🏈🐻 Countdown To Kickoff

Welcome to Good Ol’ Grizzlies, a newsletter fueled by Student-Athlete NIL (SANIL) for the University of Montana’s collective Good Ol’ Grizzlies.

In today’s content:
- Countdown to Kickoff 🏈
- Griz GM Report 🐻
+ So much more 👍

🍻 Summit Beverage and the GSA are once again teaming up to support student-athlete scholarships at the 17^th annual Montana Wine & Beer Festival, set for Friday, Sept. 20, at the Adams Center on the University of Montana Campus

🏈 COUNTDOWN TO KICKOFF

The defending Big Sky Champion Montana Grizzlies officially begin the quest for the program's 20^th conference title later this week with the opening of the annual fall training camp. Players report back to Missoula on Friday, Aug. 2, for two days of meetings, equipment fitting, and walk-throughs. The Griz then return to Dornblaser Field at UM's South Campus facility for the first of 18 fall practices on Monday, Aug. 5 (READ MORE).

After leading Montana in sacks and tackles for loss in his first season as a Grizzly, Riley Wilson is once again expected to be one of the most prolific linebackers in the FCS heading into his junior season (READ MORE).

Griz football standout Junior Bergen has added to his pile of preseason accolades with a place on the 2024 Walter Payton Award Watch List as a wide receiver, Stats Perform announced on Tuesday (READ MORE).

The Montana Grizzlies had a Big Sky-best six players named to one of three Stats Perform FCS Preseason All-America Teams on Monday. All but one of Montana's six honorees also earned a place on the preseason All-Big Sky team (READ MORE).

Good Ol’ Grizzlies is excited to announce we’ve partnered alongside Dazzlers Car Wash! Big Griz fans themselves, Dazzlers is the #1 place in Missoula to get your car washed with our state-of-the-art touchless wash and support Griz athletes while doing so. Choose from our four distinct membership levels and enjoy complimentary vacuums for all our valued customers. You’ll get the clean you need at Dazzlers!

🐻 GRIZ GM REPORT 

Montana Fans!

Can you believe it’s August, and the football team reports today 👀?!

Going forward I will start looking ahead to all of our great fall sports starting up. Before things get rolling, I asked former Griz athlete and current law student at the University of Oregon Nathaniel Ferguson to help explain NIL and the laws that govern it as of August 2nd, 2024. I note the date because the rules continually change, and it helps show how Good Ol’ Grizzlies is so important for fans and student-athletes to know what the current rules say and how to follow them.

“What Laws Govern NIL?”

It was the Supreme Court ruling in NCAA v. Alston (2021), which caused the NCAA to approve an interim NIL policy that permits all NCAA student-athletes to profit from their NIL. There are, however, no Federal laws that govern NIL on the national level (yet!).
Currently, each state oversees its own NIL laws (32 states have enacted legislation regarding NIL) under the interim policy. Under the interim policy, student-athletes who attend school in a state with an active NIL law must comply with that law, in addition to any institution and conference policies (students who attend school in a state without active NIL legislation must only comply with any institution and conference policies).

“What law governs NIL in Montana?” 

Senate Bill 248 – enacted June 1, 2023, is a fairly standard piece of NIL legislation, modeled closely after the NCAA interim policy. Like most state NIL bills, it requires student-athletes to disclose their NIL deals to a college or university official, prohibits colleges and universities from compensating athletes directly for use of their NIL, and prohibits athletes from entering NIL deals that violate university policy. One interesting detail of Bill 248 is that it allows colleges and universities to serve as agents for student-athletes and to manage contracts that use the athlete’s likeness.

While NIL remains to be subject to state law, Congress has been introducing Federal NIL bills ever since the Alston decision in 2021, but none of them have gained much traction. However, they continue to be re-introduced every year by both Democrats and Republicans, indicating Congress intends to enact some form of Federal NIL legislation. There are currently seven NIL-related bills currently sitting in Congress, and while each one emphasizes different areas of law (human rights, tax law, employment law, etc.), they are all relatively similar proposals that seek to establish Federal protections and a right for student-athletes to profit from their NIL that would preempt state law.

For a more detailed look at each pending Federal NIL bill, check out this link: https://www.saul.com/nil-legislation-tracker

Please forward this email to anyone you think would find this interesting!