A Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo class is giving students a chance to market athletes. It’s called the Athlete Lab.
In 2021, the National Collegiate Athletics Association began to allow college athletes to financially profit off of their name, image and likeness, or NIL, after years of prohibiting it.
Randy Rovegno is a marketing professor who created the lab. He said he wanted to bring the NIL policy to an educational platform through the class.
“We could have the students in the class support their peer athletes, their student-athletes and provide marketing services for them,” Rovegno said.
In the class, a student-athlete is paired with a team of marketing students. According to Rovegno, the team helps the athlete find their brand and voice, curate their social media presence and partner with local and national businesses on campaigns.
Athletes are often set up with a company that matches their personality or needs, benefiting both the athletes and driving traffic to their business. This was the case for Cruz Rubio, a football player at the university, whose team created a partnership with local business Taquería Santa Cruz.
“His name is on the taco, right? We did a whole campaign with ‘These tacos have my name on it.’ Cruz Rubio, Taquería Santa Cruz,” Rovegno said.
He hopes the lab becomes a benchmark for NIL education and marketing.
