Maryland will combine its existing Name, Image and Likeness collectives into a singular group called the One Maryland Collective, the athletic department announced in a release on Thursday.
The organization integrates pre-existing collectives dedicated to specific Maryland sports: football’s The Best Is Ahead Foundation, men’s basketball’s Turtle NIL and men’s lacrosse’s Hard Shell Collective.
“With the launch of the One Maryland Collective, we are combining our NIL efforts into one united brand that will help student-athletes get connected with better opportunities to succeed,” athletic director Damon Evans said in the release.
Blueprint Sports, which also operates similar NIL organizations at Penn State, Florida State, Arizona and Tennessee, will operate One Maryland Collective.
The Terps will have a single collective for the first time more than two years after NIL was introduced in July 2021. Maryland athletes have signed 1,522 NIL agreements across all 20 programs since then, per the release.
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High-profile Terps coaches have recently expressed frustration with NIL’s preeminence in recruiting.
“It’s just a constant battle because [NIL is] really what recruiting is all about now,” men’s basketball coach Kevin Willard said in a July press conference. “I hate to say it, there’s really nothing much else besides NIL and that’s not going to change for any time.”
Maryland football coach Michael Locksley said that Maryland football’s new Jones-Hill House practice facility, which cost $149.3 million and was finished one month before NIL was introduced, holds less weight in a time where NIL plays a large role in the recruiting landscape.
“Unfortunately, we moved in at a time when facilities have been de-emphasized in a recruit’s mind,” Locksley told The Athletic in June. “Because they’d get dressed in the trash can for $25,000.”
