Editors
Zoe May, Editor in Chief
Sydnei Miles, Managing Editor
Hudson Elkjer, Art Director
Laura McClintock, Photo Director
Photographers
Chris Swann
Writers Luke White, Braxton Dore, Ian Curtis
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Story by Sydnei Miles, Managing Editor
Since 2021, the emergence of name, image and likeness, or NIL, has blurred the lines between amateurism and professional sports, giving student athletes the opportunity to profit from advertising campaigns and other promotional partnerships.
Jonathan Wallace, Texas A&M’s assistant athletics director for NIL, said an athlete is qualified to participate in NIL activities once they’re on the roster. All athletes are eligible to participate in NIL, but not all choose to engage.
“Name, image and likeness: all three elements that make up the right of publicity,” Wallace said. “It's a legal concept granting an individual rights to protect and profit from their name for promoting a service or product. Long story short, your name, image and likeness is your value according to what you're associated with.”
Stefan Aguilera and Jacob Piasecki are two Aggies who came together and co-founded the A&P Agency, a business that further helps student athletes secure brand deals and develop their image.
“We're a turnkey solution for athletes trying to maximize their
opportunities while they're in college for their NIL,” Piasecki said. “This includes marketing opportunities, procuring and negotiating those, also involves developing their brand and curating their audience. Additionally, we also negotiate multiple contracts for them, whether they're licensing deals or collective agreements.”
Academic duties are still the main priority when receiving these business deals, Wallace said.
“The majority of the NIL activities that they do participate in, it's on their time, where they're not engaged with either academic requirements or being an athlete,” Wallace said. “So, for student athletes, when they sign the contract, they're advised to read about the scope of terms, which means, ‘What is the company asking me to do?’ They have to see how long that term is. ‘Is this a one time deal, or have they signed me for several months?’ You cannot be signed to a deal that extends beyond your eligibility in the college space. That's against our state law.”
The notion of paying athletes may seem new, but has always been done under the radar, Piasecki said. Publicly compensating athletes is now bringing to light what’s always been done quietly.
“It kind of took the veil off of what's been going on behind the scenes,” Piasecki said. “These athletes, they've been getting paid for a long time under the table. Now, it's just over the table. Now, Uncle Sam's getting his cut.
Contracts are more legitimized, not as much McDonald's bags. If you do some research on how athletes were getting compensated previously before NIL, you'll hear the famous McDonald's bag story.
“The recruit would go to school, they’d do a little shoot with the jersey on, the equipment on, and then they’d ask him, ‘Hey, would you like some McDonald's?’” Piasecki said. “And they'll say, ‘Big Mac or chicken nuggets?’ And they’d show up back into the locker room to change and there's a bag waiting for them, a McDonald's bag, with chicken nuggets and $10,000 or $50,000 or $60,000.”
One of the most misconstrued ideas about NIL deals is where the money comes from, Aguilera and Piasecki said.
“Most of the money comes from collective negotiations,” Piasecki said. “So, like me negotiating with the collective athlete on their behalf, that's going to bring on average for a DI football athlete around $300,000 and for basketball it's slightly more. We anticipate that to go up, and that's per season. So, the contracts are typically paid out each month.”
“That's where the real money is coming in, is from the collective,” Aguilera said. “I feel like the general public thinks that all the money is coming from these big brands … when really a majority of the money across the country is coming from the donors.”
These student athletes are gaining first-hand experience with professionalism, Wallace said. They are advised on everything from public relations to social media to business negotiations — all concepts a professional athlete has to be familiar with, and fast.
“They are their own business now,” Wallace said. “Because they are developing a brand. And what it's doing is helping them get exposed to that life a few years earlier than people are used to. It gives them opportunities to engage with businesses from a contract perspective, from a representation perspective, as an athlete, again, the scope. Do they align with the brands? Do the brands align with them [and] what they're trying to promote? And then there's the financial piece, like having that much access to money.”
With over 150 athletes in various sports
having signed with them, A&P has secured deals with several high end faces, Aguilera and Piasecki said. According to their Instagram, their success has led them to become the “largest full service NIL agency in college football history.”
“We got the top defensive players in the country signed with us,” they said. “We got the No. 1 tight end in the country, Landen Thomas of Florida State. We got the Notre Dame running back, Jadarian Price. We've had notable alumni that have graduated and work with us … We've been able to carry a 12th Man each year and get them really incredible partnerships. More importantly, we help them build their social media to become a cash flowing asset for them so by time they graduate, they can make additional money.”
Piasecki said their ability to retain notable and high end athletes is due to their strategic planning and their capacity to accept change.
“We adapt very quickly,” Piasecki said. “This market is an ever changing market. NIL is not where it was when I first started. We've made millions of dollars from the transfer portal. Helping our athletes get lucrative contracts and deals that are maximizing their value has been a really important part of our business. Not only that, we've also been able to acquire brand deals that really help the athlete build their audience and build their portfolio as a marketing vessel for the NFL. So like, by the time our guys go to the league, they can leverage the fact they've done deals with Fortune 500 companies, with local businesses, with a variety of brands. We produce results, like financially, and I think that's what drives athletes to come and stay with us.”
