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Today’s Case

UNC brings on TJ Beisner from Kentucky to oversee Tar Heels' NIL efforts

TJ Beisner, Kentucky men’s basketball, de facto general manager, has left his role as the team’s basketball director of player personnel to run NIL operations for North Carolina men’s basketball team. Beisner handled numerous roles for John Calipari over the last five years, with a noteworthy effort around the team’s NIL presence.

While UK had some early stumbles regarding NIL, Beisner put together an impressive resume of deals for the team, including:

• Playing a crucial role in assisting Oscar Tshiebwe to navigate NIL. Because of student visa restrictions, international athletes cannot work while studying and playing in the U.S. Beisner was able to guide Tshiebwe through that hurdle.

• Last season’s team-wide agreement with Morgan & Morgan, America’s largest injury firm and longtime partner of UK Athletics.

• Jacob Toppin appearing in a commercial for AT&T.

As of now, Beisner will not be on Hubert Davis’ North Carolina staff; instead, he will serve as the executive director of Tri-Cord Management, the collective backed by the UNC athletic department solely dedicated to men’s basketball. This will not impact the Heels4Life collective, which operates with the primary goal of servicing NIL for North Carolina football, a source told On3.

The Verdict:

• This is the new norm of NIL

  • Specific teams within athletic departments hiring full-time general managers to manage NIL efforts shows how far the space has evolved over the last 2+ years.

    • It’s not enough to have a person handling NIL in addition to their regular job duties; rather, select programs (Rachel Baker for Duke men’s basketball, Liz Brown for Kentucky women’s basketball, etc.) displays the magnitude of the team and benefits NIL can bring.

  • Additionally, a benefit of “subset” NIL directors for teams is that they are still able to leverage resources (staff, sponsors, etc.) of their respective school’s athletic department.

• UNC showing they are serious about boosting their NIL efforts

  • Given Beisner’s efforts at UK, Tar Heels men’s basketball coach Hubert Davis was impressed enough to connect with Beisner on how he can help improve the Heels’ NIL efforts.

    • This allows Beisner the opportunity to work with another elite program - one that includes Armando Bacot, who has leveraged NIL to become one of its biggest benefactors to date.

Three most important NIL resources for student-athletes

While many people can help navigate NIL for student-athletes, go to these people first. Check out this video for more!

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Court is adjourned. Go be great!!