Tennessee baseball is traveling in style to Omaha for the College World Series.
The Volunteers left Knoxville on Wednesday afternoon ahead of Friday’s game against Florida State. As part of a team-wide NIL deal with the Tennessee-driven NIL collective The Volunteer Club, players wore special edition College World Series T-shirts.
The front of the shirts says “The Volunteer Club” with No. 24, alluding to 2024. And on the back is the same number with “Omaha” written on the back. It’s a unique endorsement deal with players wearing the collective’s name while participating in an activation.
Brandon Spurlock, a partner with The Volunteer Club, told On3 that every player on this year’s team was compensated. It also works as a marketing campaign. Jerseys are for sale for fans to purchase to support NIL efforts.
“To have the entire team wearing the collective’s name across their chests really shows the synergy and the total buy in from our team, our donors, the coaches, the players and the administration at Tennessee,” Spurlock said. “It’s a place we haven’t, not just at Tennessee, but even in the NIL world the last three years, it’s a place we haven’t necessarily been able to go. We’re proud of the recognition as the as the nation’s No. 1 NIL destination.”
A year ago, the NIL collective signed a team-wide deal ahead of the College World Series. Each athlete was compensated four figures for promoting the collective on social media and signing a few items. This year the organization took it a step further, marketing the collective and baseball program.
Spurlock said last year’s deal was The Volunteer Club’s first step into baseball. Since then the collective inked multiple players to partnerships that ran throughout the season. Players were compensated at different levels during the season but everyone received payment for the team-wide deal launched Wednesday.
“Last year, that was kind of a first big step for baseball,” he said. “Football and basketball had been the primary benefactors. And we made that move with baseball, and from that point we got, we segued that into some more solid contracts with this team for the whole year.”
Tennessee is also making sure to provide an opportunity for athletes to leverage their NIL on the ground in Omaha. Plans are in place for an autograph sessions Saturday afternoon on Tennessee’s off day. Jerseys will be on sale along with other Volunteer Club items.
The Vols are in Omaha for the seventh time in program history and the third time in four years, yet they have never won a national title. Tennessee beat Evansville in the Knoxville Super Regional, edging the Aces out 2-1 in the series.
“Where we’ve come — we as a college athletics landscape — to where the synergy between all constituents kind of coming to the head and making this happen [is really special],” Spurlock said.
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