Immigration attorney Ksenia Maiorova, a partner at Green and Spiegel, joined me to chat about what international athletes can and cannot do when it comes to NIL, why so many workarounds being attempted don't actually work and why there's virtually no way for international athletes to safely receive revenue sharing on a student visa. We also talk about other visa types available and the process for obtaining one, in addition to answering questions sent in by the audience.

Even more of Ksenia's advice, including more "what if" scenarios are included in my new book, The Athlete's NIL Playbook.

You can follow Kristi on Twitter and Instagram to discuss further, ask additional questions or suggest future episodes.

You can find more of her analysis on the business of college sports at BusinessofCollegeSports.com and Forbes.

Big announcement this week: Kristi has a new co-host, Jeff Schemmel! Jeff is the President and CEO of College Sports Solutions, a consultancy focused on helping athletic departments maximize their efficiency, leverage their resources and increase revenue.

Kristi and Jeff are joined this week by Cole Gahagan, CEO of Learfield—a leading media and technology services company in intercollegiate athletics.

They discuss:

• Recent changes at Learfield and how they help Learfield be better positioned for the future
• The current state of the college sports multimedia rights landscape
• The Learfield Allied NIL program
• Conference realignment
• With Colorado as a Learfield partner, what “The Prime Effect” has been like this season

Visit Learfield.com to learn more about the many services they offer within intercollegiate athletics.

You can follow Kristi on Twitter and Instagram to discuss further, ask additional questions or suggest future episodes.

You can find more of her analysis on the business of college sports at BusinessofCollegeSports.com and Forbes.

Thomas Thomas Jr. is the co-founder and CEO of Basepath, whose software is used by student athletes, collectives, and universities to automate name, image, and likeness operations.

Thomas joins the show to discuss:

• How Basepath started, the work they currently do, and how they work with collectives
• The first steps they take when onboarding a collective and its athletes
• The ways they help partner with universities to bring clarity to the financial complexities of student athletes
• How Basepath’s services differ between for-profit collectives and nonprofit collectives
• The NIL Collectives Consortium - what it is, who it’s for, and how it has benefited collectives
• . . . and much more!

For more information about Basepath, visit basepath.co.

You can follow Kristi on Twitter and Instagram to discuss further, ask additional questions or suggest future episodes.

You can find more of her analysis on the business of college sports at BusinessofCollegeSports.com and Forbes.

In this episode, I’m joined by Ksenia Maiorova and Amy Maldonado. Ksenia and Amy are very accomplished immigration attorneys who work with international athletes seeking to take advantage of NIL. They've been able to secure O-1 visas for several athletes and are sharing with us both their successes and the challenges.

Topics we covered include:

• The limitations on a student visa and how it complicates an international student’s NIL possibilities
• The types of visas that are available to international student athletes beyond student visas, including O-1 Visas
• When a student athlete might consider pursuing an O-1 visa
• Why some sports are easier than others for getting other types of visas
• Potential passive income opportunities for international student athletes
• Completing NIL activities out of the country
• The potential consequences of failing to adhere to visa requirements/guidelines

Ksenia Maiorova can be reached on Instagram at @sportsvisalawyer.

Amy Maldonado can be reached on her website at amaldonadolaw.com.

You can follow Kristi on Twitter and Instagram to discuss further, ask additional questions or suggest future episodes.

You can find more of her analysis on the business of college sports at BusinessofCollegeSports.com and Forbes.

This episode, I am joined again by Wesley Haynes, President and Founder of The Brandr Group. If you missed the first episode from last year, it's available here.

The Brandr Group remains one of the leaders of the group licensing sector of NIL, with more than 70 schools signed to group rights partnerships.

In this ever-changing NIL scene, Wesley gives updates on:

• The Brandr Group’s growing list of partners and licensees
• A breakdown of group licensing categories and trends and how these have changed over time
• How royalty rates are determined for jerseys and other merchandise
• Potential relationships between NIL collectives and group licensing
• Future opportunities within the group licensing sector
• How universities and their athletic departments unite to embrace group licensing and the benefits for both the university and the student athletes

Check out some of the latest news on Business of College Sports involving The BrandR Group:

New NIL Deal Provides Flights for the Families of Student Athletes

The Brandr Group and AJS Collective Partner to Create NIL Opportunities for Female Athletes

More Player Apparel and Jerseys Coming Thanks to The BrandR Group Partnering with Follett

Subscription Box for UNC Tarheel Fans Latest Creative NIL Idea

You can follow Kristi on Twitter and Instagram to discuss further, ask additional questions or suggest future episodes.

You can find more of her analysis on the business of college sports at BusinessofCollegeSports.com and Forbes.

