North Carolina opened a new path Tuesday for its players to cash in: group licensing for official Tar Heels merchandise.
North Caorlina is believed to be the first school in the nation to launch a group licensing program for current athletes. Under the partnership with The Brandr Group, athletes will receive a cut of net revenue for merchandising opportunities pursued by TBG with products that include the school's official trademarks and logos.
Participating in the voluntary program won’t restrict individual endorsement deals now that
college athletes across the country are clear to profit from use of their name, image and likeness as of July 1.
“The manufacturers are the experts in the market to know what fans want,” Tar Heels athletic director Bubba Cunningham said in an interview with The Associated Press. “So if our retailers and licensees think a jersey sale would be absolutely terrific, then they’re going to sell jerseys.
"It might be that posters of our gymnastics team are what all the little girls that come to the meet want, so maybe that’s what it’ll be for gymnastics. For the baseball team, maybe it’s trading cards.”
Athletic logos, trademarks and mottos are considered among the most valuable brand assets an athletic department has and lawsuits are not uncommon as schools protect them. Athletes had long been barred from earning money off this kind of merchandise but NIL has dramatically changed the landscape.
Cunningham said sales of Tar Heels merchandise could be tracked to compensate athletes based on sales of their individually marketed items such as jerseys, while athletes would share money more broadly for group items such as a poster featuring multiple athletes. Athletes could join a group of three or more within a single sport, or at least six across multiple sports
