The Changing Game: How Borderland athletes are interacting with NIL
EL PASO, Texas - They are the 3 letters that forever changed the landscape of college athletics, N.I.L.
N.I.L. stands for name, image and likeness.
In 2021 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled college student athletes can be paid for the use of their name, image and likeness.
UTEP athletic director, Jim Senter and New Mexico State athletic director Mario Moccia have had to navigate the uncharted waters of NIL.
"I don't think anyone had any problem with it (NIL)," Senter said. "I think people have felt all along that student athletes should be able to monetize their name, image and likeness."
"The reality is that I wasn't excited about it at first, however it is one of those things that if you're not participating you're falling behind," Moccia said.
However, in order to be competitive universities must establish a collective.
A collective is an organization that fundraises money on behalf of the universities.
A collective can accept individual donations and also creates a meeting space for student athletes and businesses.
Businesses request the athlete they wish to work with, be it for a commercial or event. and the collective works out the details.
Collectives are separate from the universities, but they work closely together.
Currently there are more than 225 collectives dedicated to Division 1 schools in college sports.
UTEP has two collectives, while NMSU has one.
UTEP's first collective, the Miner Collective, launched in 2022 and was started by local businessmen Josh Hunt and Miguel Fernandez.
The Miner Collective is specifically for men's basketball.
Steve Haskins, the son of UTEP legendary head basketball coach Don Haskins, serves as the Miner Collective's executive director.
"UTEP basketball has been important to me for a long time," Haskins said. "If you want to be competitive you better have a collective that's big enough to compete with everybody."
Haskins estimates this past season the Miner Collective raised close to $450,000.
UTEP head basketball coach Joe Golding has seen the benefits.
In the era of the transfer portal, Golding retained every single one his players on scholarship.
"I'm extremely thankful for them (Miner Collective)," Golding said. "These guys were able to make more money than what they did last year, feed off a championship run and get those guys to return. The collective played a big role in that."
UTEP basketball player Otis Frazier III was one of the UTEP athletes to benefit from the Miner Collective.
Frazier has appeared in a few local commercials.
"For guys like me I live in a apartment now, and I can afford to live in a apartment because of N.I.L. so I think it's just a great opportunity for people to get them names out there," Fraizer said.
It's also beneficial when it comes to recruiting.
"It makes things easier not only for the player to make a decision, but for everyone to come together and bring better players into the program," Fraizer said.
Then in April of this year, UTEP launched a second collective, the Goldmine Collective.
It covers all 17 UTEP sports programs.
At New Mexico State, its collective is A-Mountain Sports, launched in 2022 by founder and executive director Dr. Paul Grindstaff.
"We have a finite amount of donors," Moccia said. "You're asking them to buy season tickets, and donate to the athletic club, and now here is one more thing you want them to support. But I think they've (donors) understood it and for the most part they've supported it pretty well."
Donor fatigue is a problem UTEP also faces:
"There's just another reason to try and dip into their pockets, and that's a hard thing to do," Haskins said. "Once people see a product that's improved, they'll be more accepting to doing it."
Another concern is abuse of the system.
Collectives promising players a lot of money to sign with a particular school.
That's not allowed by the NCAA and it's a recruiting violation that many believe needs better monitoring.
"I think we need a better model," Senter said. "I think we got to decide are student athletes professional or are they still really amateurs."
To donate to UTEP's collectives click on the links below:
https://www.theminercollective.com/
https://caringcent.org/utep/nilsports
To donate to NMSU's collective click on the link below:
