Ole Miss Grove Collective Ranked as Top 10 Most Ambitious NIL Program
OXFORD, Miss. -- The idea of NIL collectives is a fairly new concept in the world of collegiate sports, but the Ole Miss Rebels are one of the few programs that are on top of it.
Thanks to the efforts of The Grove Collective's executive director, Walker Jones, Ole Miss' NIL program has become one of the best in the country heading into the 2023 season. Jones took over The Grove Collective last September and by the time the regular season had ended, Ole Miss had surpassed $10 million in NIL fundraising.
The Rebels currently have NIL contracts with at least one player from each varsity sport, and a total of 165 student athletes are signed with The Grove Collective.
On3 ranked the top 20 most ambitious NIL programs in college athletics through two years and The Grove Collective came in at No. 9.
The top 10 NIL collectives are listed below.
1. Spyre Sports Group (Tennessee Volunteers)
2. 12th Man+ Fund (Texas A&M Aggies)
3. Division Street (Oregon Ducks)
4. Texas One Fund (Texas Longhorns)
5. Canes Connection John Ruiz (Miami Hurricanes)
6. The Battle's End (Florida State Seminoles)
7. House of Victory (USC Trojans)
8. Onearkansas NIL (Arkansas Razorbacks)
9. The Grove Collective (Ole Miss)
10. Country Roads Trust (West Virginia Mountaineers)
Here is the excerpt on how The Grove Collective has turned into one of the largest and most organized NIL funds.
When Walker Jones took over as executive director of The Grove Collective in September, he had some heavy lifting to do. Ole Miss was playing catch up in NIL, a position no collective wants to be in. By late November, the collective topped the $10 million mark in fundraising. It remains one of the top reported totals in the NIL collective market. While Jones hammered home the importance of donors contributing to The Grove, he made sure the collective was locating revenue outside of the fan base.
He told On3 last week that the collective has done more than 50 deals with national and local brands. That includes a Wheels Up partnership, which has provided athletes with access to travel opportunities in exchange for community work. Another recently announced partnership will bring the Hyperluxe platform, an eSports tournament platform, to the collective.
In total, the collective has contracts with 165 athletes with at least one player from each varsity sport. The amount of capital raised by The Grove this fall also played a role in Lane Kiffin staying in Oxford.
“Their school has really gotten behind Walker and his team,” a source said. “They run a buttoned up operation. When their name comes up, you know you’re going up against a legit collective. They’re organized. They know what they have to work with, and they’re smart about it.”
On top of driving up The Grove Collective's membership through fans, Jones has also taken a different approach to raise his NIL fund. The collective has completed over 50 deals with national and local brands, including a recently announced partnership with Hyperluxe, an eSports tournament platform.
As On3 mentioned, the collective's surge in funding certainly played a role in keeping Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin around in Oxford for the long haul. Kiffin's bread and butter the last two offseasons has been reloading his team via the NCAA Transfer Portal and a stacked NIL collective allows him and his staff to go out and recruit with the big spenders of college football.
You can follow Ben King on Twitter at @BKing_2023.
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