Syracuse Orange: Former SU player aims to raise $1M for NIL collective

Former Syracuse Orange football defensive lineman Tyler Marona said in a recent post on X that he’s raising $1 million for Orange United, a new commercial NIL collective that recently launched to provide name, image and likeness opportunities for all ‘Cuse sports.

According to his X page, Marona, who is from Pasadena, Calif., is a producer at Arthur J. Gallagher & Co., a publicly traded insurance brokerage and risk-management services firm that is based in Rolling Meadows, Ill.

In a spirited post on X, Marona said that he’s “stepping up.” He says, “We’re keeping our guys home,” and that he wants to help attract the “best of the best” to Syracuse University.

To that end, Marona says that he will devote his time, energy and resources with the goal of raising $1 million for Orange United. I have to say, I love Tyler’s enthusiasm!

A new NIL collective recently launched to support Syracuse Orange student-athletes in all sports.

Orange United is being managed by the Atlanta-based Student Athlete NIL (“SANIL”), which currently operates more than two-dozen commercial collectives nationwide and has more than 1,000 student-athletes under retainer contract.

As I’ve noted in several articles in recent weeks, Orange United has signed a deal with multi-media rights company LEARFIELD to be an official partner of, and the preferred collective for, SU Athletics.

Orange United has an impressive board of directors in place, and the collective’s general manager is former Syracuse Crunch executive Mark Hayes.

In a telephone interview on Wednesday night, Hayes told me that he has spoken with Marona. Hayes adds that he and other Orange United leaders will continue to have conversations with Marona on how they might be able to partner up, and what such a partnership would look like.

Hayes says he appreciates Marona’s enthusiasm and looks forward to continuing the dialogue with the former Syracuse Orange football player.

Jason Belzer, the founder of SANIL, has told me that he believes the total market available to Orange United is raising $6 million to $9 million annually for NIL deals that would support all ‘Cuse sports.

Torrey Ball, SU Athletics’ deputy athletics director for business development, said in a recent phone interview that the launch of Orange United takes the ‘Cuse “in the right direction” as it relates to the NIL space and “puts us in a position to support our student-athletes at the highest level.”

I appreciate and respect Tyler’s passion, and I look forward to hearing more in the near future about his conversations with Hayes and the Orange United leadership team.