It’s about time student athletes become compensated for their immense amount of hard work, Aguilera said. These profitable opportunities give more athletes the chance to handle personal financial responsibilities.
“We're both happy that these athletes get to capitalize off their name, image and likeness, and actually bring in some revenue for them and their families,” Aguilera said. “There were a bunch of instances like a mother might have cancer, now that athlete gets to help pay the bills on that end. There's athletes that didn't have cars, houses, even just their families back home may have some sort of struggle that they get to help fill that gap now, and actually have that stress off their plate and really focus on academics and their sport, while we get to help them out financially and off the field.”
Soccer
Stephenson has experienced 25 years of success in Aggieland, but it didn’t happen overnight
Story by Braxton Dore, The Battalion Asst. Sports Editor
Texas A&M soccer has managed to secure a spot in the NCAA women’s tournament in all but one season since the creation of the program — a testament to the coach that has stuck with the program through multiple athletic directors, conference realignments and a new playing field in the Southeastern Conference.
A&M associate head coach Phil Stephenson has technology, a winning ideology and a loyal dedication to the game that helped shape Aggie soccer into what it is today.
“We watch more footage of the other team than we ever did,” Stephenson said. “Twenty-five years ago we would get one video tape from our friends scouting an opponent, and now because of the internet we have so much more information.”
Studying film and learning the ropes of new forms of technology has improved how coaches can evaluate their own athletes. Fitness monitors, filming and advanced statistics have all assisted Stephenson in selecting his best 11 players year after year.
“Our girls wear these devices that track their every move on the field, so that we know who is sprinting a lot and what is the amount of effort they are putting in,” Stephenson said. “This allows us to have a most scientific approach to putting practice together rather than just a bunch of coaches 25 years ago sitting around saying, ‘I think she was running a lot.’ Now we know.”
The ever-changing field of sport science has molded how many coaches now approach running a program.
Stephenson raved about Director of Sports Science Scott Battley for his handling of the program’s statistics and how he has made a difference in each practice’s efficiency.
One impact that may not be felt in this A&M locker room, but is noticed on the field and in the transfer portal, is the recent expansion of NIL in college sports.
“We do not have very much; some of our opponents have massive amounts of money to spend, and it is changing the landscape of college athletics,” Stephenson said. “I’m neutral toward NIL. I would rather just coach my team. Would I like all my players to get a million dollars? Absolutely, but you deal with what you have and go from there.”
When it comes to program dedication and loyalty, no one can comment better than Stephenson, who has seen it all.
“We are only in the market for certain players, and certain players are only in the market for us,” Stephen-
son said. “If you want to play soccer but also really want to hang out on the weekends and go out at night, it has already been established that we are not that group. These people know the expectations and they welcome it. It’s like that saying that pressure makes diamonds … and you hardly need to talk about their dedication.”
Stephenson mentioned that the professional field has a heavy effect on their program, whether that be talented players that leave the team to go pro early, or the graduation effect that is inevitable in all college athletics.
“We had a player leave when she was a sophomore; we haven’t replaced her with our recruiting yet because we didn’t know it was going to happen,” Stephenson said. “There are some situations where it’s going to be the best thing for this person, and there are some that it might not be. I think the idea that the coaching staff here is the best council is really important for our players to realize because we actually don’t want money from them.”
Stephenson spoke on how agents are actually the ones that, more often than not, push a player into leaving early, since the agent receives a paycheck as well. On the contrary, staying at A&M does not come with a pay raise. For most players, the decision comes down to living a professional lifestyle, rather than if they have the skills necessary to compete.
Last season for Aggie soccer ended in a round two 1-0 loss to Florida State.
“At the end of last season, we were playing at an incredibly high level, probably top six in the country; we played one of the best teams on the planet in the second round of the NCAA [tournament], because we did not start [the season] well,” Stephenson said. “Our mantra this season is bring it now, every game matters, so that we don’t have to play the best team in the second round, away from home.
“We’ll take on anybody, but we are going to be ready,” Stephenson continued. “People want to play the best teams in the country. Our players [and] our coaching staff all get up for that.”
Class distinction also has no place in Aggieland, according to Stephenson.
“We have a saying that if you treat freshmen like freshmen, then you get freshmen,” Stephenson said. “We don’t want freshmen, we want people to come in and compete right away. There is no class distinction in our program because we want them to play like a senior right away.”
Success may disguise itself in many forms, but for A&M soccer, success is always a guarantee with coach Stephenson.
Story by Sydnei Miles, Managing Editor
As a non-NCAA sport, Texas A&M Archery has achieved notable success despite not having access to school funding, producing Olympic and worldclass athletes.
While NCAA sports benefit from funding and resources, the archers are one team that don’t receive these advantages. A majority of team funding comes from a combination of external support and large fundraisers, according to nutrition senior Venugopal Kunnavakkam, one of the members of A&M Archery.
“We host two tournaments here on campus at the Physical Education Activity building,” Kunnavakkam said. “One's in the fall in November, second or third week, and we sell merchandise. We sell drinks and snacks, and we make shirts, caps, stuff like that. We do the same thing in the spring as well. We also have a very generous base of former students who like to donate.”
