An athlete wouldn’t necessarily have to use
the platform provided by their school, but
going elsewhere would mean paying for it and
there could be technical obstacles in reporting
transactions to their school.
Opendorse, launched in 2012, counts schools
such as Clemson and Michigan among its clients,
along with Nebraska. INFLCR has signed deals
with teams such as Duke, Kansas and Kentucky,
among others, since its start in 2017. INFLCR was
acquired last fall by Teamworks, which develops
software teams used for in-house scheduling
and messaging for teams at 264 Division I
schools. Greenfly went live in 2014, and the only
college partnership it publicizes is one with
Kansas State.
Athletes would conduct most or all of their NIL
business through an app developed by the
content delivery company. They could post
sponsored content in different ways, perhaps
mixing a personal message with an agreed-
upon shoutout to the sponsor, or with the tap of
a button relay a post composed by the sponsor.
Under Nebraska’s contract with Opendorse
for the year ending Feb. 28, 2021, obtained
through a public records request, the athletic
department will pay $235,000 for the company
to maintain the content management system
that’s been in place since 2015. The company
will also educate athletes on branding and
polishing their online profiles to make them
more attractive to potential sponsors, a program
called “Ready Now.”
Nebraska, where Lawrence played football from
2007-09, received $150,000 in discounts for bulk
pricing (more than 500 athletes) and for being
the first school to sign on with “Ready Now.”