Collective promises $25K for NC State scholarship football players for charitable work

By Brian Murphy, WRAL sports investigative reporter

A collective funded by NC State supporters will guarantee at least $25,000 in name, image and likeness payments for each Wolfpack scholarship football player in 2023, another sign of how quickly recruiting and roster management has changed in college football in the NIL era.

In order to receive the payments from the Pack of Wolves NIL Collective, Wolfpack football players will have to do monthly work on behalf of charitable organizations, who will receive free publicity and help from athletes. The group’s director says the payments will be funded through donations and that it will have no problem meeting payroll, which could total around $2 million.

In a reversal of its longtime amateurism tenets, the NCAA changed its rules around name, image and likeness in 2021, allowing players to make money for signing autographs, endorsing products, making social media posts or a multitude of other ways. The move has ushered in a new era that has left many adjusting to the new reality.

“NIL is like the love child or ‘oops baby’ that many families have,” said Charlie Stallings, the board chairman of the Pack of Wolves NIL Collective and its charity-focused counterpart, the Belltower Collective. “You can kick it out to the curb or you can bring it into the house and love it. We have this new baby. This new baby needs to be fed and taken care of and everybody needs to share.”

The Pack of Wolves plan, announced Monday, comes a week before Football Bowl Subdivision players can officially enter the transfer portal on Dec. 5. Players can transfer without having to sit out a season at their new school. Mix immediate eligibility for transfers with NIL compensation and “recruiting has changed completely,” North Carolina coach Mack Brown said.

A record number of players are expected to enter the portal. Some players have already announced their intent to transfer, including Wake Forest freshman quarterback Brett Griffis. Once a player appears in the portal, an online database, then other schools can officially contact them, per NCAA rules.

'Bought of campuses'

But many players enter the portal with a destination in mind and perhaps an NIL agreement in hand, coaches say.

“I hate the fact that people are tampering with people on certain teams,” Brown said Monday. “And I hate the fact that kids are just being absolutely bought off campuses. And I don’t know how you stop them. You say you can’t have tampering. Well, it’s usually a third party. It’s a high school coach. It’s a friend. It’s somebody on the team that’s a friend. And we had guys that people tried to buy off our team last year, and they just stayed here. But that’s absolutely happening across the country.”

NC State is not the first school to have its entire football team eligible for a deal. Some companies have announced team-wide marketing or sponsorship deals. An NIL collective previously announced it would sign 100 members of the Texas Tech football team to a deal paying each $25,000 annually. The Pack of Wolves offer is only for the 2023 calendar year so players that exhaust their eligibility this season will not be eligible.

Some players have signed deals for far more than $25,000, but the Pack of Wolves is hopeful that it will help the Wolfpack football program.

"It brings a lot of stability to our staff," Stallings said.

ACC schools have benefited from transfers, but many of the league's schools lag behind their counterparts in other Power 5 conferences when it comes to the well-organized and well-funded collectives that have quickly populated the college landscape.

'A major concern'

All four North Carolina ACC schools qualified for bowl games in 2022. The Tar Heels will play for the ACC title Saturday night in Charlotte against Clemson. But there is concern among local coaches about the impacts of the portal on their roster over the next month.

“It's a major concern," NC State head coach Dave Doeren said. "Not because we’re not going to be in the NIL space. Our boosters are actively trying to help us, the collectives are doing what they’re able to do and helping our players, so that part of it is good at NC State. But, as you know, there are conferences where there’s a lot more money involved sometimes. And is it always being done the right way? With no enforcement? I would probably say no.”

Pittsburgh lost wide receiver Jordan Addison, the nation's top receiver in 2021, to USC, a potential playoff participant that has rebuilt its roster with transfers. Georgia Tech lost its leading rusher Jahmyr Gibbs to Alabama, a perennial national title contender.

“If somebody’s going to give a kid a million dollars to go play college football somewhere else and he wants to do it, how can I tell him to stay?” Brown said.

The collectives at North Carolina and NC State have each changed leadership in recent months, and the new leaders said they are working to engage athletic boosters, funders and fans in the new effort. For years, fans were not allowed to provide anything to student-athletes, lest they risk jeopardizing their eligibility. Now, it's a different ballgame.

"May of last year you would be in violation for taking an athlete out to lunch," Stallings said. "Two months later, you could not only take him out to lunch, you could buy him the restaurant."

Graham Boone was named the executive director in August of Heels 4 Life, a UNC-aligned collective aimed at helping the Tar Heels' football program. Educating the donor base and business community on NIL and its impact -- as well as debunking some of the misconceptions -- has been the top priority for Boone.

Headlines about players driving fancy cars or getting exceptional amounts of money to transfer have dominated the headlines around NIL.

“The biggest number is going to grab a headline,” Boone said. “There is a strong understanding across the country that these deals are not creating generational wealth. It’s creating approachable money for the vast majority of players. It’s far overdue that these players are compensated for the work they do, the money they generate. The misconception is the scale. Backup punters are not making $50,000 a month.”

'Not in that ballpark'

Boone said he is not focused on what other schools are doing or how much money other collectives are raising. But it's clear that coaches -- hyper-competitive by nature and compensated handsomely to win football games -- are taking note of what they need to compete and keep up with others around the nation.

“Everybody is looking at collectives across the country and, right now, we’re not in a position to compete with the ones that are spending a whole lot of money,” Brown said. “When (Ohio State coach) Ryan Day comes out and says we need $13 million to keep our roster each year. We're not in that ballpark.”

Updated NCAA guidance, released in October, allows school officials and coaches to more publicly support collectives. Doeren was quoted in a statement about the $25,000 program with Pack of Wolves. Clemson athletics director Graham Neff issued a public call for boosters to help collectives associated with the school.

“The path we must take has never been more clear. TigerImpact, Dear Old Clemson and other collectives need your support to provide meaningful NIL opportunities for our student-athletes,” Neff said in a video posted on Twitter. “... We fully support the mission of these groups and their impact on our student-athletes.”

Several local charities have agreed to participate, including Gigi's Playhouse in Raleigh, the Boys & Girls Clubs of Wake County and the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina.

The Wolfpack football team hosted its fourth annual "Victory Day" for Gigi's Playhouse, a down syndrome empowerment center, during fall camp. Donations to the "purpose-driven" Belltower Collective, as Stallings called it, are tax deductible. Athletes can partner up with other charities, too.

"Every charity I've talked to loves this concept and loves this idea," Stallings said. "It gives them great publicity and something to involve their kids."