Manufacturing and mechanical engineering technology senior Trenton Cowles said most archers have sponsorships, which are instrumental in their success and reaching new competitive levels.
“We don't have anything through the university,” Cowles said. “All of ours [sponsorships] are exclusively with archery companies. So, I have one with Easton, which produces arrows. I have one with Hoyt, which produces the bows. It's all equipment based, and they pretty much give us equipment for us to shoot, and that helps us fund.”
As a self-funded program, the archers are faced with making important decisions on their own. But that’s not a new concept to archers like Kunnavakkam. Originally from Singapore, Kunnavakkam struck out on his own when he moved to Texas, figuring out life in the States as he went along.
“I had no family, no friends here, and then I moved into our dorm,” Kunnavakkam said. “These guys became my new family, and so that was a great thing. They really helped me get situated and understand how stuff works here at A&M, and obviously the guys in the team helped me with the whole archery aspect and learning how to deal with the competitions and travel schedules.”
Success is another familiar feeling for the archers at A&M; finance junior Sawyer Sullivan said the team regularly churns out medallists at everything from local competitions to the Olympics.
“We actually won the national championship
this last year, so that was super big for me,” Sullivan said. “That was my first national championship win with Texas A&M, so that was super cool. We had a former student [Casey Kaufhold] just take bronze at the last Olympics … Right now we have two members of the World Cup team. Myself and then Trenton Cowles, we’re on the World Cup team. I'm top five in the world right now. So, we as a team, we have a very wide range of successful people.”
Kunnavakkam said although they don't receive access to all of the benefits NCAA sports do, there isn’t a feeling of disparity.
“We'd have access to the athlete training facilities that football and basketball and those guys get access to,” Kunnavakkam said. “The nutrition aspect of it, psychology, help with studies and stuff like that. But I also think on the flip side, we'd have a lot more scrutiny on how we train. We'd have more rigorous, more set schedules … I set my own schedule. I shoot when I want to. We have that kind of freedom which I don't think that we would have if we were a varsity sport for the school.”
The emergence of a new NCAA salary cap rules that schools can only give around $20 million per year in sports revenue, putting less popular sports at risk. In light of the new cap, some sports are in jeopardy of losing funding and will have to grapple with learning how to stay afloat. But at A&M, Cowles said he isn’t worried.
“It's all about the fan base,” Cowles said. “It's all about how people see the sport. So A&M has a huge culture in general as being successful … If you can make your sport to where people want to be like you, you can then sell merch, people come to spectate, and that's how you can generate revenue and kind of keep afloat as a smaller sport.”
“Use your personalities to go and raise money for your teams,” Sullivan said. “Just have fun with it. Go and raise money. Do some fundraisers. It's good team bonding activities.”
Cowles said that ultimately, the archers and their community are what make the team so successful and unique.
“The success of the program comes down to the culture,” Cowles said. “I mean, we have a winning culture. We've won 23 of the last, I don't know how many nationals, but everyone here comes to shoot at the top of their game. Everyone wants to get better. Everyone's pushing each other to be the best, and everyone's willing to help out the team. It's a team goal.”
Samson Baguma ’24 credits scholarship support with enabling him to attend Texas A&M University and become the first person in his family to graduate from college. After moving to the United States from Kenya, he overcame language barriers and other challenges to excel in high school and earn admission to Aggieland, eventually finding a home in the Corps of Cadets and Ross Volunteers.
Scholarships play a critical role in many stories like Samson’s. Discover how these meaningful gifts expand access to education and how you can create a customized scholarship to empower more students in our three-part Giving Academy video series.
Brotherhood.
At a place like Texas A&M, there are a multitude of places to find it: the Corps of Cadets, a fraternity, a student organization.
However, for a select group of men, they choose to find it on top of sheets of ice as members of A&M’s club ice hockey team.
“I'm also in Greek life here, and it's just not the same brotherhood as you have as a hockey team,” junior forward Nicholas Leone said. “I live with my hockey team. I hang out with my hockey team every day.”
Leone’s journey to the A&M ice began at UCLA, but when a goalie on his U18 team began to rave about how much he loved playing as a member of the Aggie roster, Leone said his plans changed.
“I was going to go to juniors because that's how you get to NCAA,” Leone said. “But all my friends went to juniors and just had a bad time. So, I decided to go to school, and then they had a hockey team at A&M, and a good culture and fans. And I love it.”
For most of the players, it was the culture of the team and the university that drew their attention.
“Playing for A&M, with the fans and the Spirit of Aggieland, you're playing for something bigger than yourself,” senior forward Christian Spearman said. “So, it feels good contributing to something that's that good.”
The two-time Texas Collegiate Hockey Conference champions compete across the country throughout the fall and spring semesters in a rigorous game schedule; however, without the distinction of an NCAA athlete, these players lack the level of resources most student athletes receive to juggle these schedules. The team — made up of engineers, STEM majors and more — have to manage their own time balance.
