[CHICAGO, FEBRUARY 16, 2023]
Campus Ink announced today that they are one of the inaugural members of the NIL Verified Network.
The NIL Verified Network, established by NIL Network, is a membership program made up of service providers dedicated to ensuring transparency, honesty, and fairness within the emerging NIL industry. The initial businesses were chosen due to their consistent display of athlete-focused business practices.
As college athletes navigate the NIL landscape, it has become increasingly important for them to be able to differentiate between trustworthy service providers and those that seek to exploit the lack of regulation in the field.
Michelle Meyer, founder of NIL Network and former NIL Coordinator at San Diego State University, started building the NIL Verified Network program in May of 2022 after witnessing firsthand the frustrating reality that’s happening on the ground floor, well outside any NIL headlines.
“Bad actors are thriving in the wild west landscape right now,” Meyer explained. “Social media allows these opportunists to directly access the athletes, where they exaggerate their credentials, over promise their services, and will say pretty much anything to gain the athlete’s trust. Then, they pressure these young adults to sign horribly one-sided contracts, knowing that most college athletes don’t have the support to fully understand what they’re agreeing to. I’ve seen it too many times already. Enough is enough.”
NIL Network is striving to eliminate these bad actors by bringing together the athlete-centered NIL businesses, supporting their efforts, and amplifying their brands.
Meyer continued, “Campus Ink was an obvious choice when I was extending the initial invitations to join the NIL Verified Network. Of the ecommerce businesses I’ve researched, Campus Ink is above and beyond the most favorable platform for college athletes. Additionally, Adam really understands the bigger picture of NIL reform and the entire landscape of college sports. I’m excited to support him and see what 2023 brings for Campus Ink!”
To join the network, businesses must become NIL Verified™, the first NIL service provider standard in the industry. Developed with the expertise of former Power 5 compliance director and current Freeman┃Lovell partner Patrick Stubblefield, NIL Verified™ aggregates and vets information about a business’ registration, employees, business practices, and compliance with NIL laws, NCAA interim policies, and institutional policies. Additionally, it includes a review of the company’s terms to ensure they include all of the expected clauses and fair language for college athletes.
“Campus Ink is delighted to be a part of the NIL Verified Network. As a dependable resource for carefully evaluating organizations that are engaging with college athletes, Michelle and The NIL Network are a huge asset to the NIL industry and student athletes as a whole,” says Adam Cook, NIL Director at Campus Ink. “The need for quality assurance in the NIL industry is massive and we are honored to be part of a network that is dedicated to safeguarding student athletes and ensuring they have a trusted resource in vetting organizations in the space. We are confident that NIL Network will continue to be a trusted source of information for the industry, and we look forward to being part of its future growth!”
NIL Verified™ and the resulting network provide a crucial layer of protection for college athletes, making it easier for them to navigate the complex world of NIL partnerships. The network also offers peace of mind to administrators, who can now differentiate between businesses in a crowded market and feel confident in their choices and recommendations, knowing that NIL Verified businesses have been vetted by a third-party
Learn more about the NIL verified Network
About Campus Ink & The NIL Store
Backed by Mark Cuban, Campus Ink expanded into the Name, Image, Likeness (NIL) space in 2021 and launched the NIL Store, which serves as a merchandising solution for student-athletes and schools. The NIL Store operates with the firm belief that every student-athlete has an opportunity to capitalize on their NIL. Campus Ink was founded in 1947 on the campus of the University of Illinois and was reimagined in 2015 with an office in downtown Chicago and a production facility in Urbana, Il where the company handles all of its own production and fulfillment.
ABOUT NIL NETWORK
NIL Network was founded in 2020 as a free resource to help athletes, coaches, and administrators understand the NIL changes that were coming the following summer.
Today, NIL Network is a platform that equips athletes, administrators, and other early adopters with industry leading databases, objective resources, and trustworthy connections so they can succeed in the nascent name, image, and likeness era of collegiate sports.
