University of Colorado has a new NIL collective backed by Deion Sanders: 5 things to know

Name, image and likeness is changing by the day and the University of Colorado is getting with the times.

As the Buffaloes prepare for their transition into the Big 12, a new NIL collective for Colorado athletics launched Tuesday: 5430 Alliance.

It supports the 350-plus student-athletes across all 15 university sports and consolidates the Buffs' NIL efforts into one entity. The move unifies the Buffs4Life NIL Collective and 5430 Foundation "to bring all of the university’s NIL opportunities into one streamlined organization," according to a news release.

“NIL is a critical component of our athletics programs as we support our student-athletes and compete for national championships,” Colorado athletic director Rick George said in the release. “5430 Alliance ushers in a new chapter of NIL at Colorado and allows all our fans and alumni to support our student-athletes through one avenue. We encourage every supporter of the Buffs community to pledge their support to 5430 Alliance.”

George wants Colorado to compete for national championships and that goal is unattainable nowadays without a dedicated NIL collective.

Blueprint Sports, which powers the collectives of a handful of Division I programs, will service the day-to-day functions of the Buffs' operation. The company's CEO, Rob Sine, has a goal of $8 million for Colorado's football budget in 2024, but that's just the beginning.

"A great football coach once told me, 'Just to be able to compete is one thing, to win championships is something else,'" Sine told the Coloradoan. "So, if $8 million is the goal to be able to compete, to win championships is going to be over $10 million a year.

"Now fans hear that and some might get excited, some may question it, but it's not hard to put together, it's not hard to do and those student-athletes deserve the opportunities."

Now that Colorado has a consolidated NIL collective, here are five things to know about 5430 Alliance:

What will 5430 Alliance do for Colorado athletics?

5430 Alliance will connect fans, alumni, businesses and charitable organizations with Colorado student-athletes under one umbrella. The previous separation of collectives put CU behind the eight ball a bit when it came to NIL efforts.

"This makes a lot of sense from my perspective," Mit Winter, one of the nation's leading NIL attorneys, told the Coloradoan. "It's always easier for a school, for athletics and for people who want to contribute to NIL if there's just one collective that everyone has to deal with. If things are more fractured, it's confusing for the donors and fans, and it's harder for the school and athletics to navigate that when you're having to deal with multiple entities."

The new collective offers monthly membership packages ranging from $15 to $250 and annual donations ranging from $150 to $2,500. Fans and donors can also choose to make a tax-deductible donation or a one-time contribution.

Football is certainly at the forefront of NIL efforts (and donors can make sure their contribution goes directly to the sport they support), but 5430 Alliance will help ensure that all 15 teams at Colorado can reach new heights.

"Everything at Colorado has gotten shinier, gotten better and been more competitive," Sine said. "You've had the basketball programs having success for a little while now and several of the Olympic sports as well. This will elevate everything.

"You brought in 'Coach Prime' last year, you brought in his sons and some of the other football players and it caught the nation by storm. Well, now's the time to really impact that further. That was the reintroduction of Colorado athletics last year at a high, high level as you saw from all of the national media attention. This is the opportunity to use creativity to take it to the next level."

Is 5430 Alliance affiliated with the University of Colorado?

5430 Alliance is an independent corporation and not affiliated with the University of Colorado.

The collective will be powered by the industry leader in NIL, Blueprint Sports, which currently works with collectives at Arizona, Arkansas, Gonzaga, Maryland, Penn State, UCLA, Utah and other schools. The Buffs' NIL staff, however, should look much bigger and better than its competitors.

"Our charge is to build a team in market that represents 5430 Alliance, the student-athletes and the school every single day," Sine said. "They're out there fundraising, educating the community on opportunities to work with student-athletes and working with the student-athletes to earn the NIL income.

"We're going to have one of the bigger staffs in the country here at Colorado because this is such a huge opportunity for us."

Deion Sanders backs 5430 Alliance

There's no doubt that the presence of Deion Sanders as Colorado's football coach led to the formation of 5430 Alliance.

Sanders, known as "Coach Prime," is already one of the best recruiters in college football, evidenced by his top-10 2024 transfer class coupled with the landing of five-star recruits in back-to-back years, but the NIL support of 5430 Alliance will help him navigate the transition to the Big 12.

"When you have such a bright star like 'Coach Prime' and the student-athletes, Travis (Hunter), Shedeur (Sanders) and everybody else on the football team, it makes things a lot easier," Sine said. "Almost everybody in the community knows about them and so it makes the opening conversation (with donors) a whole lot easier."

It's no surprise that Sanders is all in on the new collective.

“WE HERE and we’re not settling for nothing! We have a commitment to DOMINATE on and off the field, and in order to do that we need to DOMINATE in our NIL program as well,” Sanders said in the news release. “5430 Alliance gives EVERY darn Colorado fan the opportunity to be a part of HISTORY. IT DON’T STOP BABY!”

Why is this the right time for 5430 Alliance?

Colorado football is coached by one of the most polarizing figures in sports and features a pair of athletes who could be top-10 picks in the 2025 NFL Draft.

The men's basketball team just won back-to-back NCAA Tournament games for the first time since 1995, and the women's team is in the Sweet 16 for the second consecutive year.

The time is now to invest in Colorado athletics, and the way to invest is through NIL.

"In today's college sports world, you have to have NIL resources just to compete in recruiting," Winter said. "Showing that you're serious about having those NIL resources is important to signal to your coaches and fans that you're serious about being competitive in this new world of college athletics.

"With some of the legal stuff that's happened with the Tennessee vs. NCAA case, it's really increased the importance of having a well-run and well-funded collective because now collectives can be out talking to recruits and offering them specific deals that are recruiting inducements."

Recruiting and NIL will go hand-in-hand as the NCAA continues to evolve. Those two aspects impact everything about college athletics and they're at the core of decisions that athletic departments around the country are making.

"I always say that name, image and likeness is all about recruiting and retention and it's the center of the athletic universe," Sine said. "The better you can do recruiting and retaining student-athletes, the better your ticket sales will be, the better your donors and supporters will be.

"We have to build a path to get to $8 million, to get to $12 (million), to get to $15 (million) and to keep growing from there. Those numbers are what they are because student-athletes have earned them. They work their butts off to get to this part of their career. The blood, sweat and tears it takes to be a D-I athlete is tremendous. These numbers are appropriate when you think about the whole scheme of what revenue looks like in college athletics."

What's next for NIL?

Winter was recognized as one of the top 25 influential figures in NIL by On3 and is one of the leading voices in the space.

The NIL attorney believes that schools will soon be allowed to directly pay their student-athletes.

"I think within a year, schools are going to able to directly compensate their athletes, whether that's paying them NIL money, which would really be sharing broadcast revenue, or it's going to be payment for athletic performance," Winter said. "It'll probably start out as NIL payments and transition to just payment for athletic performance, which is really what they're being paid for by NIL collectives now anyway.

"I think that's where it will eventually get to."

When that happens, Winter said, the question will be if NIL collectives like 5430 Alliance will still be involved in the process.

"At some schools, they probably will," Winter said. "At other schools, they might want to just bring that function in-house."

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This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: University of Colorado has new NIL collective backed by Deion Sanders