“Our practices are very late at night,” Spearman said. “So, our coaches make it to the point where you can balance school and hockey. On trips, guys bring their laptops and if we're not skating, doing any lunches or having a game, they’re doing work. It definitely teaches you self management and discipline.”
For freshman rookies like Andrew Green, they fall back on prior experience to find their footing. Specifically, Green played travel hockey throughout high school, where he would leave school for days at a time and had to learn to make time for academics where he could — a lesson he continues as a part of A&M’s engineering program.
“It's just time management,” Green said. “And with college, it's not easier, because you're given more, but you have a bunch of time to actually do that stuff.”
Along with balancing aggressive academic schedules, the A&M ice hockey program competes at a high level without the same resources given to NCAA teams.
“At DBU [Dallas Baptist University] they're considered NCAA athletes,” Green said. “They're considered a football player, regardless of what that is. So they get to use the football gym. You get a personal trainer and meet with them weekly. But then again, the school is willing, you know?”
Members of the team are responsible for contributing to charges such as ice times, equipment and traveling, but sophomore forward Cade Willis said it adds another layer.
“The biggest thing for me is that we pay dues to play and we're not getting paid to play like DI players,” Willis said. “To me, that makes it more real, because it means something. Everyone wants to be there; you're paying money to be there. So, you can see it whenever we play.”
Beyond the resources, time and funding, there is something greater that the players care about, and A&M has it in spades — dedicated fans. From ticket sales to Instagram followers, the team’s following continues to expand, Spearman said, largely because when new people attend games, they become new fans.
“We have one of the largest, if not the largest, following of any club sport at A&M,” junior forward Nate Polinsky said. “If you're looking at the numbers, we sold out the Texas game last year in under 24 hours. Football culture here is huge, obviously. And since it is in the South, hockey does kind of take a backseat to that. But there's a lot of people who come out, and I think it's only going to keep growing.”
As coveted as the Texas games are to the fans, they hold a special place in the hearts of the players as well. For Leone, his best memories are found in the fight against the orange and white.
“In the away game my freshman year, we were down 3-1 going into the third period,” Leone said. “I scored a goal to tie it up to make it 3-3. And then I scored the goal to put it ahead. And that was one of the best moments because when we walked off the ice after we won, it was just awesome seeing all the UT fans chipping.”
Though the Lone Star Showdown returns to Kyle Field this year, the rivalry has always persisted on the ice, with the team always playing at least one home and one away game against the Longhorns.
“What's great is you play in Austin and that’s such a hostile environment, and then you come home to all the Aggie fans that just embrace you and love you,” Leone said. “They make us feel like we're a Division I program. The way we get treated and the way our coaches operate, it's just the best experience we can have.”
For the 2024-25 season, A&M ice hockey is ready to compete and ask that anyone who is interested come check out a game — and to their dedicated fans, they’ll see you from the ice.
“There’s already a link in our bio and it takes you right to the page for tickets for the upcoming game,” Polinksy said. “And also, if you want to go to Spirit on the day of, you can get tickets there. But you never know when a sellout is going to happen, or anything like that. So I'd say just go online, look at the link in the bio and you can get tickets.”
Story by Zoe May, Editor in Chief
Story By Ian Curtis, The Battalion Features Editor
It’s the 30th time in a row that Phichaksn Maichon has listened to “Shape of You,” and he is sick and tired of Ed Sheeran.
“It was just playing over and over and getting in my head, just trying to get me to sleep,” Maichon said. Such are the perils of international travel. Maichon was in the middle of one his annual trips from California — where he played in golf tournaments during the summer months as he tried to get recruited to play for a college program — back to his native Thailand, when the seatback screen in front of him suddenly broke just an hour into the trans-pacific flight.
“I didn’t download any movies,” Maichon said. “I didn’t have any games on my phone that I could play without internet. I had one song on my download list, and it was a 15 hour flight back home. And it was probably the longest flight I’ve ever had.”
And so Maichon survived his 15-hour Ed Sheeran odyssey with another lesson learned: Always keep plenty of music on hand for long flights.
And while that may not be the most applicable tip on the golf course, there’s plenty of lessons from Maichon’s travel and upbringing — he’s spent time living in Thailand, China, California and finally Texas — that have built him into the golfer he is today.
“One thing I’ve learned is patience,” Maichon said. “That’s what [Texas A&M head coach Brian Kortan] tells me and emphasizes all the time, that we have more patience. So you need a lot of patience when you’re flying out, because there’s going to be delays, there’s going to be all the stuff that’s not going your way.”
Born in Thailand, Maichon first picked up the sport of golf in China when his dad happened to find the Masters on television and Maichon got his first look at Tiger Woods.
“I was like, ‘I want to be like him,’ and my dad was like, ‘Well, you’ve got a long way to go, son,’” Maichon said. “That’s what he told me. My dad was still in the Navy back then, and he had a set of clubs and I just took a swing around the house. And apparently I broke stuff, like the vase, windows and table.”
Maichon says the biggest challenge of his family’s constant movement was learning to adapt to new locales and the new cultures came with each new stop. But it’s another lesson that he says has helped him on the golf course.
