Travis Vokolek didn’t think he had much free time early in his college career. Academics and football took up just about all of his personal bandwidth.
Or so he thought.
The sixth-year tight end has found enough leftover margin to become an active participant in the world of name, image and likeness (NIL) since it became legal in July 2021 in an historic pivot from the NCAA’s longtime model of amateurism. Countless opportunities have popped up since then for college athletes to profit financially from their status.
Suddenly, time has become money.
Vokolek found an ideal balance for himself in the offseason. He’s a client of Nebraska’s main NIL collective — fueled by a contingent of businesses and boosters — called Athletes Branding & Marketing (ABM). Run by former NU football chief of staff Gerrod Lambrecht, the company directed dozens of Huskers to a variety of activities in the spring and summer.
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“It’s not extremely time consuming, at least for myself,” Vokolek said. “But you still have to find time to do it when you’re away from football and school.”
Opportunities included engaging in fundraisers, podcasts and videos. One highlight of Vokolek’s summer was working with the Special Olympics to help run a football camp. The former Rutgers transfer and Springfield, Missouri, product also promotes a company that provides flushable wet wipes for men.
Vokolek’s experience is similar to that of many of his Nebraska football teammates, the majority of whom are ABM clients. NIL is not pay for play — student-athletes must complete some sort of work to get paid. And that costs minutes and hours.
Organization is critical with a flurry of deals available for Husker athletes.
They use a third-party platform from Lincoln-based company Opendorse to review then accept or decline pitches. Twenty-plus football players are part of the newly launched “Big Red Fan Club,” which sells passes for fans to participate in virtual and in-person interactions with players. Those can range from larger meet and greets to potential player drop-ins at a birthday party.
The Lincoln NIL Club has also emerged as another option hailing player-fan online connections and has attracted dozens of participants.
Nebraska’s athletic department and coaching staff — like every other school — can’t be directly involved in player NIL activity, though they track it. Coach Scott Frost said the program needs to compete at a national level with NIL opportunities to attract the type of on-field talent necessary for the Huskers to return to relevance in the Big Ten and Power Five.
Such a mission can create conflicts for the players being pulled in yet another direction.
“NIL in general can be a distraction,” Frost said. “You’re asking young men to manage academics, college football, family, relationships and now opportunity to earn money and basically have a job on top of that. There’s a lot of time demands.
“Players have to be smart. They have to be mature in order to handle it. As long as it doesn’t get in the way of their academics first and their ability to perform on the football field, I’m all for it.”
Quarterback Casey Thompson, the highest-profile Husker, builds out specific windows for NIL obligations, he said on the “Bussin’ with the Boys” podcast this spring. He used offseason off days Sunday and Monday as needed.
Same with a window from 1 to 5 p.m. on other days if necessary. The rest of his schedule is dominated by film study and working with teammates — academics haven't been as demanding after he earned his degree from Texas in May 2021.
Thompson said he doesn’t seek out NIL interest, but it comes to him. It takes time to sift through proposals. To figure out what he’s interested in and what he can commit to.
“You’re going to make six figures as a player here,” Thompson said. “If you’re a starter here on the football team, you can make over six figures.”
How the Huskers get there can be as different as their individual personalities.
Freshman receiver Decoldest Crawford began working with an Omaha-based HVAC company this summer. A few players have their own weekly radio shows. Some use their social media accounts to simply post advertisements in exchange for a few dollars. And many will intentionally engage with fans for the first time this fall as the football season gets underway.
The key, Vokolek said, is to keep the main thing the main thing. NIL has not been a problem or distraction for the Huskers, he added. It’s not something they talk about much in the locker room, not with more pressing matters like learning the playbook and coming together as a group.
Whether a player decides to find the time for additional ventures is up to him and his schedule.
“We’re all here to play football and go to school and get a degree,” Vokolek said. “NIL is just a whole other aspect of college now. We all want to be here to play football first, and the NIL part of it will come second.”