NIL Message from John Wildhack

Orange Nation,

Happy New Year. I hope you and your families had a great holiday season. Best wishes from all of us for a healthy and prosperous 2023.

There's never been a more dynamic time in college sports. At Syracuse, our mission is to provide each student-athlete with the best experience possible. Support from our donors and fans is critical to fulfilling that mission.

Eighteen months ago college sports changed with the introduction of Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL). Syracuse Athletics supports our student-athletes in this endeavor. We have worked to educate student-athletes and their parents on the intricacies of NIL, including financial literacy courses. Dave Meluni, Professor in the David B Falk School of Sport Management, and a renowned expert on NIL had a weekly workshop for student-athletes in the fall semester and will do in the spring as well. We launched the Syracuse Accelerate program, an online platform which allows businesses, local, regional or national, to connect with individual student-athletes.

NIL provides new opportunities for our student-athletes… and new ways our donors and fans can support them. Any company or organization can have a student-athlete represent them in a variety of ways including, commercials, in person appearances or on social media platforms. You can learn more by logging on to cuse.com/accelerate. I am happy to report that companies that are working or have worked with our student-athletes have been delighted by the results. Our young men and women have proven to be terrific ambassadors for companies and helped grow their businesses.

Besides working directly with our student-athletes you can support them by contributing to the 315 Foundation and Athletes Who Care. These organizations work with our student athletes and local charities of choice, including the Samaritan Center and Boys and Girls Club. Our student-athletes benefit as does the Central New York Community. Log onto 315Foundation.org to learn more on how you can directly participate. Every donation is impactful and can be directed to the sport and student-athlete of the donor's choice. Your donation is tax deductible.

At Syracuse we are committed to providing a best-in-class experience for our student-athletes. A robust NIL program will make us more competitive and allow our teams to compete for and win national championships.

Syracuse Athletics has a long and storied tradition of excellence competitively and academically. Just over a month ago our men's soccer team won the National Championship. It brought great pride to alumni, donors, fans and the Central New York community. Our goal is to create more of those memories for you and Orange fans worldwide.

Go Orange!

John Wildhack
Director of Athletics

Syracuse University Athletics

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