“In golf, you travel every week,” Maichon said. “You see something different every time. You go to California, next thing you know you’re going to Florida, and then you go to Washington, and you see all different stuff. You’re playing everywhere. You’re not playing in one state every single time, and different states have different cultures. And I feel like it’s been very helpful for me to accept the fact that everyone can have different thoughts.”
Initially, Maichon’s time at Texas A&M was a rough
transition. On the golf course, he hadn’t been able to play golf for months due to COVID-19 restrictions in Thailand by the time he made his way to A&M as a freshman.
Off the course, he was having to learn the lesson many folks new to the Lone Star State have to learn: There’s a pretty big difference between California and Texas.
“I was struggling a little bit,” Maichon said. “I was still getting used to the culture and stuff, because obviously I lived in LA, it’s like a whole different country over there. It’s so much different here, from Thailand, from different places. It’s been hard the first year to feel at home.”
Golf is one of the handful of NCAA sports that are traditionally individual sports at the professional level, but team sports in college. That’s something Maichon hasn’t taken for granted — and it’s helped him feel like A&M is a place he truly belongs.
“I love having teammates at Texas A&M,” Maichon said. “They feel like family. My coaches made me feel at home. That’s kind of a crucial thing for me, because I’m coming from all different places. It’s kind of hard to make a place feel like home, until I came to A&M.”
It’s a change his fellow Aggies have noticed too, fellow A&M golfer Vishnu Sadagopan says.
“I’m most proud of him for the way he handles himself,” Sadagopan said. “He’s really gotten better at the way he handles himself from a freshman to now, and I think that he’s matured a lot. I’m really proud of him for that aspect of his life and golf.”
A few years later, Maichon is more than comfortable in Aggieland ahead of his senior season. An honorable mention All-American his sophomore year, he sealed the putt that sent the Aggies to the NCAA Championships in 2023.
“He’s great to be around,” Kortan said. “He works his tail off, one of the hardest workers I’ve ever had as a college golf coach, takes pride in his schoolwork, and does a great job in the classroom. [He’s] really been just a solid student athlete and teammate from the time he set foot on campus.”
But perhaps the bigger transformation has come off of the course, as his teammates have seen. Maichon has fully embraced Texas — boots and all — Sadagopan says.
“The first time I really noticed it was when he was singing Luke Combs, word for word, for about five or six different songs,” Sadagopan said.
That’s not to say Maichon hasn’t stuck to his roots: Recently, he represented Thailand as part of Team International during the 2024 Arnold Palmer Cup, a college golf competition that pits the best of America’s collegiate golfers against a team of international players.
“You’re representing your country, which is pretty cool because you’re playing head-to-head,” Maichon said. “You get to play with your partner in a four ball foursome which is very cool, because you don’t get to do that a lot in golf. Golf is pretty
“ I was still getting used to the culture and stuff, because obviously I lived in LA, it's like a whole different country over there. It's so much
different here, from Thailand, from different places. It's been hard the first year to feel at home.
— Phichaksn Maichon
much a one-player sport, but that event made it feel like a team. Like I said, I love playing on a team, because you don’t do that often.”
Maichon has successfully mastered plenty of transitions over his golf career, but with his collegiate career winding down, one more remains: Successfully turning professional, and reaching the PGA Tour — something Kortan says is more difficult than most might think, for reasons entirely unrelated to on-course talent.
“College guys, they don’t have to make plane reservations,” Kortan said. “They don’t have to make hotel reservations. They have things scheduled out, so we kind of help them with their time management. There’s a lot of things that we do behind
the scenes that you don’t see. But for him to be successful, it’s not a talent issue, it’s not a desire issue, it’s not a heart issue, it’s going to be if he can adjust to what that life looks like and then maintain himself both physically and mentally to chase his dreams.”
But if there’s one thing Maichon has learned how to do over the years, it’s adapt.
“It kind of gave me a perspective in life,” Maichon said. “You travel a lot in golf, and you see different cultures and stuff, and I feel like I can use that to my advantage. Adapting to different kinds of stuff faster, it’s been a ride where I haven’t really gotten to settle down like I am now. It’s just a different point of view, and it’s just a different lifestyle, which I enjoy a lot.”
Fresh off a national title, meet the A&M Esports president
ML Zoe May, Editor in Chief
How did you get involved in Texas A&M Esports, specifically?
Once I was done with [the Blinn program], I was like, ‘Man, that was awesome. I love being able to compete. Video games are something I’m good at. How can I continue to do that?’
So, I looked at A&M. I knew I wanted to go to A&M, so I was looking at their program. And no, it was nothing compared to what Blinn had. There was no scholarship, there was no funding. You’re not traveling any or anything like that like we were at Blinn. So I was like, ‘How can I get in there? How can I make a difference? What can I change?’
What does everyday look like for someone on the Esports team?
