Virginia goes with Altius Sports Partners for help navigating NIL

Virginia Athletics will be partnering with Altius Sports Partners as its partner to provide strategic guidance in enhancing the program’s efforts in NIL, including evaluating and developing departmental initiatives, educating stakeholders and advising on emerging opportunities in the collegiate sports landscape.

Altius, an official partner of the leading collegiate athletic departments and sports properties, specializes in developing and managing programs around important issues related to NIL. Through its industry expertise, range of services and intellectual resources, the firm’s approach includes creating a strategic vision and achieving a cohesive plan to help all stakeholders navigate structural change and excel in the new landscape.

The partnership with UVA features several key elements including customized educational workshops for all student-athletes across 27 sports, coaches and staff. The programming focuses on NIL and related issues, such as marketing, branding, financial literacy and evaluating opportunities. Education and engagement of internal and external constituents on NIL and other industry developments are key components of the customized plan. Moreover, the partnership is designed to enhance and promote cohesion and collaboration with UVA’s campus partners, such as the Darden School of Business, McIntire School of Commerce, the School of Law and other university departments.

“Our partnership with Altius expands and enhances resources for students which will create more opportunities for them to maximize their NIL,” said UVA director of athletics Carla Williams. “In this ever-changing environment, our goal is to establish a substantive NIL program grounded in best practices and adds long lasting value to the lives of our students.”

Virginia has a storied history of excellence on and off the athletic fields. As of 2021, the program has won 29 NCAA championships. The university placed 493 student-athletes on the 2020-21 ACC Academic Honor Roll and recently placed 11th in the 2020-21 Learfield IMG College Directors’ Cup all-sports standings. The Cavalier program placed in the top-25 for the 14th consecutive year.

“Given its history of broad-based success and national leadership, it comes as no surprise that Virginia Athletics is taking a proactive and innovative approach to addressing this evolving era of college athletics,” said Andrew Donovan, VP, Collegiate Partnerships, Altius. “Through execution of a collaborative partnership that combines ASP’s industry-leading expertise with UVA’s renowned campus resources, Cavalier student-athletes will be equipped to thrive in the NIL era during their time in Charlottesville and beyond.”

Supported by operational leadership and a best-in-class client services team, the Altius cross-disciplinary network of partners and advisory team members includes:

• David Carter, Executive Director of the USC Sports Business Institute, and a professor of sports business at USC’s Marshall School of Business.
• John Entz, 14-time Emmy winner and former President of Production at Fox Sports, SVP at MLB Network and producer at ESPN.
• Gabe Feldman, Director of the Tulane Sports Law Program, Associate Provost for NCAA Compliance and Co-Director of Tulane Center for Sport.
• Renie Anderson, the CRO and EVP, Partnerships at the NFL.
• Jené Elzie, former Pac-12 college athlete and current Chief Growth Officer for Athletes First Partners, sister company of Athletes First, the largest NFL talent representation agency in the country.
• Oliver Luck, sports business leader and former Commissioner of the XFL, EVP for Regulatory Affairs and Strategic Partnerships for the NCAA, and Athletic Director at West Virginia University.
• Michael O’Hara Lynch, former global head of sponsorship marketing at Visa, Inc. and global head of consulting at Nielson Sports, currently partner in 3 Emerald Marketing.
• Jessica Mendoza, former Pac-12 college athlete and Olympic gold medalist, is a broadcaster for ESPN.
• Kenneth Shropshire, CEO of the Global Sport Institute, and professor at Arizona State.
• Malcolm Turner, sports business executive and former Vice Chancellor and Athletics Director at Vanderbilt and President of the NBA G League.