Collective forms to give name, image and likeness opportunities to VCU athletes

The HAVOC Unlimited Collective jumped into the name, image and likeness arena Tuesday to provide NIL opportunities to VCU athletes.

Led by Rodney Ashby, a former VCU basketball player and Rams radio analyst, the collective aims to get the Rams more involved in the NIL field, which has been rapidly expanding for college athletes.

“In order to stay competitive on the field of play, we have to win the NIL game,” Ashby said. “I wouldn’t say we’re way behind, but we’re definitely behind.”

A collective is an organization that facilitates opportunities for student-athletes to make money in exchange for doing various NIL activities. They usually are formed by alumni and boosters, although some are led by players.

Collectives operate independently of universities. Schools can endorse them, and Ashby said the collective will work with the VCU athletic department’s “internal NIL staff and administration to maintain compliance with NCAA guidelines and, above all, ensure all parties are acting in the best interests of VCU’s student-athletes.”

The HAVOC collective’s model will pay players a monthly stipend in return for community service, public appearances, marketing campaigns and events, social and digital media opportunities, and potentially other activities, Ashby said. If players miss those obligations, money will be deducted from the stipend.

He said it will be a phased effort, providing deals for VCU men’s and women’s basketball players first and eventually for players in other sports.

NIL began in the wake of an antitrust lawsuit by former UCLA basketball player Ed O’Bannon and others saying the NCAA violated their right to compensation for the commercial use of their NIL. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in 2015 ruled certain NCAA amateurism rules violated antitrust laws but limited the scope, saying schools could offer student-athletes up to the full cost of attendance.

In June of 2021, the Supreme Court weighed in, upholding a lower court decision in NCAA vs. Alston that NCAA restrictions on “education-related benefits” for college athletes violated antitrust law. The NCAA’s Division I Board of Directors followed with an interim policy saying, among other things, that schools can support NIL activities and “also can request donors provide funds to collectives and other NIL entities.”

Most schools at the Power Five level now have a collective, and some have several. ACC members Virginia Tech and Virginia have them.

VCU is a member of the Atlantic 10 Conference. Several A-10 programs have collectives.

“I think our outlook is if a player is looking to come here strictly for NIL, they’re probably not the right player for us,” Ashby said. “But the collective doesn’t want to lose players to our league or peer leagues or even below because we’re not somewhat competitive on the NIL.

“We’re not going to be able to compete with the Tennessee’s, the Auburn’s. … But we do want to be able to be competitive with what we would consider our peers.”

Ashby said his group, which has a website (havocunltd.com) and hopes to have a board of directors in place soon, has been working with VCU and floating its model to the NCAA for 6-8 months.

“Our collective is going to be based off a couple of different revenue streams,” he said. “We’ll have a subscription membership, and at different levels you’ll get different access to players and data.

“The other one would be through events. One of the things we’re thinking about doing is around the Final Four time … [where] we kind of relive [VCU’s] Final Four run … at a theater.”