NC State football players could earn $25,000 per year under new NIL collective plan
With college football players looking to enter the NCAA transfer portal and soon looking for new places to play — the next window opens on Dec. 5 — N.C. State could be an attractive landing spot.
The Pack of Wolves Collective, which helps Wolfpack athletes benefit from their name, image and likeness (NIL), has put together a plan in which each of the Pack’s scholarship football players can earn a minimum of $25,000 in the 2023 calendar year based on their involvement in community activities and their individual NIL value.
The “Leading the Pack” plan should allow the Wolfpack football program to remain competitive with other programs offering similar opportunities, said Charlie Stallings, chairman of the board for the Pack of Wolves Collective.
“That’s the hope,“ Stallings said Tuesday. “At Texas Tech, their players are getting $25,000 through a purpose-driven collective. And that’s not to say our athletes can’ t get more. They can work their own deals to get more, and they will.
“But we’re creating a baseline. We’re creating a safety net, if you will. We’ve lost some recruits to other schools that are getting more money in the past. This allows us to be in the game.”
And not just football. Stallings said the NIL program would branch out into other Wolfpack sports and other athletes moving forward.
Stallings admits to being “old school” in some ways. He attended N.C. State in the 1970s, when athletes such as David Thompson were allowed a few bucks for “laundry money.”
But the landscape of college sports has changed, and Stallings is helping Wolfpack athletics change and adapt with it as everyone adjusts to a new era and a time when NIL has become an acronym as familiar as, well, NCAA.
“In May of last year you’d be in violation if you took an athlete out to lunch,” Stallings said. “Two months later you could not only take him out to lunch but you could buy him the restaurant. That’s how dramatic the change was. It’s pretty amazing.
“NIL is like the love child, the one that wasn’t planned on that is now in the family. You have a choice. Either kick him out to the curb or embrace him and love him. That latter is what’s going to have to happen. The more support we get from the university and the Wolfpack Club, the more successful we will be and the better athletes we will have.”
The onrush of NIL has been an ongoing challenge for many schools, Power Five conferences or otherwise, since the NCAA allowed its athletes to be compensated for their name, image and likeness beginning July 1, 2021.
Athletes are allowed to benefit from community appearances, autograph sessions, youth coaching and sports marketing campaigns.
“If you’re at a school like ours where we’re going to do things the right way and you’re competing against teams that may not, it’s difficult,” NCSU coach Dave Doeren said recently. “It’s a major concern.
“Not that we’re not going to be in the NIL space. Our boosters are actively trying to help us, our collectives are doing what they’re able to do in helping our players. So that part is good. But, as you know, there are other conferences where a lot more money is involved sometimes.”
Among the local charities that are a part of the Pack of Wolves initiative are the Boys & Girls Clubs of Wake County, Dress for Success Triangle N.C., the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina and GiGi’s Playhouse of Raleigh.
The Pack’s Victory Day is held each year in conjunction with GiGi’s Playhouse, a Down Syndrome achievement center in Raleigh. The football players interact with young people from the Playhouse in what has been a fun outing.
“The joy on their faces were unbelievable,” Stallings said. “This is the kind of things we’re hoping to create.”
Belltower NIL, founded in October, is a non-profit that joined the Pack of Wolves NIL holding company. Contributions to Belltower NIL are tax deductible and the collective has a partnership with the Blueprint Sports Foundation, based in Las Vegas, that is involved with many collectives nationwide in helping athletes connect with businesses and charities.
“With Belltower we enlist athletes to perform services to promote local charities,” Stallings said. “So it’s a win/win for everybody. The charities get great exposure as many of them can’t advertise. It’s a win for the athletes. They’re engaging in the community and learning how important it is to give back, and that’s a great life lesson.”
