While FIU struggles to stay afloat with NIL, Florida Atlantic shows promise

With Name, Image and Likeness changing the landscape of college football, teams across the nation have scrambled to raise enough money to make sure their collectives are well-stocked, aiming to entice recruits and transfers to enroll at their university.

The current system has exposed the stratification inherent in college sports, with most Power 4 programs being able to raise substantially more money than their Group of 5 counterparts.

The University of Miami has long been the preeminent college football program in South Florida, boasting one of the most storied histories in the sport. Since 2021, when states began passing laws that allowed college athletes to capitalize on their NIL, the Hurricanes have boasted one of the best NIL collectives in the nation — reportedly spending more than $15 million on the 2024 football roster.

But in the backdrop looms Florida Atlantic University and Florida International University, two Group of 5 programs also located in South Florida. While both schools spent most of their short histories in the Sun Belt and Conference USA, FAU moved to the American Athletic Conference in 2023, leaving FIU behind. The move indicates the Owls have surpassed FIU as a TV draw – a shift mirrored in their respective NIL programs.

“A South Florida three-star [recruit] is usually a four- or five-star anywhere else,” said Shawn O’Gorman, an NIL agent and FIU football alumnus. “FIU can pull three stars but they have to keep them. Obviously there’s a good amount of guys that leave there. And from the outside looking in you have to realize something isn’t working.”

“No kid should ever go to Charlotte, Western Kentucky or Middle Tennessee in your conference over FIU,” O’Gorman said. “None of those places are in a location like Miami.”

O’Gorman pointed to the Memphis Tigers as a program in the G5 that has successfully poached players from SEC teams like Alabama and LSU using NIL, showing that CUSA teams can be competitive in the new landscape. In April, FedEx announced a $25 million investment in NIL for Memphis student-athletes.

However, most G5 schools have to more carefully budget their NIL dollars, as most don’t have the funds to support every athlete in the revenue-generating sports.

“With limited resources, you have to more effectively budget,” said Darren Heitner, a sports lawyer and adjunct professor at the University of Miami. “When we’re talking about revenue-generating sports, particularly football and men’s basketball, almost everyone at the power conference level is receiving something. That’s less common at the G5 level.”

One man who tried to kick-start FIU’s NIL program is alumnus Johnathan Cyprien. After a successful four-year college career at FIU, Cyprien was drafted by the Jacksonville Jaguars in the second round of the NFL Draft. After an eight-year NFL career, Cyprien started the Inside the Cage collective in 2022 to support Panthers student-athletes.

“I had a meeting in Ohio regarding a company that would manage my foundation. While visiting Ohio, I was able to watch a football game at Ohio State,” Cyprien said. “When I went to Ohio State, just seeing the atmosphere there, I couldn’t help but to think what FIU could be.”

Cyprien told the Herald that he saw NIL as a conduit for FIU to launch themselves as a national brand in college football.

“The [Ohio State game] truly inspired me to come back home to Miami and really start researching what it would be to start NIL at FIU in order to create that future vision I had of FIU,” Cyprien said. “To be an Ohio State, to be the No. 1 rivalry for the University of Miami, like USC is to UCLA. We already have the history from the epic fight that happened years ago [in 2006]. People look at it as a tragedy for college sports, but I look at it as the biggest marketing material you can have to show how deep the rivalry is between FIU and Miami.”

However, according to Cyprien, the FIU legal counsel was hesitant to get involved with Inside the Cage. At the time the collective was established, the NCAA did not permit employees or affiliates of a school to facilitate compensation for student-athletes. Since Cyprien was a member of the athletic advisory board, the FIU legal counsel feared involvement with the collective could bring strict consequences.

“With other schools in Florida, I saw their legal counsel was permitting things that our legal counsel was not,” Cyprien said.

Moreover, the licensing agreement that Cyprien received through sports advertising agency Van Wagner, which would allow the collective to use the FIU logo in merchandise and promotions, was prohibitively expensive.

The former FIU safety also told the Herald that he did not receive any compensation while working with the collective, instead funding a lot of the operation out of his pocket and through donation money. These bumps along the road forced Inside the Cage to shut down its operation in 2023.

While the university has now relaxed its rules on involvement with collectives, and affiliated itself with the Blueprint Collective in the 2023-24 school year, the earlier apprehension toward NIL collectives likely put FIU at a disadvantage that they’re now trying to make up.

The Panthers have seen star players such as wide receiver Kris Mitchell, tight end Rivaldo Fairweather, offensive tackle Miles Frazier and defensive tackle Jordan Guerad leave for Power 5 conference programs in recent years — and that’s likely in no small part due to NIL compensation.

“As an FIU alum it’s tough to see. I don’t understand how a school 40 miles from you [Florida Atlantic], in your same conference and your rival, can [raise] $7 million in one cycle and be competitive,” O’Gorman said. “I’ve had FAU offer me six figures for some of my clients. Something’s not adding up for FIU.”

Meanwhile, in Boca Raton, FAU has seen its athletic profile steadily rise in recent years, moving to the American Athletic Conference in 2023.

The school currently has two collectives associated with the university: The Owl Collective and the NIL in Paradise Collective.

According to Bryan Rammel — the founder of the Owl Collective — one of the primary differences between the two collectives is that the Owl Collective focuses on creating commercial opportunities between student-athletes and businesses, whereas the NIL in Paradise Collective is more robust at fundraising. However, Rammel did note that the Owl Collective was in the process of rolling out a fundraising arm.

While FAU only began affiliating itself with booster-backed collectives in 2023, the timing for that decision was ideal. That same year the men’s basketball team made the Final Four, boosting the university’s brand in the eyes of the public.

“It was huge,” said Griffin Kinney, who oversees the NIL in Paradise Collective. “When you’re winning everything is good. People want to see you continue to win.”

A study commissioned by the school showed that the March Madness run gave the school $1.9 billion in media exposure during the tournament. There have also been substantially more donations to the athletic department.

But despite some success, Florida Atlantic also faces similar to challenges to other G5 schools. Without the historical success of other Power-conference teams, there’s a need to be more proactive in engaging with businesses and donors to collect NIL funds.

Certainly after a 4-8 football season and a basketball season where they struggled to replicate the previous year’s success, the Owls will need to secure more financial resources to compete in their new and better conference. But there’s no question that they’re at a relative disadvantage compared to its Power Five counterparts.

“In South Florida, things are different than a lot of other places. It’s a transient community with a lot of people coming in and out,” Kinney said. “FAU is a newer school as far as what their alumni base looks like. The Power-Five schools can probably make a few calls and build their roster and their NIL support how they need to. At the G5 level, it’s a lot of education, showing face and being creative about raising dollars for our athletes.”

As the landscape of collegiate athletics continues to change, the success of FAU and FIU could hinge on their ability to engage with potential donors and businesses in the South Florida community.