Big Red Collaborative: Inside details of Nebraska's new NIL collective

An independent group led by Nebraska alumni has launched a brand new NIL collective for Husker athletics – one that is separate from Athlete Branding & Marketing (ABM) and has the public support of Nebraska athletic director Trev Alberts.

The new NIL collective, named the “Big Red Collaborative,” is aimed at helping Husker athletes make money through not-for-profit organizations and provide education to those athletes in order to set them up for long-term financial health beyond their collegiate eligibility.

The face of the new collective is Nebraska football Hall of Famer Kris Brown, a former Huskers kicker who helped the program win two national championships in the 1990s and is the program’s second all-time leading scorer.

Brown, Executive Director of the BRC, is part of a core four of the group’s leadership that also includes Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer Bill Gerber, and Matt Hickey and Joe Petsick are on the team as advisors.

Gerber is a retired Chief Financial Officer of TD Ameritrade, Hickey is a Partner at Capital Wealth Advisors and has a long history of managing investments and finances for active and retired professional athletes, and Petsick is the Executive in Residence at the University of Nebraska’s College of Business.

The group believes that this new NIL collective has a model that is “different,” says Petsick, in that it will work through three core Nebraska-based charitable organizations that the BRC has partnered with and that it has an infrastructure in place for the athletes to obtain financial literacy.

“Our hope is that we can build something that will deliver a really big impact that benefits Husker athletics and is unique enough in a way, and it does it in a way, that gives Nebraska student-athletes an advantage not only in the present, but also in the future,” Petsick told Inside Nebraska.

As part of its launch, the BRC has also reached an agreement in principle to acquire Athlete Impact Management (AIM), which is led by former Cabela’s CFO Ralph Castner and was initially formed to support the Nebraska men’s basketball team. Castner has agreed to join the Big Red Collaborative’s board and serve as the liaison to men’s basketball once the acquisition is completed.

The BRC has the support of alumni, former players, Alberts and the Nebraska athletic department, who the leaders of the BRC met with several times over the last few months to ensure that the athletic department was in alignment with “the things that (the BRC thinks) are important to Nebraska and athletics in general” and for guidance as to what is important to Alberts and the athletic department as it relates to NIL, what Alberts and the athletic department believe the future of NIL looks like and the conversations they continue to have nationally.

“I am a strong believer that Nebraska is extremely well-positioned for success in this new era of college athletics,” Alberts said in a statement in a BRC press release. “It’s exciting to see another group of successful individuals and organizations in our state band together to support Husker athletes.”

The Big Red Collaborative went public on Thursday morning, approximately five months after the wheels were put in motion for its creation in mid-April.

Inside Nebraska was informed in June that this new NIL collective was on the way. We have extensive background on the BRC’s stance as a competitor against ABM, what the new collective brings to the table, how it could bring some pivotal reinvigoration to Nebraska football recruiting and why the BRC leadership group believes this NIL collective is different than other collectives and will have a lasting impact:

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