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A&M clinches massive deal with PlayFly Sports
Playfly, which is based outside of Philadelphia, brands itself as "the leading revenue maximizer of the sports industry". Its 15-year deal, which A&M sources say is worth $515 million to the university, is the biggest deal of its kind in collegiate history.
Playfly, which already has deals with virtually every MLB, NHL and NBA team, will hold A&M's multimedia rights through 2040.
"Playfly will work closely with Texas A&M to execute a dynamic custom strategy focused on driving significant commercial growth, including Name, Image and Likeness (NIL), entitlements, premium hospitality, emerging categories, and other opportunities," the two sides said in a statement released by A&M this morning.
Key words: Name, Image and LIkeness.
“We are entering a new era of collegiate athletics and Texas A&M is positioned to be a strong leader,” A&M athletic director Trev Alberts said. “This partnership with Playfly reflects our commitment to innovation, maximizing our revenue potential, and providing new opportunities for our student-athletes, fans, and corporate partners. Our ability to find and grow, approved, fair market NIL deals to organically grow our cap will be critically important. With a focus on NIL, premium experiences, and strategic partnerships, we are excited about the transformative impact this collaboration will have on our programs, our university, and the entire Aggie Network.”
For its part, PlayFly intends to open new marketing avenues for A&M. They're already doing a lot of business in Houston, Dallas and San Antonio, so the state is not new territory for them. They've also got a much smaller deal with Baylor in place.
"An industry leader in revenue maximization, Playfly will drive incremental growth for Texas A&M Athletics through fan engagement, content creation, fan data activations, and the development of new partnerships, events and experiences. Playfly will combine its MMR expertise with a host of proprietary media, marketing, and technology solutions, including member-based services, game-day activations, and other custom strategies, to further cultivate fan relationships and revenue growth," the two sides said in the statement.
So this will cover in-house stuff, online, regular TV, advertising, you name it. It's all-encompassing.
It is a
massive boon for A&M's NIL coffers. Nearly half of the $34.3 million a year A&M gets out of this will go to NIL, which boosts A&M's NIL pot to approximately $34 million. A&M had the fifth-largest NIL collective at the end of 2024, with between $17 million and $18 million available. Now, they dwarf everyone else. Ohio State had the previously largest NIL allotment at $20 million -- so suck it, Ross.
We have entered a new, and very different, era of college football. It will be unrecognizable in a decade, and probably before that.
PlayFly is also reportedly close to a deal with LSU, so A&M may have company near the top soon.
OU also alters the equation
Earlier this week, OU hired former Senior Bowl executive director Jim Nagy as its GM for football operations. Other programs, including A&M, have general managers, but Nagy's role is clearly different and expanded.
Nagy will handle "OU's roster management and talent acquisition, including player recruitment, evaluation, retention, and compensation as part of his duties. He also will manage the impact of rules governing name, image, and likeness, the transfer portal process, revenue-share allocation, scholarship limits, and eligibility requirements."
In other words, he's taking over duties that you would expect for an NFL GM. With the PlayFly deal, NIL and tampering, A&M would be wise to follow their lead. They're one of the programs that has a similar range of duties to worry about.
Historically, college football has been a coach-led (and dominated) culture. Athletic directors are usually not all that well-known, unless they've screwed up massively. As the sport has changed, though, the business side of things has become more important. Both Kevin Sumlin and Jimbo had guys with NFL experience on their staffs to handle some of these issues, but 1) they didn't have much power and 2) neither coach really wanted to give them any.
That's no longer an option. With the massive changes to college sports in recent years, you need a strong and efficient front office. The coach may run the show, but the GM is going to progressively become more important and, while not the equal of the coach, will become far more prominent and involved in day-to-day operations.
Short version: a college football GM is no longer a position that can be assigned in a cavalier fashion. It's now a critical role, as OU has shown.
Stewart crushes combine; Scourton and Turner sit out
Shemar Stewart likely clinched his status as a mid-first rounder (and maybe higher) Thursday when he posted dominating numbers at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis. He had a vertical of 40 inches, the fifth-highest number for defensive ends in combine history (but behind Myles Garrett); his board jump of 10 feet, 11 inches is the third-longest ever. He ran a 4.59 40-yard dash at 267 pounds, which was the fourth-fastest among defensive ends (but topped by former teammate Fadil Diggs). Overall, he had the third-best score of defensive ends
ever at the combine.
Teams are rationalizing away his lack of production by saying he was more
disruptive than productive and that the film shows him doing a lot of good things. He's also getting backed up by A&M coaches from both staffs he played under, who have said he was an asset in the locker room and a hard worker overall.
Nic Scourton did not work out Thursday, so all his chips are in on Pro Day next month. His stock is slipping, as teams are claiming he's too stiff off the edge and didn't produce enough last season (which proves to me, considering what they're saying about Stewart, that they'll make whatever excuse they feel like to suit their purposes). Now, some teams apparently have him with a third round draft grade.
Turner wasn't expected to work out after having surgery to repair a stress fracture, but met with teams and checked in at 290 pounds. He was a player a lot of teams wanted one-on-one time with, because there's a belief that he can be a real stud in the NFL if he can keep his cool. Comparisons to Nnamdi Madubuike are not bad ones to have, especially if your an Aggie.
Stewart and Scourton's combine weights raise (my) eyebrows
Scourton played at 285 pounds last season and checked in at 257. Stewart played at 290 and weighed in at 267.
This tells me something: their professional trainers think they played way too heavy last year and it affected their speed and production. I'm not sure I can disagree with that. Scourton, especially, broke down in the latter part of the year and wasn't nearly as explosive as he was at Purdue. He was also 20 to 25 pounds heavier than he was at Purdue last season.
I understand why Mike Elko and the A&M staff may have wanted these guys at a higher weight in order to slow down the running game, but it proved to be a mistake on two levels -- it didn't help much against the run and slowed down two high-caliber players. Both are now trying to sell themselves to teams as players who can be pass rush weapons at a lower weight.
It may be a message that the Aggie coaching staff has already received. If you look at the roster from the end of last season, Kendall Jackson is the biggest end at 265. Solomon Williams was playing at 250. Marco Jones is currently at between 250 and 260. Dayon Hayes weighed 265 at Pitt and Colorado. If they want the big defensive end, they may go back to doing what they did during Elko's first tenure and have a tackle who can spin out -- and his name would be Landon Rink.
Nolen getting no favors
Former A&M defensive tackle went to Indianapolis looking like a mid-round first round pick, but that may not be the case anymore. There have been multiple reports that some teams have taken Nolen off their boards entirely, citing character deficiencies. He's definitely not getting any backing from his former team and coaching staff. One person in Indianapolis this week told me Aggie coaches (past and present) are "blasting him to anyone who asks". They haven't done that with anyone else. Fadil Diggs, for instance, got plenty of love.
When Nolen left, I told you that he made his list of demands and Elko told him to hit the bricks. Ole Miss was the prefect place for him, as they stocked up on a year's worth of head cases, but their effort flopped and now reality may be biting him.
