FAQ

NIL Collectives are legal entities formed by fans, supporters and boosters of college sports. NIL Collectives may take a variety of legal forms ranging from tax-exempt, nonprofit corporations, limited liability companies, or for-profit corporations.

 NIL collectives function in a number of ways while trying to maximize the earning value of student athletes. They help arrange partnerships between companies and student athletes and also pool funds from boosters and fans to be re-dispersed to athletes.

The collectives are separate and independent from the colleges they are formed to support, so the legal structure and operation of each collective is at the discretion of the collective’s founders. NIL Collectives have a shared mission of helping student athletes navigate potential NIL deals, but each collective will have a different method of accomplishing this. Some may connect companies with athletes; some may enter into NIL deals directly with athletes.

Since July 1, 2021,  the NCAA Student-Athlete Endorsement Rights Act, allows student-athletes to enter commercial contracts to obtain compensation in exchange for various activities involving the use of their name, image, likeness or voice. Student-athletes may enter contracts to appear for autograph signings, to advertise products, conduct workshops with local school or youth organizations, post personalized video greetings, and for other such activities.

Aztec Link is committed to maximizing the revenue available for distribution to San Diego State student-athletes. While we must cover variable fees related to producing merchandise and products as well as our overhead such as IT, legal, marketing, and accounting, we will be distributing all of the money received beyond these expenses to the San Diego State student-athlete community. The collective board will continually review finances and expenditures to ensure funds are being distributed per the donor’s intent, and in ways that most benefit this community. The collective Board of Directors and Advisory Board are not taking any compensation.

Aztec Link offers student-athletes opportunities to engage in NIL activations, including: video interviews/podcasts, LIVE video chats, coaching sessions, autograph signings, social media endorsements, camps and clinics, charity events, special appearances, and NFTs.

Our student athletes are not exclusive to any one collective or platform.

By allowing fans to contribute to individual teams we intend for the dollars raised from these contributions to be shared among the scholarship athletes playing for that team. So all the money raised from donors to the football team or the men or women’s soccer teams or the softball team, etc. will be shared by that team. You can see more information on this in the FAQ on “Can I select which sports my contribution supports”. In addition, individual athletes will receive compensation (after expenses and overhead) for appearances, social media, promotions etc. Lastly, donors or businesses can choose to retain a specific player or group of players and pay them for their name, image or likeness for specific events or campaigns. Once an opportunity arises, we pay the student athlete through our platform directly.

Yes, we are now an official NIL partner of San Diego State Athletics.  This partnership allows Aztec Link to leverage SDSU logos and marks to promote the Collective’s missions and goals.

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Yes, please Contact Us to discuss further.

You would need to speak to your accountant as this is not a one size fits all scenario. For example, some members use this as a marketing expense. To maximize the flexibility of how the Aztec Link Collective can distribute the money it receives we do not at this point intend to apply for 501c-3 status and any contributions can not be treated as charitable donations.