Syracuse athletics is evolving its long term NIL and revenue generation strategy

One Orange Alliance is the name of the new collective initiative to align SU athletes with the business community and corporate partners.

Nov 22, 2016; Syracuse, NY, USA; General view of seat covers with the Syracuse Orange logo inside the Carrier Dome prior to the game between the South Carolina State Bulldogs and the Syracuse Orange. Mandatory Credit: Rich Barnes-Imagn Images | Rich Barnes-Imagn Images

Just over two months from now will mark the fifth anniversary of the introduction of the NIL era into college athletics - July 1, 2021.

The beginning of players in all sports being able to monetize off their name/image/likeness while competing at the highest level of Div. I sports, forever changed the pretext that these were "amateur" athletes simultaneously fulfilling a required semester full of courses to stay eligible for playing time.

As the five year NIL mark approaches this summer, it also coincides with a completely new leadership direction being forged at the university.

Still relatively new AD Bryan Blair has hit the ground running in his post the last five weeks, and on Tuesday announced the university's new NIL direction, consolidating its efforts with a freshly named entity to serve the NIL needs for all of the Orange programs.

A kaleidoscope of names turns into One Orange Alliance

It certainly seemed like SU was spread out with several affiliated groups over the first few years of NIL, working on various strategies to come up with ways to pay 'Cuse athletes.

On Tuesday during a promotional event at Syracuse's Meier's Creek Inner Harbor Taproom, Blair and major Orange donor and CNY business leader Colby Clark (a Meier's owner) detailed the sensible consolidation of the school's third-party NIL strategy moving forward under the One Orange Alliance banner.

This one entity direction will replace several groups (Orange United, the 315 Foundation) that were created at different timelines and had different methods of operation, as NIL was still evolving along with new coaches Red Autry and Fran Brown taking over their respective programs in 2023 and eyeing enough funding to stock ACC-caliber rosters.

NIL, and the department's direct funding contribution ($21.3M in 2026-27), has been item number one on Blair's priority list, especially inheriting a job in which SU was admittedly on the slow end of the learning process, certainly as compared to other ACC and P-4 programs.

As Blair get his hands wrapped around the department's financial picture, he has been busy planning out a strategy to cover his number one responsibility of overseeing both the fundraising initiatives covering payments to football/men's basketball NIL, and the department's annual direct contribution ($21.3M allowed in 2026-27).

He is going to lean on Clark and his team to build out the coffers for the school's top two Dome revenue programs, while counting on Brown and Gerry McNamara to do their parts as well - winning games..

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