New NCAA Policies Supports World’s Best Connectors’ Approach to NIL Programming

October 26, 2022, the NCAA clarified allowable collaborative efforts to help universities promote initiatives like WBC’s Project NILO to help student athletes.

PHOENIX, ARIZONA, UNITED STATES, October 30, 2022 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The World’s Best Connectors LLC (WBC) is a virtual community of C-suite executives, who help other executives enhance their connections with family, employees, clients, government, and the media. It is focused on growing businesses; it has had strong ties to the sports industry, which is prevalent in Arizona. Early in 2022, WBC announced a new initiative to help college-level athletes and their families navigate the maze and confusion surrounding the 2021 NCAA announcement approving Name, Image, and Likeness compensation. WBC wanted to take a different approach to the issue: focusing on the families and not the big paychecks. On October 26, 2022, the NCAA issued a clarification of the NIL policies which support and affirms that WBC’s Project NILO, which will provide education to university student-athletes about how to manage a business resulting from or related to NIL (i.e., put “ownership,” the “o” into NIL) is on the right track.

Some of the new NIL policies include the following:
- Education to current student-athletes, boosters, and prospects including on topics like financial literacy, taxes, social media practices and entrepreneurship
- Schools can inform student-athletes about potential NIL opportunities and can work with an NIL service provider to administer a "marketplace" that matches student-athletes with those opportunities.
- Schools also can support their enrolled college athletes in NIL activities directly by providing stock photos or graphics to either a student-athlete or an NIL entity or arranging space on campus for an entity and student-athlete to meet.
- Schools also can request donors provide funds to collectives and other NIL entities, provided the schools do not request that those funds be directed to a specific sport or student-athlete.

“Project NILO stresses business education and mentorship,” says Denise Meridith, the CEO of WBC. “It is unique in that it is open to all types of athletes, regardless of gender, sexual preference or physical/mental abilities, in a wide variety of sports.” Meridith is happy that the new policies affirm the objectives and methods currently being established for its pilot.

Project NILO will start a pilot effort in January 2023 for 1st- to 3rd-year university students. The first year of the program consists of monthly virtual classes and assignments, involving subjects like business planning, marketing, insurance, and taxes, taught by business experts intertwined with online advice from current and retired athletes. The second year involves hands-on experience via internships and work-study in businesses in which the student has expressed an interest and/or for which he/she has displayed an affinity.

Meridith had run a similar program Linking Sports and Communities for 14 years in Arizona for students 12-18 years old, which stressed staying in school, maintaining healthy lifestyles, and being financially literate. It involved all the major professional sports, as well as corporations and non-profits in Arizona. She hopes to take that to the next level—university students--and nationwide--with the use of new technologies. That requires new partners. Jonathan Mason, Founder of the Jentry Search Academy, headquartered in Maryland, is an ideal partner.

“I am thrilled,” says Mason, “To partner with WBC to bring the Jentry Search model to college athletes who deserve to earn ownership and equity through their NIL and support their communities as the Hometown Heroes they truly are.”

Mason announced that Project NILO was being launched at the WBC’s annual conference on October 27, 2022. University student-athletes (Freshman, Sophomores & Juniors) can apply for the two-year program here: https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/cu/923Hf3G/NILO

As this is a pilot effort, it will be a small group and very competitive. Interviews may be required after initial applications. Non-selected applicants may be held over to be considered for the next and larger program starting in Fall 2023. WBC already has an MOU with Arizona State University, but students in other colleges and universities are eligible to apply.

WBC Advisor Larry Witherspoon, of Connect to Your City, has obtained a grant to establish a streaming television show, which will be called NILO TV to promote the project’s activities, accomplishments, and sponsors/partners. Luis Cruz, a Prudential Financial Professional agent and WBC Advisor, will have the lead for financial coordination of Project NILO and involved in developing the financial curriculum. WBC is seeking similar sponsorships and partnerships from other corporations and sports organizations to support NILO administrative operations. WBC also needs current and retired professional athletes in any NCAA sport to be involved in recruiting, training, mentoring, and employing students.

Any student at any school can apply and attend, but if a school or university is interested in establishing the Project NILO program via an MOU at their school in the fall of 2023 should contact Meridith directly now at DeniseM@thewbcs.com.
 

Denise Meridith
World's Best Connectors LLC
+1 602-763-9900
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