Ohio State fans have a new medium to understand the ever-expanding world of name, image and likeness. On Monday, the Eugene D. Smith Leadership Institute launched a Twitter account to distribute information regarding the university’s initiatives and programming surrounding NIL.
The account’s initial tweet beckons Buckeyes Twitter users to follow the account for the latest updates on the school’s NIL initiatives.
Senior associate athletic director Carey Hoyt oversees the NIL programs for all student-athletes, working with staff members of the athletic department’s NIL Edge Team to create partnership opportunities with area businesses and companies, helping them connect with Ohio State athletes.
“Ohio State and our guys have benefited tremendously from NIL,” Ohio State football coach Ryan Day said in December 2021. “There’s been a lot of opportunities for our guys, and they’ve really capitalized on that.”
On June 2, Day said he believes his team will need $13 million in compensation from NIL agreements to keep its roster intact. He made this claim while presenting to a group of nearly 100 attendees from Columbus businesses.
After that event, Ohio State announced the Corporate Ambassador program, a marketing and advertising opportunity that will allow student-athletes to serve as corporate brand ambassadors for a company within the Columbus community.
With NIL approaching its one-year anniversary on July 1, collegiate programs are still putting together comprehensive plans for how to approach the new privileges granted to student-athletes. Day said Ohio State is still in its beginning stages, but the thinks the athletic department has the right mindset moving forward.
“I think that we need to take a hard look at everything that’s going on right now and make sure that we’re doing what’s best for our players and for the schools and for the Big Ten Conference,” Day said.
