UVA Athletics announced this week that a guy named Clay Walker is the general manager of something called UVA NIL, a division of the athletic department’s official multimedia rights holder, Playfly Sports, and Virginia Sports Properties.
This UVA NIL entity, per the press release making all of this public, is “dedicated to generating third-party NIL opportunities for University of Virginia student-athletes.”
The release directed people who wanted to learn more about what UVA Athletics has going on directed folks to listen to a podcast featuring Walker and Carla Williams, the athletics director, where we learn that Walker has actually been on the job since November, and that the athletics department had been laying the groundwork for UVA NIL for several months before that.
Which, makes sense – you don’t spend upwards of $30 million on a football roster that wins 11 games for the first time in school history, and $15 million on a basketball roster that wins 30 games and gets screwed by the refs out of a Sweet 16, out of the thin air.
“We’ve had boots on the ground already trying to drum up business, if you will,” Williams said in the podcast, pointing to the future, because the ungodly sums spent on this year’s teams doesn’t carry over to next year.
“With the portals, both men’s and women’s basketball, spring sports, there is a sense of urgency,” Williams said. “Now we’ve got the system in place. We’ve got the connections with the community that loves Virginia Athletics and who are interested in helping us be successful, and so, there is a sense of urgency. We’ve got a system in place. We’re ready to go. If we don’t have third-party NIL deals, then the gains we’ve made with the football roster, the gains we’ve made with the men’s basketball roster, with the women’s basketball roster, with the baseball roster, the gains we’ve made through rev share-guaranteed NIL funding, the playing field levels again. And so we do have a sense of urgency to try to make sure that we are maximizing any and all third-party NIL deals for the student-athletes.”
Those are the marching orders for our Clay Walker, who, before taking the job heading up UVA NIL, was the general manager of ECU Sports Properties, at his alma mater, East Carolina University.
Walker comes with serious resume chops – he held senior leadership roles with USA Today Sports and the NFL Players Association, and he served as the chairman of the Fantasy Sports Association at the NFLPA, where he’s credited with being the first person to license and commercialize fantasy sports.
Walker also negotiated the first licensing deal to include NFL players in the “Madden” video game.
“There’s no pro sports in Central Virginia, so from that perspective, the UVA Football team, they’re the Dallas Cowboys of Central Virginia. The men’s basketball team, they’re the New York Knicks of Central Virginia. The baseball team is the LA Dodgers of Central Virginia. So, the community rallies around those programs and the people that are part of those programs, and the authenticity of the jersey, the logo, and it’s the starting pitcher, and it’s the starting quarterback, and it’s the starting point guard,” Walker said.
Just getting you ready for the sales pitch there.
The press release telling us about Clay Walker and UVA NIL included contact info for him, because they want to get folks lined up ready to hear that sales pitch.
You can contact Mr. Walker at 202-957-5319 or email him at [email protected].
Video: Inside UVA NIL
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Chris Graham
