In the world of college sports, a lot has changed in the past year ever since a new ruling made it okay for college athletes to get paid for their name, image and likeness, or NIL.
In Dallas, Boulevard Collective, which is made up of SMU alumni, businesses and fans, was launched as a way to provide opportunities for SMU student-athletes.
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“We’re excited, you’ve got a group of SMU boosters and supporters here that really want to be good partners both to the university as well as to the DFW community and be completely transparent in terms of how we’re operating this," said Chris Schoemann, executive director of Boulevard Collective.
Schoemann, spent 30 years in collegiate athletic administration and consulting according to their website.
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Last Saturday they had their first event where SMU student-athletes from the football and men's basketball team signed on with Boulevard Collective. They will be paid for appearances, activities and other events on behalf of the collective. In the future, they'll look into expanding into other sports.
"I think that growth is something that we want to be strategic about and operate this as a business and a business designed to help support the student-athlete in terms of monetizing their NIL," said Schoemann.
He didn't go into specifics of how much the collective has pooled together, or how much money the athletes will receive, but it is becoming the standard as this new type of business grows in the world of college sports.
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Boulevard Collective says Dallas business leaders and Chris Kleinert, an SMU alum and CEO of Hunt Realty Investments, along with Kyle Miller, president and CEO of Silver Hill Energy Partners, were the ones who spare headed the formation of Boulevard Collective.
“This is just the beginning. The purpose of the Boulevard Collective is to create opportunities for SMU athletes that enhance their athletic career while preparing them for wherever their professional aspirations might take them at SMU and beyond,” said Kleinert in a statement. “Our goal is to ensure this Collective becomes the gold standard for NIL efforts across the country.”
The group is not affiliated with the university.
In a statement, SMU told NBC 5 they are not involved in this. A Texas law prohibits universities and employees from arranging NIL deals for student-athletes.