In the summer of 2021, we had several players over for a smoked rib dinner. I had a lot of mutual friends with the players from coaching HS football. That made these connections natural. I joked that with all the new NIL next time, they should be buying the ribs. That’s when things changed.

They got pretty serious & confided in me that in the summer, money got tight. They didn’t get their full cost of living stipend & part of the reason they came for the ribs was it helped them budget better. I heard stories about players doing doordash deliveries & giving plasma to make ends meet.

I brought up some public NIL deals, thinking they made plenty, but in reality, they saved up all year to cover the summer & worked part-time. Getting a solid part-time job with lifting, classes & player-run practices can be really tricky for employers’ schedules.

I actually told the players the first time this was brought up that I couldn’t. But when they left, the more I thought about it, the more I thought I could help if I could get the right team together for support.

So I messaged some lifelong friends whom I trusted & they said they were in. I needed the help to navigate taxes, website stuff & a few other things. But once we got started, it was an instant success.

We sold out our first event. The players & fans who came loved it We knew we had something special, it was the only NIL company started w/ fans & players.

That first year I put in money to keep things going, upgrade equipment and even pay players to help us do new things. It has grown like crazy to where we did $100,000+ in NIL deals & 90%+ of all the money brought in went to the players who helped us create content & do events.

Now I get it: a lot of money has gone to a lot of players in NIL. But the “why” of CougConnect & what has made it special has never been about the dollars and cents. It’s always been about involving players and fans and connecting them through NIL.

The thing I am most proud of is the trust we have developed with players.

Fans as well.

Our subscribers are fiercely loyal & promote us. It’s because of what the players have told them about us. Our subscribers have DM group chats & talk to players at events all the time. So they know what we do first hand.

I would bet if you went and asked a bunch of players who they would trust to help them out in an emergency, they’d say CougConnect.

We have helped out in too many ways to list here, but I’ll share a recent one. A player had a small family emergency recently and sent this text.

We had helped out a few players in December. I guess money was tight for a few of their families at home & they were looking for extra opportunities. So when I got this text, I was worried if we could help out again.

I messaged the awesome CougConnect community. In less than 3 hours we had enough money to get this kid into a Tesla & get him on an NIL deal to cover payment & insurance I know we have a reputation w/ recruits as players host them & talk about us. I know we have taken care of starters. But the main thing I’m proud of is stories like that.