Tracking the NIL deals for Louisville athletes

We’re all just waiting for the first Gabe Wiznitzer ad.

Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images

When the clock struck midnight on July 1, college athletes in the state of Kentucky were, for the first time, free to make a little bit of coin off of their name, image and likeness.

While there was a flurry of activity in the day’s early hours, there wasn’t an avalanche of new deals announced, nor were there any six figure contracts for Louisville or Kentucky athletes, as some had predicted.

While of this is still (obviously) very fluid, here are the notable NIL deals that we’ve seen thus far from U of L athletes.

—The first U of L deal announced on Thursday was an unspecified partnership between CardinalSports.com (Louisville’s Rivals site), and Cardinal football speedster Jordan Watkins.

—Samuell Williamson cashed in on day one with an Instagram ad for Royals Hot Chicken.

—Malik Cunningham announced on Thursday that he is available for bookings on OpenDorse. His appearance fee on the site is listed as $250 per hour.

—Freshman defensive lineman Dezmond Tell has teamed up with Go Puff.

Adonis Boone, Cole Bentley, Mason Reiger and YaYa Diaby have also announced partnerships with Go Puff. Apparently the food delivery company goes after the big guys.

—El Ellis has announced that he has signed with Proactive Sports Agency, which will represent him for any NIL partnerships.

—Dre Davis appears to have inked some sort of deal with local clothing producer T-Shirt Hooligan.

Freshman Michael James has also partnered with the company.

—Also of note is that Joey Wagner has announced that he has resigned his position as U of L fan emcee, as well as his position as a professor at the school, because he’s launching s new sports marketing company designed to help local student-athletes build their brands in this new era.