Hooking ’em up with cash

University of Texas athletes score moneymaking opportunities with new $10 million collective

University of Texas cheerleader football game

With help from the new collective, UT athletes will be able to cash in on NIL opportunities.

Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images

This summer, the NCAA made a game-changing move, equipping college athletes with the ability to earn money from their name, image, or likeness — known in the sports biz as NIL. Now, a new Austin-based startup seeks to help University of Texas athletes score NIL opportunities.

UT donors and former UT athletes, along with sports and entertainment marketer Nick Shuley, have teamed up to launch the Clark Field Collective. So far, the collective has secured $10 million in pledges to aid UT athletes in their quest to capitalize on NIL opportunities. The new business is not affiliated with UT.

Ultimately, the Clark Field Collective envisions overseeing the country’s largest NIL fund.

“Our goal is to create something that becomes both the gold standard in the field and a one-stop fund to be disseminated amongst all sports for NIL activities activated through endorsements, autographs, appearances, and more,” Shuley says in a December 1 news release.

Shuley, whose marketing clients have included the Austin City Limits Music Festival and the Lollapalooza music festival, is CEO of the collective. In short, the collective will be a marketing matchmaker between businesses and UT athletes.

“The University of Texas at Austin maintains the largest, wealthiest alumni donor base in the entire country,” Shuley says. “It’s time a network like this existed to support our college athletes. The collective is being established to make that happen.”

Among those joining Shuley in the effort are former Longhorn and NBA player TJ Ford, who is a basketball board member for the collective; former Longhorn and just-retired NFL player Kenny Vaccaro, a football board member for the collective; and former Longhorn Juliann Johnson, a volleyball board member of the collective.

“Texas is always one of the highest-grossing athletic programs in the NCAA, and we intend to ensure that all student athletes at Texas have a way of participating in these immense financial opportunities,” Vaccaro says.

The collective will be governed by an executive board comprising alumni, donors, and business leaders. Smaller boards are being organized to represent each UT sport.

By the way, the collective is named after UT’s Clark Field, which served as the home venue for the Longhorn baseball team from 1928 to 1974. The name lives on, though, as UT’s Caven Lacrosse and Sports Center at Clark Field hosts recreational activities like lacrosse, soccer, and basketball.

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Study This

Austin is the No. 7 most educated city in the country, says Forbes

Photo by Dan Dennis on Unsplash

UT Austin gets a lot of praise, but this study includes degrees from everywhere — as long as the recipient lives in Texas.

Austin and San Antonio don't get all the same opportunities as the even larger cities in Texas, but in a recent study they prove they're prepared. Both made the top 10 in Forbes Advisor's "Most Educated Cities In The U.S." list: San Antonio was No. 4, and Austin was No. 7.

Other Texas cities made the list of 100, but some fell surprisingly far behind. Dallas made No. 20, followed by Houston at No. 79 and Fort Worth at No. 93. In some even more surprising twists, the smaller city of Garland was the fourth in Texas at No. 26, and El Paso, Corpus Christi, and Laredo all beat Houston.

This study compared the 100 largest cities in the country as of the 2021 census, using metrics like high school dropout rate, percentage of adults age 25 and older with some college, but no degree, undergraduate college completion rate, and percentage of adults age 25 and older with an advanced degree. There were also some lower-weighted metrics about equity, studying racial and gender college completion gaps.

Although many education studies fall into praising the University of Texas, this one considers education as a whole — while still mentioning the university once.

In San Antonio, the bachelor’s completion rate for people 25 and up was 67.30 percent, and 29.56 percent of people in that age group have advanced degrees. The study doesn't have much to say about educational opportunities in the city, focusing instead of its tourist potential. But it did note that the city had one of the smallest racial gaps for higher ed, which was only -5.49 percent. Its gender gap was 0.97 percent, and its high school dropout rate was 4.53 percent.

San Antonio's Trinity University did great in a Niche study that came out in early September. It was the No. 18 best small college in America, and topped the list entirely in Texas. Among bigger fish, it was also the No. 20 best liberal arts college in the country (and again the best in Texas), and made No. 4 in general for best colleges in Texas.

In Austin, 59.89 of people 25 or older completed Bachelor's degrees, and 22.76 percent completed advanced degrees. The racial gap was much worse at -10.87 percent. Its gender gap was a bit less than San Antonio's, at 0.69 percent, and its high school dropout rate was more at 7.56 percent.

Of course, this is where the study mentions UT, which is based in Austin. It made WalletHub's 2024 ranking of the best colleges and universities in Texas and earned the No. 2 spot; clinched the No. 6 spot in Niche's ranking of the best public universities in the country; and earned No. 2 in a list of best undergraduate programs for entrepreneurs by the Princeton Review, among other accolades.

Just breaking into the top 20, Dallas' Bachelor's degree completion rate was 57.05 percent, with 21.37 percent attaining advanced degrees. The racial and gender gaps were −14.99 percent and 1.64 percent, respectively. Much further down the list, Houston's Bachelor's degree completion rate was only 32.99 percent, and only 10.97% achieved advanced degrees. High school dropouts were at 8.90 percent, and the racial and gender gaps were −4.99 and 2.10 percent respectively.

Here are all the Texas cities on the list of 100, in order from most to least educated:

4. San Antonio
7. Austin
20. Dallas
26. Garland
49. El Paso
59. Corpus Christi
76. Laredo
79. Houston
81. Arlington
83. Irving

More information on the study by Forbes advisor, including full city rankings and expanded methodology, is available at forbes.com.

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