Harrison Hamm, Opinion Editor Emeritus–
When the NCAA began allowing college athletes to profit from their name, image and likeness (NIL) in the summer of 2021, Division III athletes did not seem to be candidates for advertising deals. Companies prefer aligning with higher-profile Division I players at large schools, who frequently play on national TV and have large fanbases.
But there are no restrictions on Division III athletes capitalizing on NIL opportunities. Two years into the NIL era, Max Hoffman wants to open that door. Hoffman, who graduated from Denison last year, sees D-III athletes as having power in numbers, and now runs an upstart business that aims to link athletes with companies.
Alongside Denison classmates Tommy Hofheimer and Asahd Hamilton, he started HOF Sports LLC. HOF’s stated mission is “harnessing the untapped potential of typically undervalued athletes.”
“Our model intends to give every athlete, regardless of sport, access to NIL as equitably as possible,” Hoffman said.
Setting up individual D-III athletes with endorsement deals is difficult unless the athlete has a popular social media page, Hoffman says. HOF’s solution is grouping athletes together as part of one deal with a company — adding all of their social media followers together.
If an athlete has, say, 800 Instagram followers, they might not be attractive to a company looking to advertise. But as part of a package of 100 other athletes with a similar amount? That’s more palatable for a company.
“We might not have 100,000 (followers) on one account, but we have accounts that collectively equal 100k,” Hoffman said. “They will all post the company’s ad, and that allows the athlete to negotiate with a larger social media presence that they don’t have on an individual level.”
It’s the job of HOF to sign all these athletes to contracts and build up that collective bargaining power. It can be tedious. Hoffman and Hofheimer have spent much of the past few months meeting individually with D-III athletes to get them signed. Hoffman, who’s primarily based in his hometown of Houston, spent time on Denison’s campus this fall, and says they’ve signed 26 Big Red athletes from various sports.
HOF has also secured deals with Everest Gear, which sells Denison apparel in Granville, and TRISTAR, a sports memorabilia company in Houston. Hoffman said he hopes to use his established deals to help facilitate new ones.
The pitch is well-worked, honed from many similar conversations with athletes, administrators, and businesses. Hoffman has counters for issues that companies might have.
Take, for instance, the issue of overlapping social media followers. If a business signs a deal with numerous athletes from the same school, they may not actually be reaching 100,000 unique people. Those student-athletes will inevitably have some of the same followers.
“It’s a positive, not a negative,” he said. “If you want the consumer to buy your product, you show your product more than once.”
Hoffman and Hofheimer emphasize their vision of HOF as an equalizing force. For them, D-III athletes work too hard to be excluded from NIL opportunities.
“We think there’s a huge value to this and a huge hole we can fill,” Hofheimer said.
Hoffman was a manager and student coach with the Denison football team while in college.
“I never claim to be an athlete, but I saw the grind they went through on a daily basis,” he said. “I think it’s pretty messed up that they weren’t getting compensated from the NIL laws that were passed.”
With the help of Hamilton, a Computer Science graduate, HOF built a navigable website. Hofheimer notes that there are big long-term plans for the website, including a client portal that allows athletes to view their tasks and earnings.
Their next steps revolve around signing as many athletes as possible. Otterbein is next on their list of schools to target. The sport doesn’t matter — so far, they’ve signed athletes in track and field, squash, and soccer.
“I’m a big fan of athletes getting paid,” Hoffman said.