With every program, it’s going to be different. What I encourage all of our players to do is to try and play two hours a day to practice. And that’s not just like playing the game for fun or chewing up with your friends; you’re scheduling like a scrimmage or a practice with another university. That could be UT, that could be a random two year college like Blinn that is really good. I want them to play the game as much as possible, but you’re never going to get the experience, and you’re not going to learn the same from just playing casually compared to actually competing against other schools. I want them to focus on the game. It just has to be taken seriously, where they’re learning from it. Obviously, we’re very big on academics here, so I want to make sure they’re all on top of that.
What is the relationship between the esports team and A&M?
Unfortunately, since I’ve been here, there’s no scholarship, there’s nothing like that. And as I’ve come from just being a player on one of the teams to now being the president of the organization, we’ve come really far. We just got our new advisor. His name’s Aaron Thibault, and he’s absolutely awesome. He’s gone above and beyond for us. In the past, I’ve struggled being able to get funding. These kids are qualifying and competing for tournaments in Kentucky and I’ve never had any way to send them there. So, I reached out to Aaron saying, ‘Hey, I know you’re new. This is who I am, but I really care about these kids. I want them to be able to experience these things.’ And he worked with me, and we were able to get them funding. So, there’s a lot of things that we’ve been able to accomplish, funding wise, to get these kids the opportunities that they deserve because they work their butts off for it. And so we’ve had those doors opened, and hopefully, my goal one day is to hopefully see us get scholarships, to have a full facility, a funded program, everything like that. But right now, we’re just in those baby steps. We’re getting some recognition. We’re getting some amount of money to send these kids places, but compared to Blinn, we’re not anywhere near that level yet.
PR Pierce Ray, president of Texas A&M Esports
How do you fund tournament trips?
I sit down with the team, all the players that would be going, their manager, if they have a coach. Then we’ll iron out the details. Once we have those dates, we go in, we request a holiday sort of thing within the actual administration calendar. Once that’s approved, then I can go to Aaron and be like, ‘Hey, this is how much all the flights are costing. This is how much an Airbnb is. Or here’s the options for a hotel. Here’s the options for if we Uber everywhere.’ Then I’ll explain to him who each player is, what department their college or their major is under. Talk to Aaron about them and let him get a personal experience to know that player on a different level. So, that’s really what we try and go for, so that they get to know more about the players, they get to see their accomplishments, what they’ve been putting in.
Could you describe what an esports competition looks like?
One of the big ones is the CCC, which is The Collegiate Esports Commissioners Cup. Our Valorant team, the same team who won the national title, qualified for that. I got to go with our Valorant team this year and it’s just such an amazing, grand event. They’ve got full production. The stage is massive. They have lighting everywhere. The players go in on the first day, they get all their media taken, they get headshots, they get little video intros. Then they go and sit in a whole little area with just a bunch of PCs lined up. So, they play against other schools and get practice in. Then the next day, they wake up at 8-9 a.m. They sit there, play against other schools and however well they do determines if they get to play on stage, which is the biggest thing because that’s great for social media. But it’s also one of those experiences where it’s just unreal. You’re never going to experience that any other way, unless you work hard and get to that point. Once we’re done playing, we’ll pack up and head back to College Station.
What are some misconceptions about esports?
Everyone typically stereotypes gamers as being lazy, obese or they don’t go outside. And to an extent, yes, we could argue that, but a lot of these players, they’re in the gym, they’re getting active. Tons of our teams, they’ll go and they’ll do intramurals together. They’ll go out and play baseball on a Sunday afternoon. But that’s typically what people just assume. It’s a waste of time. There’s nothing important about it. But what they don’t know is there’s a lot of opportunity involved. I have so many friends that are going to other universities on full ride scholarships to get their degree, just because they can play a video game to a really high skill level. There is so much time, thousands of hours that they’re putting into it. And so that’s one of the stereotypes that I really want to break. Recently, A&M posted us on their social media. That was huge for us. That was the first time the university officially recognized us. When I read some of the comments, you have former students that are like, ‘This is a waste of time. Why am I investing in this?’ They’re really not investing a lot into it, but it’s just the fact that we’re seeing former students hate on other Aggies who are making accomplishments for the university. We have plenty of players who have gotten offers to go play in South Asia for professional organizations now, and that’s something the outside crowd is never going to see. But all of our players, they want to get their degree and graduate here, and they want to go work and have that Aggie network.
ML Zoe May, Editor in Chief
SB Sarah Buchanan, general member
CW Caitlyn Wagner, general member
EC Erin Cana, general member
ZC Zachary Cochran, Men’s Team Captain
Is it hard as a Texas gymnast knowing if you want to compete at a Division I level, you have to leave the state?
I started gymnastics late, so I didn’t hit Level 10 until I was 16 or 17, and by then, most colleges anywhere have already picked up their lineup for my year. And at the same time, all of the colleges that I might be able to go to for gymnastics were out of state and very expensive. So, if they were to offer me a walk-on, that’s great, but I really can’t afford $40,000-$50,000 tuition.
What is your favorite memory from competition?
I think my favorite one was probably this past Nationals in April. Four days all stuck together in hotel rooms and going to these competitions. I think my favorite part was everyone being able to cheer on not only our own team but other teams as well, because we’re all very friendly in the community. We were all gathered around the men’s floor for the finals, and we were just watching everyone. It was such a good atmosphere, and it was great. Obviously, the men’s and women’s teams are two separate teams. We don’t do many team functions together, but even when it comes to competitions, we stay for the men’s just as the men stay for the women’s. We both cheer each other on and it feels more like one team rather than two different teams.
