Syracuse Orange: Operator of Orange United acquired, creating $100 million NIL agency

The operator of Orange United, a commercial name, image and likeness ("NIL") collective that launched in September of 2023 to support Syracuse Orange student-athletes in all sports, has been acquired, according to a recent announcement.

The Las Vegas-based Blueprint Sports said in a press release that it has purchased the Atlanta-based Student Athlete NIL ("SANIL"), which manages Orange United and other commercial NIL collectives around the country.

Financial terms of this transaction were not disclosed. In the media statement, the two organizations said that in 2024, they raised and delivered more than $108 million in NIL payments to student-athletes across 70 college athletic departments, including SU Athletics.

When I reported on the launch of Orange United in September of 2023, I noted that at the time, Orange United had signed a deal with multi-media rights company LEARFIELD to be an official partner of, and the preferred collective for, SU Athletics.

That being said, besides Orange United, there are two other third-party NIL entities that also support Syracuse Orange student-athletes, and they are SU Football NIL and Athletes Who Care.

The manager of a Syracuse Orange-focused NIL collective has been bought by a competitor.

In a recent article, On3's Pete Nakos wrote in part that "SANIL and Blueprint have a strong Group of Five presence and will work with 15 Power Four schools. The initial focus will be on college basketball with so many mid-major programs."

As a result of this transaction, SANIL CEO Chris Brown has been appointed the COO for Blueprint Sports. In May of 2024, SANIL announced that Jason Belzer, who founded the company in 2020, would move into a new role of co-chairman while Brown was named CEO.

In January of this year, SANIL announced that Belzer, whom I had spoken with from time to time about Orange United, had "exited his advisory role" at SANIL "to pursue new opportunities in the college athletics marketplace."

At the time of Orange United's launch, Belzer told me that his goal was for Orange United to ultimately have a total NIL budget of $6 million to $9 million annually for NIL deals with 'Cuse student-athletes in all sports.

In March of last year, Orange United general manager Mark Hayes told me that his collective was targeting in 2024-25 an NIL budget of $2 million to $2.5 million for Syracuse men’s basketball and $1 million for Syracuse women’s basketball.

Later this year, as I first reported, Syracuse men's basketball is expected to suit up in a lucrative NIL-driven tournament known as the Players Era Festival, which will be held in Las Vegas and should provide at least $1 million in NIL payouts to all participating schools.

Blueprint Sports acquisition of SANIL comes as the landscape in collegiate NIL is changing. If a judge approves a proposed settlement of three federal antitrust lawsuits filed by Division I student-athletes against the NCAA and power conferences, that would allow schools to directly pay student-athletes for use of their NIL.

The cap for power-conference schools in 2025-26 is approximately $20.5 million, and SU Athletics recently said that it "intends to distribute the maximum NIL payment amount." It's important to note that NIL payments from third parties such as Blueprint Sports will continue.

Per SU Athletics, "Those third-party payments must be for legitimate business purposes and be at what is determined to be fair market value. Third-party NIL payments will not count towards the institutional cap ... and will be reviewed by an independent clearinghouse to determine compliance with the fair market value rules."