There is a lot changing in college sports beyond games, tickets, and broadcasts. Software, contracts, and reporting tools are driving much of this growth, and brands have choices in how to allocate their marketing budgets. College athletes are learning how the NIL (Name, Image, Likeness) era affects them.
October 8, 2025, was one of those days.
Atlanta’s NIL Club announced a new partnership with Impact.com.
NIL Club provides a connection point for brands and college student-athletes and therefore serves as a leading platform. Impact.com is a major player in the area of partnership management platforms. The integration between NIL Club and Impact.com enables brands to run performance-based campaigns using the platform. The NIL Club/Impact.com integration also connects brands with over 650,000 student-athletes. The integration enables brands to easily monitor clicks and conversions.
NIL is becoming a more structured activity. The college athletics marketing space is still figuring out how to team up with athletes as marketing partners.
From early NIL deals to organized workflows
In the early stages of NIL, deals were often informal. Many agreements involved one‑off social media posts, text messages, or basic contracts. Athletes would sometimes partner with local businesses through direct messages. However, brands often struggled to measure the results.
The NIL Club and Impact.com integration moves toward a more organized system.
According to the announcement, several points stand out:
Enterprise‑grade tracking and attribution are now available on top of NIL Club’s athlete network. Brands can see which clicks, sign‑ups, or purchases come from specific athlete‑driven campaigns.
Performance‑based campaigns are the focus. Brands can pay for results like app downloads, registrations, or purchases. This way, they focus on actions, not just exposure.
Existing workflows remain in place for brands that already use Impact.com. College athlete campaigns can be part of the same partnership platform. This platform also supports affiliates, creators, and publishers.
Mick Assaf, co‑founder of YOKE, the company behind NIL Club, described the goal of the integration in terms of accountability. “Enterprise brands want a way to work with college athletes on a large scale. They expect the same accountability as their other marketing channels,” he said. “These integrations give them exactly that. Every click, conversion, and sale is tracked. The companies attribute these results in the same way as they do in any other marketing campaign.
A large athlete network
The announcement highlights a reported network of more than 650,000 student-athletes. Many college athletes compete at different levels and in different divisions. The figure shows a lot of coverage.
From a brand’s perspective, this scale can matter for several reasons:
It lets campaigns reach campuses in a lot of different areas and sports.
It makes it possible to run long‑tail campaigns that involve many athletes, not only the most well‑known names.
It lets marketers group activity by conference, region, sport, or other segments.
The announcement mentions connections with CJ Affiliate and ShareASale. These are two well-known affiliate networks. Brands have many ways to access NIL Club’s athlete network. They can use affiliate systems they already have.
Marketing teams that are hesitant to create separate NIL processes can use these integrations. They make it easier to connect with existing tools and routines.
Why brands are interested in college athletes
The announcement outlines several reasons brands are paying attention to college athlete marketing.
Student‑athletes often have:
Authenticity. They live and spend time with other students every day. That makes them feel real and relatable.
Reach inside close communities. On some campuses, an athlete's views can spread fast. Friends, teammates, and social circles share them quickly.
Connect with Gen Z. Many younger fans trust athletes more than traditional celebrities. Athletes feel closer and more accessible.
NIL Club’s model builds on these strengths by focusing on performance. Brands can do more than pay for posts or visibility. They can support campaigns that drive real engagement and results.
Set a cost‑per‑action goal, such as a download, trial, sign‑up, purchase, or other conversion.
Review which actions came from athlete‑driven content.
Adjust campaigns based on measured return on investment.
Many college athletes have smaller national followings. But they can still be quite influential in their local communities. For performance marketing, this combination of targeted reach and trust can be useful.
How the integrations function
The announcement also details how the platform operates in practice.
Brands are able to create NIL Club marketing campaigns utilizing their current platforms. For instance, if a brand is using Impact.com, CJ Affiliate or ShareASale, it can create a new campaign in that respective platform. The brand specifies the desired actions, payment structures and marketing materials.
Athletes are able to view brand opportunities in the NIL Club app. Athletes can select campaigns that align with their audience and preferences.
Athletes create and share content. Athletes use social media and other channels to communicate with their audience. When a user clicks a tracked link and completes the specified action, the platform logs the conversion.
The platform manages the tracking, attribution, and payments. The platform tracks clicks and conversions and associates them with the correct athlete and facilitates commission payments.
The design of the platform minimizes the need for brands to create their own NIL tools or processes. Additionally, the platform offers athletes a means of tracking their campaigns' effectiveness. Athletes are also able to see how much they earn and track their activity.
Performance-based structure
The arrangement described in the announcement fits within an affiliate and partnership model.
NIL Club’s stated structure is designed so that brands pay for results. The key elements include:
Clear actions. Each campaign has specific goals. These can include getting people to download something, sign up, make a purchase, or visit a store.
Clear metrics. Systems keep track of clicks and conversions and connect them to the right campaign.
Athletes make money through commissions. An athlete gets a commission when they drive a conversion. The brand doesn't pay if there isn't a conversion.
This approach shifts spending toward measurable outcomes. Brands concentrate on conversions, while athletes are rewarded for actions they generate. The technology aims to show if both sides are seeing the expected results.
Support for large brands
A lot of big companies do more than just compliance reviews. These checks include things like making sure rules are followed, keeping an eye on finances, and following set procedures. These things can slow down the process of businesses starting to use new marketing channels.
The announcement links NIL Club to CJ Affiliate, ShareASale, and Impact.com. This makes it easy for brands to add athlete campaigns while keeping their current system.
The release says that these partnerships are meant to:
Get rid of things that make it hard for big brands to advertise college athletes.
Allow marketing teams to use the same tracking and workflows as their other channels.
Cut down on the need for one-time or custom solutions.
For brands that know how to do affiliate marketing, college athlete campaigns are easier to run.
Compliance as a core requirement
College athletes can only do NIL activities if they follow NCAA rules and state laws. The announcement talks directly about compliance.
NIL Club checks all campaigns on its platform. They ensure compliance with NCAA guidelines and state NIL rules. The company presents this compliance-first process as protection for brands and athletes.
Athletic departments already manage eligibility and academic rules. That experience helps them work with compliance-focused platforms. But these tools still can’t remove the complexity of NIL rules.
The integration doesn’t change NCAA laws or policies. But it shows that compliance review is now part of the usual workflow.
What this development suggests for NIL
Examining the entire announcement, several trends emerge:
* College athlete marketing is now a core element of performance marketing. It is no longer a trial; it is mainstream.
* Measurement and accountability are emerging as critical standards for brands in NIL transactions.
* Student-athletes are being connected to systems that can expand across schools, sports and geographic regions.
* While the development does not address the major NIL issues, it does illustrate a clear trend. NIL is transitioning from random, one-time deals to structured campaigns that are easier to measure and focus on results.
Historically, a college athlete might have completed one local commercial or one event, and that was the end of it. With the advent of tools similar to NIL Club, brands can now track what happens after an athlete publishes content. A campaign can move from an athlete posting content to a dashboard that provides measurable results.
While games continue to be decided on the field or on the court, partnerships like this assist in monitoring, sharing and improving off-the-court value over time.
