Former Gonzaga guard Jalen Suggs is selling a piece of art to commemorate the buzzer-beater that sent the Zags to the NCAA championship. 

But rather than a painting or signed poster, Suggs is selling a non-fungible token. 

NFTs can be anything from a tweet to digital artwork. They’ve overtaken the sports world in recent months — and now, opportunities to sell NFTs in college sports are beginning to explode.

Array of NFTs

Suggs’ NFT uses a photo of him celebrating, and overlays words on his jersey and body, like “The Shot,” in a rainbow of colors.

Some NFTs are more akin to memorabilia than art, Edward Schauder, head of the sports law practice at Phillips Nizer, told FOS. Fans spend hundreds on collectibles like seats from the old Yankee Stadium, so now they can purchase an NFT featuring a seat. They could even buy a memorable tweet from coverage of a marquee game. 

Sellers can pair physical items or other experiences along with their NFTs. For example, Suggs is also selling the shoes he wore during the game.

Staggering Value

Right now, the pro sports NFT market is booming. Just look at NBA Top Shot, which sells digital trading card packs. Despite the fact that packs can be as cheap as $9, Top Shot made more than $230 million by March 2, according to CNBC. A LeBron James dunk sold for $200,000. 

What makes an NFT valuable? Like a rare trading card or a print by an artist, it’s unique. “It’s a scarcity thing,” Ashley Ebersole, a partner at Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner, told FOS.

“NFTs right now are undoubtedly a very hot commodity,” Ebersole said. “Will they stay that way in perpetuity? If you look at the history of the market for sports collectibles or sports trading cards, it tends to ebb and flow.”

In college sports, the NFT craze is just beginning. Former Iowa player Luka Garza created one that sold for more than $40,000. 

On March 14, Stephen F. Austin minted an NFT to commemorate its women’s basketball team’s Southland Conference Tournament championship. 

Wally Crittenden, the department’s assistant athletic director for ticketing and business development, described it as a “moment” to FOS. The NFT showcased the team’s celebration and included stats and information about the season. 

Especially for athletic departments still recovering from the pandemic, NFTs could provide both a new revenue stream and marketing opportunity.

Range of Revenue Potential

In some cases, athletic departments with robust content teams may already have the tools to mint their own NFTs. That was the case for the Ladyjacks: An in-house content creator made the video, and then Crittenden minted the NFT and put it on TheFanBlock.com, where it went for $100, he explained. 

Athletic departments can also sell content that already exists, like social posts. Ohio State Football put its first-ever tweet up for auction on March 12, and bids have reached $850. 

NFTs could provide new marketing innovations, too. Crittenden used the example of giving out foam fingers at a game. It may cost $1,000 for a department to buy and distribute them, but giving fans in attendance an NFT instead may be cheaper.

“We want to make NFTs as, if not more, affordable than promotion line items in current budgets,” Crittenden said. 

Growing Interest

Crittenden also co-founded a marketing innovation company called Modern Sports Group, which is looking to help athletic departments mint NFTs. (The platform where the Stephen F. Austin NFT went up for auction was created by Modern Sports Group.)

And schools are intrigued: Crittenden has already spoken with “leagues and institutions” in Division I and Division II about minting NFTs. “I think there will be waves of interest,” he said.

As fans become more aware of NFTs, and schools begin minting types that capitalize on the specific interests of those fan bases, value will grow.

“Every athletic department is going to have their own community, their own ecosystem that they can tokenize,” Crittenden said.

Luka Garza and Jalen Suggs were able to sell NFTs because they’ve both declared for the NBA draft and won’t return to the NCAA.

But when name, image, and likeness rules take effect, NCAA athletes will be able to mint NFTs while they’re still playing. NAIA athletes can even mint them now.

‘Wide Open’ Possibilities

Ahmad Elhawli, the founder of NIL platform Sportsfinda, recently announced the company has created an NFT marketplace for college athletes that will launch when NIL rules take effect.

“From what we’re seeing at the moment, the market is wide open,” Elhawli told FOS.

Like Garza and Suggs did, college athletes could sell artwork of themselves that commemorate their accomplishments.

Elhawli also believes that selling one-on-one meetings or other community-building “experiences” is “becoming a key point in the whole transaction.”

Part of Garza’s NFT, for example, is a chance for the owner to have dinner and a meditation session with him, play him in a game of HORSE, and receive lifetime access to his basketball camps. 

And, of course, athletes could profit from their own social media posts. If a “regular” person can sell tweets for $500, Elhawli said, imagine how much a prominent college athlete could make.

Women’s Sports Opportunities

Women’s sports athletes “will be the biggest winners in this game,” Elhawli said.

Just as they’re projected to make substantial profit on regular NIL opportunities, they’ll benefit greatly from selling NFTs.

Oregon forward Sedona Prince could sell the viral TikTok exposing the differences between the men’s and women’s weight rooms, Elhawli said. The video would be valuable because of its historic significance and popularity.

Rights Complications

NIL laws will probably impose new restrictions on how athletic departments can use athletes’ likenesses in their NFTs.

And NFTs that athletes create may not include things like highlight reels if they don’t get group licensing rights.

“It’s like the wild west,” Schauder said.