NIL Takes Next Step With Release Of College Sports Trading Cards

• NIL has been at the center of the college football world this offseason
• Now, it’s taken another step with the announcement that Fanatics will begin selling officially licensed trading cards this Fall
• Fanatics has already secured deals with over 100 schools and 200 student athletes
• Read more college football stories here

NIL Continues To Dominate College Football Talk

Name, Imagine and Likeness discussions are everywhere you look in college football right now. Whether it’s Nick Saban calling out Jimbo Fisher and Texas A&M or Ryan Day saying that Ohio State needs to raise $13 million a year to keep its roster intact, it’s all anyone is talking about.

It appears we’ve now reached the next phase of the NIL discussion with brands Fanatics and Topps taking center stage.

Official College Sports Trading Cards Set To Release

Reports surfaced Thursday morning via Sports Business Journal that Fanatics will release college football and basketball trading cards beginning this fall. The company will sell the card under Topps, the sports trading card brand which it owns.

Further details of the report claim that Fanatics has secured the exclusive rights to move that 35 power programs. In addition, the company inked non-exclusive deals with with over 100 schools as well as deals with individual male and female athletes. The company also plans to feature cards of former athletes in their college gear.

In addition to colleges, Topps holds trading card deals with the NBA, NFL and MLB.

Fanatics executive vice president Derek Eiler sais in a release that he’s excited to launch the brand’s new college cards.

Fanatics has been closely monitoring the ever-evolving NIL landscape, and we felt this was the perfect time to launch multiple, strategic college trading card programs.”

With the program set to launch in the Fall, which college cards will you be buying first?