Here To Stay

The Winter 2023 issue of ONE MARYLAND Magazine recently arrived in the mailboxes of Terrapin Club members. ONE MARYLAND features stories of strength and perseverance, of determination and spirit. These stories define our athletics program, and this new magazine will allow us to share these stories with you. Over the next few weeks, we will be rolling out these stories on umterps.com as a preview of what you will find in ONE MARYLAND. To receive future issues of the magazine when they debut, please join the Terrapin Club. We hope you enjoy.

Name, image, and likeness has altered the landscape of college sports forever and it’s not going anywhere anytime soon as players are finally allowed to financially capitalize on their personal brands. 

For Power Five schools especially, NIL and subsequent NIL Collectives are now a must-have to keep up with the competition. At Maryland, NIL has been embraced through various foundations and collectives. Most notably, football has created their The Best Is Ahead Foundation (TBIAF), men’s basketball is in partnership with Turtle NIL Management and men’s lacrosse founded its Hard Shell Collective. 

“Having NIL funds is 100 percent essential now,” said Dan Crowley, a college teammate of Michael Locksley’s and Director of TBIAF. “You’re failing if you don’t have it. The reason I’m here is because it’s not going everywhere. For me to play a little role at Maryland and help do this thing the right way, that’s really cool.” 

In its simplest terms, NIL means that student-athletes have the ability to profit from their own name, image and likeness—something they weren’t permitted to do until the summer of 2021. With the introduction of collectives shortly after, the scope of collegiate athletics changed yet again, making the rules and regulations a bit murkier. 

There is not a standard for collectives across universities; each school and sport has the license to have some level of creativity with it. But, in most forms, it consists of a group of boosters, alumni or supporters coming together to form an organization that provides NIL opportunities to student-athletes.™

Football’s TBIAF is perhaps one of the most unique collectives out there. For starters, it is purposefully called a foundation and not a collective. Furthermore, it is rooted in a mission to partner the University of Maryland football players with the youth in the surrounding community to build a better tomorrow. In response, fans and supporters can donate on the TBIAF website to compensate the student-athletes for their community work. 

Turtle NIL Management has played a crucial role as well as there’s perhaps no sport where NIL matters more than college basketball. The collective allows fans to donate to specific players as a result of their personalized brands and work on social media. The concept forces players to work hard at their own brands, something that will serve them extremely well in the future.

“The power of NIL and our collective creates opportunities for our players,” said men’s basketball head coach Kevin Willard. “Many of these could be life altering – giving them better financial literacy, empowering them to be entrepreneurs, and providing real-world business acumen; all of which are educational skills that will help them as they go forward in life. Turtle NIL Management helps manage these opportunities, while also helping our players evaluate how they can make the most of each.”

For many reasons, NIL has been a long time coming—the biggest of which is that, for decades, players have been responsible for millions of dollars funneling into the sports industry while getting none of it in return.

“This provides an avenue to support student-athletes,” Crowley said of TBIAF. “You know exactly where this money is going. I can guarantee 100 percent of it is going to a Maryland football player to support them and teach them a lot of life lessons. And I feel like we’re doing it the right way here at Maryland.” 

“You’re basically killing two birds with one stone,” Locksley added. “You’re supporting the University of Maryland by supporting this foundation which affects the football players that are part of the university, while also supporting some of the great things we’re doing in the community. When we do talks to kids about gun violence or we go into underserved areas and talk about mental health and literacy, it’s a win-win. Not only are they building a strong foundation for our athletes that represent the university of Maryland, they’re building a stronger community that supports the university, both in and out of athletics.”

Learn more about the NIL Collectives supporting Maryland Student-Athletes in the NIL Era.