Kentucky Sports

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The Marrow Initiative

Relationships are still going to be the most important factor in recruiting but Kentucky associate coach/recruiting coordinator Vince Marrow knows name, image and likeness (NIL) is going to be a “huge second piece” moving forward. “NIL deals can make a kid think, ‘Coach I like you but this other place is offering me a lot more.’ We better adapt to this because it is not changing,” Marrow said. One of the biggest changes is the emergence of collectives, organizations to benefi t student-athletes with NIL opportunities. There is no one set model and Kentucky athletics has endorsed three: Athlete Advantage — The 15 Student Athlete Endorsement Program, Charities for Kentucky, and Commonwealth Causes. Todd Harris, founder/executive director of Charities for Kentucky, is an avid sports fan but had to educate himself on what a collective can and cannot do.

“We also have a charity focus along with helping the athletes make money,” he said. “We are also doing it for any sports. Donors can specify their preference of a sport. It could be tennis, women’s basketball. You pick the sport. No one in our organization is taking a salary. We just are trying to help charities and UK athletes. “The better universities do with NIL the more it will help with future success. I know UK fans have been frustrated trying to fi gure out what NIL looks like compared to other schools but just know all potential deals are vetted by UK before athletes can get paid.” Marrow says he understands that money matters to athletes but also understands not every fan has unlimited resources to support a collective. “I am not telling anyone to go broke. If a guy makes $100,000 (per year) and his wife makes close to that and they are real supporters of a UK sport, maybe they can give $10,000 to $20,000 per year and if you get 30 folks to do that, it would be huge,” Marrow said. “There are people out there who can give a lot more. There are people who cannot afford to do that but fans are going to play a huge part in making sure programs at UK are where they need to be. “We have a lot of hard working fans who come to games and spend money to support us. Don’t take away from your own family to do this but if you can afford it, go ahead and commit to help. This is to maintain our roster, and we have some pretty good young football players that any team in the country would like to have.” Charities for Kentucky is already partnered with eight charities and working with numerous UK athletes.

“We are focused on athletes that are at Kentucky now. It’s a new world out there with NIL opportunities and we all have to adjust to it if we want to keep having successful sports teams at Kentucky,” Harris said. Charities for Kentucky is planning a major NIL event Feb. 18. Kentucky men’s basketball hosts Tennessee at 1 p.m. and the charity event will be after the game. “We hope to have UK players and coaches at the event with some proceeds going to charity and some to NIL,” Harris said. “We had a bowling event before the football season started with 13 players and a bunch of fans. It was a blast. We are looking at golf outings. We want to make this enjoyable for fans and athletes to make sure we can sustain this going forward.”

STORY BY Larry Vaught PHOTOS COURTESY OF UK Athletics