This summer we conducted our annual intern project competition with an incredible pool of young talent. Our nine interns selected a topic of their choice relating to sports business, worked diligently to create insightful reports, and ultimately presented their findings company wide. All the projects were informative and engaging, but two leaders emerged. Congratulations to our co-champions, Taylor Floyd and Hayley Manners!

 Both Taylor and Hayley delivered projects that provided actionable ideas for Navigate to use in the future to help guide clients and to continue driving the sports industry forward. We asked the pair to tell us more about their goals for their reports and how they approached the research process.

Taylor Floyd – “Revenue Predictions for a Theoretical Multi-Year SEC Jersey Patch Deal”

The evolving landscape of college sports presents a unique opportunity for innovation. My goal was to explore ways Navigate could assist collegiate partners in capitalizing on new revenue streams. With the NCAA House settlement on the horizon, athletic departments are seeking avenues to increase revenue and offset an expected $20M payout. Following the recent approval of on-field branding, I anticipated the next logical step would be jersey patches, like those adopted by professional leagues like the NBA, NHL, and MLB.

I chose to focus my research on the SEC, benchmarking professional jersey patch deals to estimate potential revenue for top-tier college football programs. My analysis incorporated variables such as social media following, championship titles, average attendance, win percentages, and nationally televised games. By analyzing these factors, I aimed to predict the revenue impact for programs within the SEC, envisioning what a multi-year jersey patch deal could generate.

 

How will this project help you move forward in your career?

Having a chance to take a project from the idea generation stage through to a final deliverable, and to then present your findings to the entire company was an extremely valuable opportunity. It helped me to gain skills in research, data collection, data manipulation, and experience in breaking down insights into digestible formats. This project allowed me to take true ownership from start to finish and refine my presentation skills within a professional setting.

 

 What was the biggest challenge you faced when creating your presentation?

The biggest challenge I faced when working on this project was developing a benchmarking model that had strong correlation values. There is not a perfect science when it comes to comparing professional sports patches to potential collegiate patches, so it required a lot of trial and error to determine which variables worked best. With the guidance of multiple Navigate team members, I was able to refine my model and methodology to best fit with projecting multi-year deals for SEC patches.

Hayley Manners – “Impact of NIL Rules on International Student Athletes in the NCAA”

Despite exploring a range of presentation ideas in the initial stages, I always came back to the topic that exhilarates me the most: my own experience as an international student athlete in the NCAA. This inspired me to dive into the details of how current NIL rules are affecting our unique population.

As someone who understands the value of building a strong brand and securing NIL opportunities, but also faces limitations from the federal F-1 regulations, I wanted to take the lead on this subject to uncover potential solutions for generations of international athletes to come.


What aspect of your project are you most proud of?

I was excited to uncover statistics related to the percent change in the number of international student athletes in the NCAA, as well as a sport-by-sport breakdown of the estimated share of all NIL sponsorship deals. It was interesting to find that across all Division I men’s sports, football has seen the largest increase in first-year international student athlete enrollment.

The data for share of NIL sponsorship deals below indicates that football players make up 72% of all NIL sponsorship deals for men’s sports. This suggests that there is a large portion of international football student athletes, who are likely unable to capitalize on NIL. A similar trend was reflected in women’s basketball, with a 10% increase in enrollment for first year international student athletes. Given that women’s basketball makes up 35% of NIL sponsorship deals in women’s sports, there are certainly many international student athletes who are missing out on NIL opportunities.

What was the biggest challenge you faced when creating your presentation?

The biggest challenge was distinguishing what truly is “permissible” regarding NIL opportunities for international athletes. The line between what’s allowed and what isn’t is blurry, so I tried to suggest workarounds that have been successfully implemented in the past. Rules and regulations in this realm are constantly changing, so it’s important to recognize that each student athlete’s ability to pursue NIL varies on a case-by-case basis. In the future, I hope for more high-level clarity so that the international student athlete population can equally capitalize on NIL as their U.S. citizen counterparts do!

—

If you’re interested in learning more about our internship program, please email Kayla Ketring at Kayla@NVGT.com