Earlier today, USC Trojans AD Jennifer Cohen released her “State of Troy” giving massive updates to the Trojans community surrounding athletes at the Olympics, the new athletic facility, the move to the BIG, and of course, NIL.
In her statement, she talked about House of Victory being the official collective of USC Athletics and its massive growth over the last year, stating that it had more than doubled its funds from the previous year.
“Our partnership with House of Victory, the official collective of USC Athletics, has never been stronger, and we truly believe no collective in the country has enhanced its profile, operations, and results more in the past year than HOV. For the 2023-2024 academic year, HOV exceeded all its fundraising goals, and our donors stepped up to help us more than double our total funds from the previous year, putting USC in the upper tier of NIL collective support nationally. We are extremely proud of its growth and for the generosity and support from Trojans everywhere,” writes Cohen.
What was not included in the statement was another huge piece of news that should be extremely positive for the growth of USC NIL overall.
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BREAKING: USC Trojans Top NIL Collective’s Merge, Creating Alignment And Huge Growth
Per a source with direct knowledge of the situation who spoke with LAFB Network, House of Victory is merging with one of the other top 3rd party collectives, Conquest Collective.
This is huge news in the sense that it will bring two differing philosophies together to achieve one ultimate goal, creating the number one NIL program in College Athletics.
HOV has operated under the non-profit model and has used its connections with the alumni donor base to see massive success in fundraising. This points to the statement Cohen made about HOV doubling its total funds over the previous year.
Conquest has operated under the for-profit model and has worked with a different donor base while also focusing on branding and marketing opportunities for student-athletes.
We had Conquest Collective co-founder, Jeff McKay, on our USC LAFB Show a little while back and he spoke directly about the difference in the for-profit model.
“The for-profit model, I personally believe is a better way to go because it gives you way more flexibility on the types of deals you can structure with potential players,” says McKay. So how they’re, you know, meaning fewer appearances for more money upfront, kind of like an NFL contract, to be honest. So I, I think that is appealing to, like I said, those high-profile guys. That seems to be the way a lot of other schools are doing it, that are, you know, doing a really good job, at least on the NIL front.
But more than anything, like I said, I think it’s really beneficial to be able to have some flexibility in how you structure contracts for some of these really, truly elite guys who have plenty of other schools offering them a ton of cash. So being able to be competitive in that front, but also structure in a way where it’s not them having to do 50 different appearances, you know, to get paid in smaller increments. That, in my opinion, is not what some of these kids really are after, and not what other schools are doing. So, yeah.”
How this new alignment unfolds is yet to be seen, but this is certainly a huge step in the right direction and a massive day for USC NIL and USC Athletics.
Head Coach Lincoln Riley mentioned at Big Ten Media Day that he felt USC’s NIL program was one of the most improved ones in the country. This move further supports that and will allow the university to continue its pursuit of earning and retaining the top recruits in the country, but also in enhancing the experiences for those recruits once they are on campus and officially Trojans.
Remember, the NIL game doesn’t end once a recruit signs a letter of intent. It continues during their entire tenure as a Trojan, and the goal has always been for that experience to be second to none. This is a positive step in that direction.