What’s it like competing as a male gymnast?
I would like to say, first of all, it’s very fun. A lot of us male gymnasts are going to say that gymnastics is the hardest sport in the world. And I think that’s a very reasonable argument. There’s not a lot of gyms that people can go to in the area. Whenever I was in high school gymnastics, I was lucky enough to be able to go to Round Rock High School, which had high school gymnastics. The next closest school that had high school gymnastics was in College Station, so it was 100 miles away. So, just being able to get into a gym and find a gym that suits you is difficult enough. But the competition experience and the training experience, it’s awesome. If you know how to control your adrenaline levels, it boosts you a lot. But your team usually is not going to be very big. So, the guys that I competed with in elementary school, middle school and high school, I still know all of them because we all are sharing the same experience. I guess this is wrapping around to what I was saying, this Olympics, it was so awesome being able to see us kind of get in the spotlight a little bit.
SBWhat is it like competing within a program like A&M where you don’t receive the same funding as a NCAA program?
Honestly, gymnastics at A&M is the cheapest that I’ve ever had to pay for gymnastics ever because at A&M you just have to pay the semester dues for access to the gym. You have to pay your competition fees and pay for your uniform, and it’s all significantly cheaper than the USAG Junior Olympic competitive world, where tuition can cost thousands per month and the leotards can cost up to $800. So, I still have to pay for myself, but at the same time, it’s a lot more manageable than from when I was in the developmental program.
It was definitely a barrier when I was doing college recruiting, just knowing if you want to do NCAA gymnastics, you have to go out of state. There’s no other option. And we have to participate in more fundraisers and that sort of thing, but I think we do get at least some support from the community. It also means it’s totally student run. We don’t have any coaches currently. So, that means in the gym, at least for me, I’m videoing every turn and I’m watching, or I have a teammate watch. There’s a lot of gymnastics experience between the different team members and our team captains help a lot, but to not have that upper organization means there’s a lot more responsibility on the students level. But I feel like there’s also a lot more freedom.
What made you choose A&M over other schools and programs?
It was actually the engineering major, because my NCAA offer was at a smaller undergraduate school where I wouldn’t be able to major in engineering. So the A&M gymnastics team meant that I didn’t have to pick between my major and my sport, and so that meant a lot to me. And I really love that I don’t have the pressure of having to make the lineup, or having my funding for school be dependent on my athletic performance.
EC Originally, I wasn’t really considering A&M for college because I was trying to get a gymnastics scholarship elsewhere. But my junior year of high school, I tore my shoulder, and so all scholarships were pretty much off the table. And so I was looking for a college nearby to where I lived that had some form of gymnastics, and I saw A&M had its website up with all of its competitions.
ZC
After I graduated, I wanted to do gymnastics in college, but I knew I wasn’t wanting to go the Division I route. My parents went to A&M, and I knew A&M had a gymnastics team, so I went to Blinn for a couple of years. I was going to start my own team at Blinn because it didn’t have one and I didn’t think I was going to be able to get into A&M for the upcoming season. And then I got in, and I joined late. I started competing pretty much two weeks after I joined the team, and, well, now I’m going into my fourth year, and I’m the captain.
The transition from high school to college football in the SEC isn’t an easy one. With the dawn of each new season, players are forced to grow up and do so quickly to adjust to the heightened level of play.
But what if there were players that didn’t have to grow up?
Players that have already made their mark on the college scene and grown accustomed to the competitiveness, physicality and toughness of football at the next level. Student athletes that don’t necessitate a significant learning curve.
That’s the question college coaches are asking themselves as they navigate the recruiting landscape of a sport that’s been turned on its head over the past several years. Building a roster isn’t as simple as sitting in a high school athlete’s living room and convincing Mom and Dad why a university is the best option for their son.
Now, coaches must develop strong classes of newcomers that are a balance of high school recruits and experienced college transfers. Some football coaches, such as Ole Miss’ Lane Kiffin and Colorado’s Deion Sanders, have leaned into the portal to attract swarms of transfers. Others, such as Clemson’s Dabo Swinney, have remained traditional and relied heavily on high school recruiting.
By the looks of it, speed dating is the future of college recruiting. Rather than maintain a relationship with a high schooler for several years, coaches can merely look across their conference or another to find a player they think to be a good fit within their program. They’re just a phone call away from turning a stranger into the cornerstone of next year’s team.
It’s a system that Texas A&M football became wellacquainted with this offseason, reeling in over 20 players via the transfer portal from every corner of the country. This year’s roster is a well-traveled one, featuring players from the likes of Florida, San Diego State, Pittsburgh and Wisconsin.
The new additions provide talent at key positions for the Aggies in their first season under coach Mike Elko, who brought with him a fresh philosophy to recruiting as he sought to rebuild A&M’s roster following a 7-6 campaign in 2023. It involved hitting the portal hard to find players that could both start right away and serve as valuable depth pieces.
