About Ray Dietrich
I pay athletes.That's the difference.
Most people writing about NIL have never signed one. I've signed, paid on and renewed athlete deals as a brand owner for years — high school, college, 7v7 programs, creators — with my own money and my own product on the line. This site is what I learned doing it.
The Brand Side
Nine years running marketing for a football gear brand from the first online order up.
I co-own and run marketing for a football performance gear brand — cleats, gloves, mouthguards, backplates, apparel. I've led its marketing since the first day it took an order online: direct-to-consumer, marketplaces, team sales and retail. Every channel got built one step at a time, and athletes were part of the plan early.
That's where the agreements on this site come from. They aren't drafted from a law-firm blog. They're the deals that held up when there was real money in them — names and dollar figures stripped, structure intact.
The Operating Idea
An athlete is a distribution channel. Nothing starts until a customer hands over an email or a card.
Twenty-five years of consulting, from eight-figure ecommerce down to one-truck shops, comes down to the same three questions: who's showing up, what do we capture, and what happens to them after. An NIL deal is no different. The athlete brings the audience. The contract decides whether you own anything when the post scrolls away.
That's why my agreements tie every dollar to a deliverable, spell out what happens to the content when the deal ends, and get the parent's signature right. It's also why the book is called what it's called.
What's Here
Deal Review
Written NIL Deal Review
Send me the agreement and get a written memo back within 48 hours: what's missing, what it's worth, what to change. $250.
The Book
NIL for Small Business
How Local Companies Turn Athletes Into Customers — and Why Most Fail. Paperback and Kindle on Amazon.
Articles
Read before you sign
What a real athlete agreement has to include, high school versus college, what the House settlement changed, and the clauses free templates leave out.
Work With Ray
Have a deal on the table? Get a second set of eyes.
Brands signing their first athlete, 7v7 programs putting a sponsorship in writing, parents looking at a contract that came in the mail. I'll tell you what's missing and what it's worth — in writing, from the brand side. Based in Lake Havasu City, Arizona; I work with brands, programs and parents anywhere.
I am not a lawyer, an agent or a collective, and Ardent Executive Consulting is not a law firm. The Deal Review, articles and book on this site are commercial products and general information, not legal advice, and using them does not create an attorney-client relationship. NIL rules differ by state, athletic association and institution, and they change often; several states restrict or prohibit high school NIL entirely. Have a licensed attorney in your state review any agreement before you use it.