Recent developments with the rights of athletes in college sports now allow student athletes at the University of Wyoming can now make money off of their “Name, Image, and Likeness” (NIL).
Since this new ruling, many companies have stepped in to advertise and promote through athletic standouts at universities across the nation.
1WYO is a non-profit NIL collective based out of Laramie that engages student athletes to partner with charities. “It’s a purpose driven NIL collective,” said Mitch Edwards, one of the members of the board of directors.
“To sum it up, we take donations from our fans and boosters who contribute to 1WYO, and we use that money to engage or pay student athletes for their name image and likeness,” he continued. Since 1WYO is a non-profit, 100% of the donations go directly to the student athletes.
1WYO partners with charities to promote their causes. The partner charities will put on an event or fundraiser, and 1WYO will pay the athletes to attend the event or sign merchandise to raise money.
By going through 1WYO, charities get all the profits they raise, and student athletes will be paid for their time.
“We’re paying the athlete, we send the athlete to the charity, the athlete does the work and any funds they raise go directly to the charity.”
As of now, 10 athletes are partnered with 1WYO. These include football standouts Andrew Peasly and Easton Gibbs, as well as Brendan Wenzel from the Wyoming basketball team.
With 1WYO still being in its early stages, starting up this July, it only has four partner charities.
Make-a-Wish Wyoming, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Wyoming, and the Boys and Girls Clubs of Central Wyoming and Cheyenne all work with the collective.
Edwards expressed his desire for 1WYO to expand, “We haven’t made those connections yet to announce an official partnership, but there’s a lot of interest from different charities. We’re absolutely going to have more athletes. It’s all funding dependent.”
Edwards believes that any amount given will be a step towards bigger things, “A collective is a group of fans and boosters that come together to throw their contribution in the hat to make a larger pool available. These donations make a big difference.”
