Decoldest Crawford and SOS Heating & Cooling
With their ability to create NIL deals in the future, it wouldn’t be surprising to start seeing young sports hopefuls with names like “Doritos McLaren.” Another player who capitalized on their unique name to snag an NIL deal was Nebraska wide receiver Decoldest Crawford. No nicknames necessary here — Decoldest’s birth name was already so perfect that a local HVAC company in Nebraska, SOS Heating & Cooling, felt the pull of fate’s thread and brought him into the fold officially.
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Will Ulmer and Himself
The next NIL deal isn’t a perfect name-to-business pairing, or a natural partnership spotted by an advertiser with a sharp eye for synergy, but rather a personal business that had been torturously complicated thanks to the NCAA’s previously awkward rules. Will Ulmer was an offensive lineman at Marshall, but, as if a living, breathing cliche of the gentle giant, also a singer-songwriter.
Unfortunately, because of the NCAA, he was a singer-songwriter who wasn’t allowed to perform under his own name. You can start to see here how the old rules felt less like “protecting young players” and more like “fully completing the weird ownership vibes of schools over their athletes.” Until the NIL allowances went through, Ulmer was forced to perform under the pseudonym “Lucky Bill” unless he wanted to risk sanctions from the NCAA over someone paying five bucks for a Will Ulmer concert ticket. Would the NCAA really be that petty? Yes. Yes, they would.
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BYU Football and Built Bars
For the most part, NIL deals disproportionately help out star athletes or ones lucky enough to have their names support some catchy wordplay. It’s still a step in the right direction, considering the options before were absolutely jack squat. Brigham Young University, though, has maneuvered the NIL deal into a program that benefits each and every member of their team, in a step that hopefully will stop the players putting their ACLs on the line for free to fill the university’s coffers.
Through a partnership with Built Brands, the manufacturer of Built Bars, every member of the BYU team, even the walk-ons, now has the cost of their tuition covered. So this is what the NCAA was so afraid of?
Apparently, it was, because the NCAA immediately set up a probe into the deal. God forbid some kids get free fucking tuition.