Okay THIS has to be the best NIL deal of 2024

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Good morning, and thanks for spending part of your day with Extra Points.

Now that we’re almost done with 2024, I have a confession. I find most NIL-related stories to be pretty boring. I still have to do them, because you can’t tell people you cover off-the-field stories in the college athletics world without talking about NIL, but there’s not much new or unique about a player signing a big deal with a collective, or engaging in some cookie-cutter influencer marketing campaign.

But every once in a while, there’s an update that manages to warm my Grinch heart. And friends, this is one of those days.

I’ll tell you about it in just a second. But first, a word from one of our sponsors:

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I imagine most of my readers are familiar with Jake Retzlaff, the starting QB for the shockingly good BYU Cougars. Retzlaff is an interesting fella because he’s an underdog (under-recruited JUCO prospect turned high level P4 starter), fun to watch, and leading an objectively good football team.

But he’s also noteworthy because he’s Jewish. He’s the Jewish QB of the flagship Latter-Day Saint university, perhaps the least Jewish college in the entire dang country. My internet pal, McKay Coppins over at The Atlantic, wrote what I think was the best and most insightful story on the gentleman known as “BY-Jew”…and everything that comes with that.

And now, Retzlaff has a major NIL deal of his own. No, not with Crown Burger or Swig or some MLM or any number of other Utah-specific institutions.

Jake Retzlaff now has a deal with Manischewitz. Just in time for Chanukah!

For those unfamiliar, Manischewitz is a leading producer of Kosher food. If you poke around your local grocery store for Matzo Meal, Gefilte Fish or Latke Mix, there’s a good chance you’re going to find stuff from Manischewitz.

Via the official release:

 Sadly, I am told you won’t be able to just walk into a grocery store and grab a box of Jake Retzlaff Matzo. Those boxes are going to be special edition giveaways. Personally, I hope the other two Jewish kids at BYU are guaranteed a box.

I love this deal so much…and not just for the meme potential

I admit, I’m a sucker for demographic anomaly stories (how many other Brazilian-American midwestern Mormons do YOU know, huh?), and Retzlaff blowing up at one of the least likely colleges in America is pretty surprising. That, by all accounts, Retzlaff has been embraced by BYU fans and students, is a great story.

But what I really love about this partnership is that it isn’t just about getting a Big 12 QB some national love, or about making money, or getting a recruiting advantage. Take this quote, shared from CMO of Kayco, the parent company of Manischewitz:

I hadn’t really thought about this deal in those terms, but a Manischewitz communications staffer clarified it when we chatted on the phone Thursday afternoon. You don’t need to be Latino to appreciate tacos, or an Italian to love pasta, right? Jewish food is more than just delis…and that you don’t have to be Jewish to understand, appreciate, and even love, Jewish cultural traditions or cuisine.

That, even more than selling a few more Matzo boxes, seems to be what Manischewitz wants to do…use their brand to promote and celebrate tradition and cultural connections. It’s about giving a people another avenue to be proud of who they are.

In a world where anti-Semitism is on the rise in many corners of American society, we’ve got a dude at BYU who is helping wave the flag for pride in Jewish culture. In my personal opinion, I think that rocks. Honestly, I hope Manischewitz or similar brands look to other Jewish athletes, coaches and collegiate institutions for similar campaigns.

If they haven’t already, I hope this campaign leads to tons of non-Jewish families in Provo, American Fork and Orem googling some recipes and expanding their palette a bit. They might find they have more in common than they thought:

Here’s what else I wrote this week:

• Thanks to some FOIAs and phone calls, I tracked down a copy of a survey EA Sports sent out to FBS institutions to collect assets for EA Sports College Football 26. If you’re curious about how next year’s game might be different, there are a few clues in there.

• Lots of NIL Collectives were set up as 501c3 non-profits. Now, many are abandoning that classification. Experts think that’s a mix of the IRS finally, maybe, getting serious about enforcement, and the NIL business model changing once again.

• The Maui Invitational is a super cool event in college basketball. But it might not stay that way forever. As the industry changes, can old-school MTEs survive? I share a template for how I think MTEs and postseason events can thrive in the modern era.

• We are experimenting with something new this month…a special ZOOM AMA/conversation with me! This event will be on Wednesday, Dec 18th, at 6 PM CT. It’s open to all Premium Subscribers. Stay tuned next week for the call-in info!

• And finally, we added dozens of new documents to the Extra Points Library. Since last week, we’ve added coaching contracts at Auburn and Ohio State, the Pac-12 Term Sheet from San Diego State, vendor contracts at a half dozen other schools, and more. If you want to check out the college sports data you need, without breaking the bank, you’ll love the Extra Points Library.

That’s all I got for today. Have a great weekend, and I’ll see you in your inbox on Monday!