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Tennessee's NIL Collective Partners With Omaha Jell-O Shot Competition

The Tennessee NIL collective has teamed up with Rocco's bar in Omaha for the College World Series tradition.

Dylan Sanders

May 23, 2024; Hoover, AL, USA; Tennessee Volunteers pitcher Chris Stamos (27) talks with head coach Tony Vitello (22) during a game against the Texas A&M Aggies at the SEC Baseball Tournament at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium.
May 23, 2024; Hoover, AL, USA; Tennessee Volunteers pitcher Chris Stamos (27) talks with head coach Tony Vitello (22) during a game against the Texas A&M Aggies at the SEC Baseball Tournament at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium. / Vasha Hunt-USA TODAY Sports

The College World Series started on Friday afternoon and so did one of the biggest new traditions in Omaha, Nebraska.

For the past few years, Rocco's Pizza & Cantina has been the hub of the Jell-O shot challenge. Each team that makes the College World Series is added to the leaderboard and fans can buy shots in their school's name to add a point to their score.

It's mostly a competition for bragging rights.

The Volunteer Club has added a new wrinkle to the competition this year as $10 can get fans a shot as well as donate $5 to the Tennessee Volunteers local NIL collective.

The collective has been busy building up NIL deals for their players ahead of the biggest college baseball event of the year. Just last week, they announced a T-Shirt deal which compensated athletes.

The shot challenge had been popular for a few years in the past, but it exploded in popularity as LSU Tigers fans came out in droves to beat the previous record by triple.

The number to beat is 68,888 which equals out to $344,440 worth of Jell-O shots.

Fans weren't the only ones to buy a large sum of shots as local business owners also took advantage of the advertising opportunity. Raising Cane's founder and CEO, Todd Graves, bought over 6,000 shots.

The North Carolina Tar Heels jumped out to an early lead at 506, as they were among the first teams to play their games, but Tennessee was close behind in second place with 491. With LSU not in attendance this season, the top spot is up for grabs.

The Volunteers did set a Day One record with 348 before any games kicked off, but it will be hard to keep pace with the Tigers from last season.

Their best chance to build out a good lead is to make it as far as possible in the tournament. Tennessee were the consensus favorite to win it all entering play on Friday, so the chances are good.

Despite being one of the sport's premier programs, they are still searching for their first ever College World Series championship. They have only finished as runners-up back in 1951. Tony Vitello has led them to three appearances in the last four seasons, but have failed to capture the main prize.

As the team focuses on their championship aspirations, the fans will have their minds on another battle just down the road.

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Dylan Sanders

DYLAN SANDERS

Dylan Sanders graduated from Louisiana State University with a degree from the Manship School of Mass Communication in 2023. He was born in raised in Baton Rouge, LA but has also lived in Buffalo, NY. Though he is a recent graduate, he has been writing about sports since he was in high school, covering different sports from baseball to football. While in college, he wrote for the school paper The Reveille and for 247Sports. He was able cover championships in football, baseball and women's basketball during his time at LSU. He has also spent a few years covering the NFL draft and every day activities of the New Orleans Saints. He is a Senior Writer at Inside the Marlins and will also be found across Sports Illustrated's baseball sites as a contributing writer. You can follow him on Twitter or Instagram @dillysanders

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