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John Bol Ajak held a microphone, sitting adjacent to Symir Torrence in front of an array of clients of M&T Bank and Wilmington Trust, months away from Syracuse’s 2022-23 men’s basketball season. On a boat, still docked, the pair answered fans’ questions before joining them for dinner. Head coach Jim Boeheim spoke to the guests, too.

Elite NIL, a company co-founded by Mike Bristol and Tony DeSorbo, hosted the event. But Boeheim mentioned another group that Bristol and DeSorbo created called the 315 Foundation.

The foundation is separate from Elite NIL, but the two groups have the same goal — helping athletes benefit financially from their own brand. Similar to Name, Image and Likeness collectives, groups independent from a university that combine funds from boosters and businesses, the 315 Foundation allows Syracuse fans to make tax deductible donations directly to the school’s sports teams.

“We’re turning something that’s new and different for NIL athletes into something that’s a win-win for everyone involved, including the community and local non-for-profits,” DeSorbo said.

After NIL’s introduction last June, it has gradually benefitted Syracuse’s top athletes. Players appeared on billboards sponsored by companies like Apex Entertainment and received clothing deals from The Players Trunk. Eventually, the university itself made an agreement with The Brandr Group to promote NIL partnerships.

“We are so excited for (athletes) to be able to benefit from the combination of Brandr’s group licensing efforts and Syracuse University’s intellectual property,” said Mark Wheeler, Syracuse Associate Athletics Director for Compliance.

Before NIL, Bristol worked as a sort of “sports marketing agent,” helping former SU athletes get local endorsement deals or other opportunities from their notoriety.

Last year, Bristol and DeSorbo did the same with athletes still in school, helping Buddy Boeheim, Sean Tucker and Megan Carney understand the importance of their own brand.

“There’s a lot of opportunities for students to generate a lot of dollars,” Bristol said.

The idea for the 315 Foundation came about 11 months ago. The pair were worried about the sustainability of the deals they were making, fearing that NIL dollars or large boosters were just “giving money to programs,” DeSorbo said.

For example, SEC schools receive millions of dollars each year from wealthy boosters to help their football programs, DeSorbo said. It’s possible for one or two of those teams to make the College Football Playoff. But not all are going to have success, making the boosters’ donations somewhat obsolete.

“That sparked a thought in me like ‘hey, how do we make this more of a value add for us’ as opposed to some wealthy boosters giving money to drive the NIL of a particular university,” DeSorbo said.

DeSorbo’s previous background as a managing director of an asset management firm, where he was in charge of billions of dollars for non-profit clients, helped the transition.

“It really is a natural fit, it was quite seamless to be perfectly frank,” DeSorbo said.

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There are still concerns about collectives and their inability to help all athletes at a certain school, benefiting the stars instead. Boeheim expressed that since the university and coaches are unaware of what the 315 Foundation does with certain donations, they can’t ensure the collective will help every player on a certain team.

“My hope would be that if we did get this going, all the players would get treated equally,” Boeheim said.

Football head coach Dino Babers understands that benefitting all athletes might not be possible, but the foundation will have a positive impact on the surrounding area. Running back Sean Tucker said the 315 Foundation’s main goal was to “help the (Syracuse) community” through events like meet-and-greets or youth clinics, which they hope to hold in the future.

NBC Sports ranked Syracuse as having the 14th largest fan base nationally, with 3.45 million fans. The community can help through endowment funds that can be specialized to support a specific sport. The Bonadio Group, an outside investment firm, has been in charge of the endowment funds, allowing DeSorbo and Bristol to professionally invest the money.

DeSorbo and Bristol’s ultimate vision is to help athletes learn about “philanthropic activities” and allow fans to specifically donate to their favorite teams.

“The long-term beauty of this is that every single person who identifies as a football fan, basketball fan or a women’s soccer fan, can get involved and help those programs,” DeSorbo said.

Published on August 30, 2022 at 11:56 pm

Contact Anish: asvasude@syr.edu | @anish_vasu