May 5: Why Syracuse Football Coach Fran Brown Is Signing With an NIL Agency
Article by Amanda Christovich | Front Office Sports
The news comes at a time when social media gives coaches a unique platform to capitalize on their own identity.
Since the NIL (name, image, and likeness) era began, college athletes nationwide have invested heavily in agents and marketers to help build their personal brands. They aren’t the only ones.
Syracuse football head coach Fran Brown has become the first NCAA coach to sign with NIL agency Network, Front Office Sports has learned. The news comes at a time when social media gives coaches a unique platform to capitalize on their own identity—and when they need every advantage possible to attract recruits in the era of unrestricted free agency, including beefing up their off-field personas. And there’s no doubt PR matters. Coaches without savvy brand-building and PR assistance—UNC’s Bill Belichick is one whopping example—are floundering in the public eye in a way that could negatively impact their ability to entice top players.
“I figure there’s no better time to do it than right now,” Brown tells FOS.
Network primarily works with high school and college athletes, including Florida quarterback DJ Lagway, but has decided to foray into the world of college coaching. “When we started Network, we weren’t pretending to, nor considering to get into the coaching world,” Chief Strategy Officer Doug Scott tells FOS. He says the suggestion came from renowned agent David Falk. “It really was the energy and essence of who Fran was, to where we decided that, yes, this is somebody that we really want to see be successful. And we think there’s a little bit of a void in the marketplace right now.”
