USD rugby players eligible for pay

For the first time in history, club players can join NIL

ABIGAIL CAVIZO / NEWS EDITOR / THE USD VISTA

For the first time in history, players on the USD men’s club rugby team will have an opportunity for pay. They are the first club to join the Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) Association. NIL is a policy under the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) that allows athletes to get paid for brand deals, regarding their name, image or likeness. As an NIL athlete, players are able to receive money through brands, sponsorships or other deals, as long as it is regulated under the NCAA’s specific guidelines of the NIL policy. Prior to the men’s club rugby’s announcement, the NIL was only for athletes in the NCAA. Although the NIL allows athletes in all three divisions of the NCAA to make money off of their brand, the NCAA’s rules of integrity, such as unfair recruiting or bribery, still applies to the athletes. According to ncaa.org, the Division I Board of Directors approved of the NIL policy in June 2021, even if the athlete’s state does not have the athlete’s state does not have their own NIL policy in place. 

The men’s rugby club players are able to receive NIL pay through the platform, “Athletiverse.” This company was also founded by a USD student, Dominyck Bullard in early 2022. After finding out he had a rare bone tumor in his arm, he had to stop playing baseball for a while and noticed that some student athletes had to go to college, focus on their sport and also work another job for extra money to support themselves. By incorporating social media into a marketing platform for athletes, Athletiverse’s goal is to allow businesses to utilize athletes as marketers to represent their brand.  

USD junior and founder of Athletiverse, Dominyck Bullard, explained that he wanted every athlete to be able to benefit from NIL, regardless of whether it is a club team. 

“I think it’s cool that through this platform, for the first time ever, any athlete can get paid — big or small. Before that, it was really just the top 1% getting paid through NIL.”

Through Ahtletiverse, the USD Rugby players are able to sign up with their website and connect their social media accounts, such as Instagram. From there, the business that is partnered with the player can post directly on their Instagram account instead of the athlete doing it on their own. The more followers an athlete has, the more money they could get from NIL. 

While Bullard has worked with many Division 1 athletes at other colleges across the country, but he explained that seeing it happen at USD is rewarding. 

“With the rugby team themselves, we’ve so far made one deal, but the cool part is that we’re the only platform that allows club athletes to sign up,” Bullard said. “A lot of the rugby guys have people that want to sponsor them, but they just don’t know how to do it. The big news here is that this is the first time ever that a club athlete can get paid — you don’t even have to be a Division 1 athlete at USD. These are just kids that signed up, because they wanted to do it and now they have the opportunity to receive pay for it.”

Receiving the privileges is a big step for a club sports team, especially since in recent years, the USD rugby players have had big wins leading up to their spring 2023 season. Since this deal was made recently, the USD rugby players were thrilled to hear about the new opportunity. 

Before their partnership with Athletiverse, USD junior and rugby player Paul Habeeb recently got a NIL deal through Bullard with Rose Donuts on Linda Vista. Habeeb is thrilled to see the expansion of NIL for the rest of the club team. 

“My reaction [to hearing about the Athletiverse partnership] was excitement. I knew that Athletiverse wanted to expand its platform to club sports, especially rugby since it is treated more like a club, as no other NIL platform is reaching out to the club sport level,” Habeeb said. “This is revolutionary, especially since rugby in the USA is having trouble growing at the rate it should be due to Title IX disallowing rugby to be a NCAA sport. Rugby at the college level relies on funding from alumni, supporters and the school to expand as a team individually. If rugby can’t get the support of their school, then getting funds from NIL would be amazing as then the team could fund more equipment, scholarships, travel fees and much more.”

At USD, there is no men or women’s rugby team under the NCAA. According to Title IX, there must be an equal amount of women’s and men’s sports at any university in order for a team to participate in the NCAA divisions. Women’s rugby is emerging more often at other colleges, but for men’s rugby to be ensured as a NCAA sport, they would need more funding. Even though rugby may not be at every college, it is growing in popularity at USD. 

USD junior and club rugby member, Alex Lim, asserted that their club team deserves the recognition, especially because of their growth as a team. 

“I honestly believe we will be even better than last year [in both participation and talent]. The environment on the teams is next level. We only lost two starters last year from graduating and gained so much talent,” Lim said. “As club sport athletes we dedicate hours out of our days to the sport with only half the recognition. So it’s nice to see this happening to us, after fighting so hard to get this program on the map. However, this is only a step in the right direction for not only club sports but rugby as a whole, therefore our work is far from over.”

The USD men’s club rugby team will be able to begin their deal for NIL with Athletiverse as early as Jan. 2023.