restriction. Most recently, Missouri passed a transformative bill that allows in-state recruits to receive NIL compensation before they even get on campus.
This new law — only allowed in Missouri — has given Missouri a massive leg up in NIL and recruiting. And there are some who believe it could start a trickle effect to other states.
For Castiglione, he’s not so sure that’s a law he supports just yet.
“To be candid, when we tell our NIL story, it’s only about our athletes who are here,” Castiglione said. “I don’t know if I’ve formulated an opinion yet. I realize it’s an advantage. And from that standpoint, I want to make sure our athletes have every advantage they can. That being said, I’m not so sure I’d be ready to support something starting before an athlete actually becomes a student on campus. There are a lot of pitfalls with that. And it’s so new we haven’t really had a chance to see how it will work.”
For Castiglione, he’s focused on what he can control. And he can’t control the state legislature. But he has stayed proactive in finding innovative ways to keep OU up to speed on NIL. And he believes this new division is one way of doing that.
“It really comes down to this — there’s a robust story of the path to NIL success at Oklahoma. Use actual examples of athletes that have availed themselves to the resources,” Castiglione said. “We can’t facilitate or organize those relationships (with businesses). But we can educate (athletes) so they’re better prepared to make the type of agreement they want to fulfill or align with what represents their interest.”
What’s next for NIL at OU?
OU has continued to expand its NIL operation over the last several years. And Castiglione feels this new division will allow them to better see into the future and adjust accordingly.
Castiglione is a long-time believer that one day athletic departments will be the ones facilitating NIL deals to athletes. This Athlete Service Division is sort of a workaround to doing that currently while continuing to abide by the rules.
“I think someday, in the not-so-distant future, that we will be permitted to (facilitate NIL deals to athletes). But we’re not there yet,” Castiglione said. “I think this is the model that will be present in the athletic department in years to come. And I can’t tell you exactly when. But I think it’s something that’s built to be adaptable and we can pivot when that day does come.”
Castiglione has big plans for NIL, including potentially building an entire NIL office on or near campus.
“We’re already working on a space we can use right now. We’re doing it in pockets, but we’re working on a space,” Castiglione said. “In time, we’re going to build out more services for the athletes. Those will be, obviously, here. We wanted to get this launched and then build it from here.”
Until then, Castiglione is centrally focused on this model, while simultaneously preparing for whatever the NIL future throws OU’s way.
“We will begin by putting our staff in better positions to be athlete-facing. And then they will hire staff that will work externally to help, in a sense, educate others who are interested in the NIL space,” Castiglione said. “It’s about robust athlete education, business development, and then helping athletes optimize their revenue opportunities. This model is really a step to skate where the puck is going. We wanted to be adaptable.”
And that’s why Altius inevitably wants to work with OU on this model. Because they believe Castiglione is ahead of the game.
“He expects to be able to not be caught flat-footed and to be prepared for change,” Donovan said. “Joe is obviously a very innovated guy. He’s seen a lot of change and evolution and he’s reacted well to that. Joe wants to address the here-and-now of NIL and position OU athletes for success. And in turn, give coaches a good narrative upon which to recruit. But he also wants to talk about what’s coming in the future. So that when the light switch does flip and there is more change, Oklahoma says, ‘Awesome, we’ve been planning for this for a long time.’
“It’s refreshing, it’s invigorating and, quite frankly, it’s rewarding to work with someone like Joe who thinks proactively.”
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