Diego Pavia's NIL Misunderstanding Sparks Key Lessons for Athletes

This week, Margaret Fleming posted an interesting article on frontofficesports.com about Vandy QB Diego Pavia and his confusion about the use of his name, image, and viral quote “Vandy we turnt " by the t-shirt company BreakingT. 

In a now-deleted tweet, he claimed that he did not have a deal with BreakingT and encouraged fans not to buy the T-shirts.   

In reality, BreakingT had every right to use Diego’s NIL.  They pointed that out in their response, letting him know that the shirts were approved and licensed by both Vanderbilt and Diego through the school's partnership with One Team Partners.

One Team Partners is a joint venture between the NFLPA and the MLBPA in 2019 and has an impressive track record. They signed a group licensing agreement with EA Sports that resurrected their College Football game, which got every player who opted in $600 and a copy of the game. 

Athletes can opt in to One Team Partners licensing agreement either individually or through their school to allow them to market their NIL rights for them.  The player is paid a royalty on any product sold.  One Team Partners fee is 30%, while the royalty paid to the athlete can vary based on their popularity.  In a 2023 article for Sportsbusinessjournal.com by Michael Smith, One Team signed a group licensing deal with Fanatics that paid a 4% royalty to the athletes for the rights to sell their jerseys. 

We don’t know the specifics of the deal with Vanderbilt, and Diego may make a substantial amount of money from his royalties through One Team Partners.  Group licensing agreements allow schools to aggregate NIL rights for their entire program to generate passive income for their athletes.  The agreements allow for any athlete to continue to use their NIL rights individually or license them to others independent of the school. 

Think about it.  No college athlete has the time to negotiate and close a shirt deal mid-season in just a few days, even if they have an agent and the athletic department working with them.  Yes, the athlete makes a lot less money, but that is how it works when 100% of the work is done for you. 

NOTE:  BreakingT posted on X that they are negotiating a direct deal with Diego, so it sounds like everything is getting worked out.

Here’s the most important point.  Diego Pavia signed a contract licensing his NIL rights to One Team Partners and didn’t know he did it.  There are plenty of reasons why.  We have all signed documents we didn’t read.  Does anyone read the Terms of Service that pop up constantly on your devices?  No.  We just sign them. 

For NIL deals, you can’t just scroll to the bottom and sign.  Athletes need to slow down, ask questions, and ensure they understand what they are signing, even if it’s a document the school is asking them to sign.  It is perfectly acceptable to ask for time to read documents and ask for advice before signing.  For schools, this is a reminder that they must educate athletes beyond the basics of financial literacy, and make sure they have a process in place to teach them as much as they want to learn about all aspects of NIL, including topics like what it means to sign a group licensing agreement. 

If you are interested in learning more about group licensing for college athletes here are links to One Team Partners and the NIL Store:

www.oneteam.com

Nil.store

If you would like to learn more about NIL, check out our NIL Certified Athlete program of educational courses at www.nilcreator.com.