Junior defensive end Nic Scourton, junior defensive back Will Lee III and junior offensive lineman Ar’Maj Reed-Adams are each components of a successful season for the Aggies, whether their impact is made in the trenches, the secondary or in the locker room as leaders. Senior tight end Tre Watson, junior OL Kolinu’u Faaiu and junior defensive lineman Cashius Howell ought to see the field plenty in 2024.
The transfer portal goes both ways, though, making it a gift or a curse depending on how you look at it. While teams are open to a huge pool of talent through the portal, they’re just as liable to lose their own players if other schools come calling. Think free agent signings, but at the college level.
Elko was forced, to an extent, to hunt for transfers after over 20 Aggies added their names to the portal and left for greener pastures. Oregon junior wide receiver Evan Stewart, Ole Miss junior defensive tackle Walter Nolen and Syracuse senior DL Fadil Diggs are tough losses that could be stars at their new schools.
While not every offseason will experience the same level of turnover that can be induced by a coaching change, every program features a metaphorical revolving door for players looking for a fresh start there or elsewhere. Teams can look far different from year to year, and it’s quickly becoming the norm in college football.
According to On3, over 3,300 football players entered the transfer portal during the 2023-24 cycle, with more than 2,100, or 64%, committing to a new program. Just over 120, or 3.7%, withdrew from the portal. The list of entries has steadily risen over the past three years, from 1,500 entrants in 2021 to more than 2,200 in 2023.
The portal’s growth has been furthered by the idea that student-athletes can be viewed as commodities now, with the ability to be sold to the highest bidder, thanks to NIL. The argument over NIL can be saved for another day, but part of a student athlete receiving what they feel is their fair share involves pay that rivals that of a professional athlete.
NIL offers student athletes more power than ever in an industry that is built around their accomplishments. Money talks, and players can follow, or remain at, the program that can offer the most financial incentives with the help of NIL collectives. Businesses, from mom and pop restaurants all the way to Lamborghini, are free to offer contracts to financially support student athletes.
With an eye for the future, an agreement to a settlement of three antitrust lawsuits — most notably House v. NCAA — by the NCAA and its power conferences in May set the stage for a new revenue sharing model in collegiate athletics. While the process will take months to play out, an approval of the settlement could see schools pay an expected $20-22 million to student athletes in revenue sharing.
College sports are beloved by many for the tradition, pageantry and simplicity that long set it far apart from the sponsorships and multimillion-dollar contracts of professional sports. For many years, there appeared to be some truth to that.
A glance at the modern landscape of college athletics, though, reveals that the two industries aren’t too far behind. It’s a business, after all.
Story by Luke White, The Battalion Sports Editor
College athletics experiences a seismic shift with emergence of NIL and revenue sharing
Howdy!
We hope you have enjoyed reading the Fall Sports issue — our very first as our own publication! For context, Maroon Life used to be a special edition of our sister publication, The Battalion. This year, we have entered a new venture, branching off on our own. Because of this, our frequent readers might notice a few changes: most excitingly, the shape and style of our magazine. Welcome to our new future! Another new feature is our team. Our fourperson content team put their blood, sweat, tears and a little sanity into this magazine to make it a product we can be proud of and that you, the readers, would enjoy. As our editor in chief, Zoe is excited to build a foundation that allows Maroon Life to prosper for years to come. Get used to the artistic duo of our Art Director
Hudson Elkjer and Photo Director Laura McClintock, whose creativity can be felt through the page. Our Managing Editor Sydnei Miles broke open the box of story ideas to shine light on the shadows of Aggie sports.
With this issue, we hope you learn something new; whether you find a new team to stand behind or gain a new understanding of our changing landscape. We encourage you to look beyond what’s right in front of you to find hidden worlds with cultures of their own. Cultures we were so privileged to highlight, with connections so strong we became fans ourselves. And maybe, if you love them just enough, or feel so inclined, you might just hang it on your walls.
So, please, give it a read, or two, or seven, we’re happy to have you.
See you next time,
Zoe May Editor in Chief
Hudson Elkjer Art Director
Laura McClintock Photo Director
Sydnei Miles Managing Editor
MAROON LIFE MAGAZINE IS HIRING CREATORS FOR THE 2024-2025 SCHOOL YEAR!
WRITERS PHOTOGRAPHERS DESIGNERS PR MEMBERS
All Texas A&M University and System employees, and their loved ones, are invited to enjoy an evening of live entertainment, vibrant art, local cuisines, unique bars and exclusive shops!
There will be a variety of specials and discounts just for showing your Texas A&M employee ID.
Take advantage of our FREE, air-conditioned shuttles!
Be sure to give yourself enough time to also enjoy local cuisine, shopping, art, and entertainment that Historic Downtown Bryan has to offer.
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Texas A&M vs. McNeese
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Texas A&M vs. LSU
Texas A&M vs. New Mexico State
Texas A&M vs. Texas
Shuttles run 3 hours before, during, and 1 hour after to/from the Roy Kelly Parking Garage and Texas A&M’s Memorial Student Center.