As college sports move toward allowing student-athletes to profit, a new program titled “The Advantage” will help University of Alabama athletes develop their personal brands.
The university in Tuscaloosa unveiled The Advantage on Tuesday. The program is intended to assist and educate Alabama’s athletes on brand management, maximizing personal social media platforms and financial literacy.
"We are excited to launch this new program, which even further demonstrates our commitment to fully developing our student-athletes," Alabama director of athletics Greg Byrne said. "We are blessed to have incredible resources on campus with our institution, allowing us to better fit our specific needs and evolve The Advantage, as needed."
Alabama’s press release noted that the university has ranked in the top two in royalties generated among the Collegiate Licensing Company’s partner institutions each of the last 11 years. In the last decade, more than 60.3 million units of officially licensed Alabama merchandise has been sold by licensees.
In April, Alabama student-athletes added nearly 140,000 followers on social media accounts connected through Socialie, giving them a total of 2,235,124 followers on connected personal accounts. In 2020, Alabama social channels generated north of 1.1 billion impressions.
According to CBS Sports, Alabama is one of the states moving forward with a law allowing athletes to benefit. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed a bill last month that allows college student-athletes to receive compensation under the NCAA's new name, image and likeness legislation. That law is expected to go into effect on July 1.
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