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Today’s Case

Division III football bowl series set to debut next season, sponsored by Opendorse

It’s never too early for bowl season - and there’s always room for something new.

Last week, the inaugural Opendorse Bowl Series was announced, which will feature the highest-ranked teams to not make the NCAA tournament from the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference, the North Coast Athletic Conference, the Ohio Athletic Conference and the Presidents’ Athletic Conference.

The format will be a one-day, two-game series set to take place on Saturday November 23, 2024 at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium at Hall of Fame Village in Canton, Ohio.

Opendorse, the leading NIL company and athlete marketplace, will sponsor the series and provide year-round NIL services to the participating conferences. In addition to bringing together top teams from each conference in a celebration of Division III football excellence, all student-athletes from each conference will benefit from NIL opportunities and ongoing education.

Sarah Otey, Ohio Athletic Conference Commissioner: “I think I speak for all four conferences in expressing my excitement for this event…This would not have been possible without the support of Opendorse. While student-athletes have been able to benefit from the use of their name, image, and likeness for several years, Division III student-athletes are underrepresented in the NIL marketplace. Opendorse’s commitment to this bowl series and their support of these four conferences will help us begin to change that landscape.“

The Verdict

• Opendorse continues to lead the way for NIL innovation

  • One of the earliest companies investing in NIL, Opendorse began building their platform several years before name, image and likeness became legal on July 1, 2021.

  • The company also partnered with Duke’s Mayo Bowl to provide a bowl-specific NIL marketplace for the game this past December - and I’m fully expecting to see something similar for this Bowl Series.

• NIL for All

  • I love that this Series features Division III teams and conferences, along with the fact that all student-athletes from each conference benefit from NIL opportunities and ongoing education.

  • Division III schools and athletes generally don’t have the same NIL resources available to them as larger schools, so this begins to somewhat even the playing field for opportunities.

• What sport is next?

  • This model seems replicable across men’s and women’s sports, so I’m curious to see what is forthcoming.

    • My recommendation would be to provide women’s sports a similar opportunity. A volleyball or softball series would be beneficial for the athletes, schools and conferences.

Kirby Smart’s NIL solution

The Georgia football coach recently shared his thoughts on solving NIL. Watch this video for more!

Thank You for reading today’s newsletter

^{I discuss insights and news related to name, image and likeness in 3 minutes or less every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 12p ET/9a PT.}

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