This episode, I'm joined by Jordan Acker, the Immediate Past Chair of the Board of Regents at the University of Michigan and a partner at Goodman Acker in Detroit.

A lifelong sports fan, Jordan was an early advocate of allowing student athletes to monetize their name, image and likeness. We chatted about the role of the Board of Regents relative to athletics issues and opportunities and where he seems college athletics heading from here.

Some of the things we discuss include:

• The process of being elected to the University of Michigan Board of Regents
• The benefits of having younger Regents
• The impact a successful athletics program can have on the university
• When the Board of Regents should defer to the athletic director or president on decisions
• How the Board of Regents participates in processes and decisions regarding the Big Ten
• The biggest developments he sees coming in college athletics
• How the Board of Regents at Michigan prepared for NIL
• His thoughts on how Michigan has approached NIL
• Issues facing college athletics such as athletes becoming employees and revenue sharing
• ...and more!

You can follow Jordan on Twitter.

You can follow Kristi on Twitter and Instagram to discuss further, ask additional questions or suggest future episodes.

You can find more of her analysis on the business of college sports at BusinessofCollegeSports.com and Forbes.

I'm joined this episode by Chris Giles, co-founder and CEO of FanRally, a platform that replaces traditional season tickets with a tech-enabled subscription service.

Members pay a monthly subscription fee instead of paying for tickets and can reserve seats directly on their phones, finding games that work best for their schedules.

FanRally is aimed at modern consumers, including younger fans, who are comfortable with subscription services. Also, the seat reservations can't be resold, so it helps teams identify the fans attending games and to build more direct relationships with them.

The company was founded in 2020 after Chris had served as COO of the Oakland A's and VP of Sales & Strategy for the San Francisco 49ers.

Backed by Capital One, it has already partnered with more than 20 teams across the NCAA, NBA, MLB, MiLB and NHL.

In the episode, we discussed:

• How university partners have used FanRally
• How FanRally can replace season tickets in a way that benefits both fans and the athletic department
• Integrating an existing point-based system into FanRally
• How FanRally allows athletic departments to reclaim revenue currently going to third-party resellers
• The data available to departments using FanRally
• Ways professional sports teams are doing ticketing better than college athletics
• Using FanRally to increase student attendance at games
• How sponsors can benefit from FanRally
• How FanRally increases a team's yield from a revenue perspective on premium seats

You can follow FanRally on Twitter and LinkedIn.

You can follow Kristi on Twitter and Instagram to discuss further, ask additional questions or suggest future episodes.

You can find more of her analysis on the business of college sports at BusinessofCollegeSports.com and Forbes.

We're joined this episode by Marty Ludwig, Director of Trademarks and Licensing at University of Cincinnati, where he is responsible for managing all internal and external relationships regarding the commercial use of the university’s brand (including its name, identifying marks, and still and moving images) to protect and promote the goodwill and reputation of the university, ensure the university receives appropriate value, and to actively enforcing the university’s rights to prevent the unauthorized use of its brand.

In this episode, we discussed:

• How licensing is typically divided between University operations and the athletic department
• How university and athletic administrators work with sponsors that want to use marks from both sides
• The biggest issues facing licensing administrators today
• How university and athletic administrators can collaborate better
• How Cincinnati is handling requests from athletes who want to use school marks
• Examples of current sponsor campaigns that involve student athletes
• Marty's thoughts from a licensing perspective on NCAA President Emmert's idea on compensating athletes as university ambassadors
• How group licensing is working so far for student athletes and universities, including examples from Cincinnati
• Marty's career path to working in university licensing
• Trends in licensing to watch

Marty is a member of the University's Brand Review Committee, Communicator's Cabinet, Marketing Advisory Committee, International Working Group, and Chair of the Institutional Sponsorship Committee. An active member of higher education trade groups, Marty was elected to serve as the first President on the Board of Directors for the University Partnerships Community of Practice (UPCoP) and is also an active member and Past President of the International Collegiate Licensing Association (ICLA).

Under Marty’s leadership the Cincinnati licensing program has been recognized as one of the top licensing programs in the nation including recognition as the 2021 Institutional Marketing Program of the year by the Collegiate Licensing Company, and the 2016 Licensing Program of the year by ICLA. Marty is frequently asked to consult, contribute articles, and give presentations on various topics related to branding, contract and relationship management, licensing, marketing, strategic planning, and trademarks.

You can follow Marty on Twitter.

You can also follow me on Twitter and Instagram to discuss further, ask additional questions or suggest future episodes.

You can find more of my analysis on the business of college sports at BusinessofCollegeSports.com and Forbes.

You can follow Kristi on Twitter and Instagram to discuss further, ask additional questions or suggest future episodes.

You can find more of her analysis on the business of college sports at BusinessofCollegeSports.com and Forbes.