BW students found NIL firm for D-III athletes

Yellow Jacket influencer deals

So far at BW, Yellow Jacket NIL has partnered with athletes from the football team and the women's volleyball team and is negotiating other sports currently, like men's and women's tennis. Attanasio and Worthy reached out to local businesses and connected with former BW student Noah Mowery '25, owner of The Thrifting Tree, a secondhand clothing store.

The three of them worked out a deal in which Yellow Jacket NIL would connect Mowery with BW student-athletes in order to promote The Thrifting Tree. The athletes receive free clothing from Mowery and, in turn, post social media content showing off their new gear and, in some cases, wearing the clothes to games. Yellow Jacket NIL receives a payment from The Thrifting Tree for camera work, editing, marketing and other services provided.

Connor Awad '27, a junior engineering major and member of the football team, was part of this NIL deal. He said that he had heard of NIL deals before, especially in big Division I schools, but never thought it could be possible for D-III athletes like himself.

"I just think it's a great opportunity to get your name out there," Awad said. "It could help a lot of us out in our futures and our paths and our careers that we take. You know that goes onto the resume of how you look and what brands you've worked with, which is a pretty cool opportunity to have."

As a result of the deal, Awad's Instagram metrics have skyrocketed. He went from averaging 380 likes per post to 2,999, and his engagement rate went from 14% to 130.41%.

Elevated recognition

However, not all of the athletes Yellow Jacket NIL worked with were familiar with NIL before Attanasio and Worthy reached out to them. Katarina Blazetic '26, a senior business administration major and member of the women's volleyball team, said that while she had never heard of NIL before this, she appreciates the mutual recognition aspect of this new deal.

"It's a way for us to help promote rising businesses, like The Thrifting Tree," Blazetic said. "It could [also] give the athletes more recognition if The Thrifting Tree ends up reposting what we post, and then their followers see the athletes that are involved in it."

Blazetic said she thinks Yellow Jacket NIL will help BW athletes moving forward because Division III athletes don't normally get the same recognition as athletes from bigger schools. She said she was surprised when Attanasio and Worthy reached out to her because she didn't think that women's volleyball was very popular in the community.

"There's some sports on campus that don't get a lot of recognition for what they do, or they're not talked about a lot," Blazetic said. "If this NIL deal can do more of these gatherings or events with other sports teams, such as maybe golf or swimming … I think it could, even within the Cleveland area and just at our school, give more recognition to teams that don't usually get it."

Authenticity factor

While Division III teams don't provide the same sort of exposure that Division I teams do, Awad described the uniqueness of D-III athletics and what they can offer on a more authentic, local level.

"We bring the mentality that we don't have to get paid to play a sport that we love," Awad said. "We're all here because we love the game of football, and we're passionate about it. I think that we bring a unique style, that we really grab at these opportunities that we get. We're not very familiar with NIL deals, so whether that's a thrift shop or if it's a shoe store, that's a pretty big deal to us."

Attanasio and Worthy first thought of their idea while hanging out on the couch together. As sport management majors, they had ties with various NFL agencies and NIL agents, but none of them catered specifically to Division III athletes. They said to each other, "Why can't we do this with D-III?"

"There's nothing special that they're doing that we can't replicate or even improve at the D-III level, especially because of how well we know everything, because we are D-III athletes," Attanasio said.

BW LaunchNET Support

They thought that they would start with local businesses, since in their eyes, their businesses wouldn't be booming without the nearby college. So they took their idea to BW's LaunchNET, a program that provides free venture coaching, idea contests, pitch competitions and other entrepreneurial opportunities.

The duo received grant funding from LaunchNET and won third place out of 42 teams in the ideaLabs 2025 competition held in Beachwood, Ohio, last April. This placement won them more funding for their company, which they eventually turned into an LLC.

Forging new partnerships

Moving into the future, Attanasio and Worthy hope to expand their business to D-III schools around the state and even around the nation. They want to maintain "everlasting" relationships with their athletes and brands and to continue growing their partnerships moving forward.

"What I love about what I'm doing here is having an impact on people's lives," Worthy said. "I think the biggest thing is just seeing them come up to us and say, 'Man, thank you for getting this deal done for me. You have provided me a service that I didn't think I would get.' Seeing them give that positive feedback is cool because it lets me know that I'm doing my job."

This is an edited version of a story that originally appeared in The Exponent, BW's student newspaper and used here with the permission of the newspaper and the author, Israel Gole '26, executive print editor.