Q&A: Dan Beckler of Mass Strategies
The NIL fundamentally changed how Division I Athletics works. When we last spoke with KU Shams, he talked about how KU approaches the NIL from a donor perspective, and how that donor money is going into a couple different piles now. The rich are still rich, it’s true. But KU being aggressive with the NIL is something that will be an asset to the AD in the immediate future.
Last week, before KU trucked Houston, I talked with Dan Beckler, a former KUAD director who now runs Mass Strategies, KU’s NIL collective. We talked about the differences between the AD and the NIL collective, which KU hooper he’s excited to work with, KU FOOTBALL, and more. I’ve donated this week’s till to the Lawrence Humane Society, which does incredible work and has an incredible kitten popup.
What's the biggest shift coming over to Mass Street Strategies from the AD? What’s the day-to-day like? What aspects are different, and which are similar?
DAN BECKLER: I think the biggest difference now is that I can provide monetary value to the student athletes where I couldn't do that before. It’s just as simple as giving them money when they've done a social media post or did an interview or a charitable effort. So that's really the biggest change, because you obviously can’t do that in an athletic department.
I’ve been at this for almost two weeks now, officially. And I have a good understanding of the NIL landscape, as the NIL stuff took place within my first couple months at KU. I went with Chancellor Girod when he testified before Congress, just talking about NIL legislation and how it was needed. And it comes ineffectively in 2021 and and here we are. I just saw a need for the KU collective to keep moving forward and to keep making strong headwinds in this arena.
What’s the ideal scenario for an athlete and a partner to Mass Strategies? What’s the end goal in a partnership? How does an arrangement work out in reality?
DAN BECKLER: I think the biggest thing is there's a lot of student athletes that come from nothing. And this is a chance for them to really change the future of their family for generations.
So that’s what a partnership is, two sides benefitting one another. And, you know, the easy answer is there's a contract. There's contractual obligations that each party has to abide by. So that's what makes [a partnership] easy.
I don't think this is a really difficult space of trying to define sponsorships because, you know, we want to use our student athletes to help impact the community of Lawrence and this region. And there's plenty of businesses here that have struggled through COVID and they want to utilize the brands of Kansas and these student athletes, particularly our men's basketball team that just won the national championship.
We're gonna do a bunch of different things through charitable efforts too. RCJH is our nonprofit foundation. And so we're gonna get involved with organizations like the Lawrence Humane Society.
We gotta talk about the football team, which is absolutely on fire right now. What have the last two weeks been like? Who are people asking for? What are the challenges of football NIL stuff compared to basketball?
DAN BECKLER: There's certainly just a tremendous amount of buzz and energy. I went to Hawk Talk last night, you know, we have two players on each week. It was fun to see Rich Millar and Daniel Hishaw on there, and to see how many fans came there. And I mean, the place was packed. They started waving the wheat as they started the show—I’m getting chills just talking about it.
It's so exciting, but it, it's just cool to see how really just the community is really jumping in . But that doesn't automatically mean money's coming in left and right for the collective. It’s like, “Hey, we're continuing to have conversations,” and just saying, “Let’s introduce these student athletes and get them out in the public a little bit more, because frankly with football, it's hard to have that facial recognition when you have a helmet on the whole time. And there's over a hundred of them, so it’s hard.
A lot of what we will do next will probably be more pre-game programming, on the Hill tailgating, suite activities, things like that. It's just an ongoing conversation. It's fans are excited and it's great. And, uh, you know, we've got some great meetings with donors that were set up even before we went and became 2-0. So that’s a helpful piece to have in the back pocket.
Is there a school that’s done an NIL deal that made you think, “Wow, I wish that was us?”
DAN BECKLER: Absolutely. The great thing about the space is that you can absolutely copy ideas and at the end of the day, I want other collectives to copy our ideas.
A vision that I have for just where we can take this thing doesn’t involve anything too crazy. Instead I want people to think, “Wow, look at the impact their student athletes are having and how they're using NIL for good.” That's really the goal at the end of the day.
What I did a lot in week one is I reached out to a lot of owners of other collectives and just kind of talked to them about the good and bad. Some had only been in it for six months, eight months. I wanted to pick their brains and every single person I talked to said, “Hey, we're here to help. If we can do anything for you, let us know.” and that's what it's gonna take, right? We’re in month 15 of the NIL, and nobody knows what six months is gonna look like for now. So we're just focusing on the here-and-now, and partnering with other collectives so all ships rise together.
Is there a KU basketball player you’re really excited to work with this season?
DAN BECKLER: I guess I'm gonna have a hard time picking one out above another. The thing that I love about this team is they are all great young men across the board, top-to-bottom.They're awesome. And so that's what makes my job fun, right? If, if they're engaging and excited about this, then I'm gonna go work hard for them and try and find opportunities for them. It’s fun.
We put out some things on social media and we had a group of guys come out and do tailgating on the Hill. And it was really cool just to watch these guys, to see some of their personalities come to life because most of the time our fans don't get to see 'em in that capacity. it was fun to see Zach Clemence mess around with some kids and Kyle Cuffe trying to throw the football in some of these arcade games, and make it in the net. And you know, at the end of the day, they're young kids and they like to have fun. KJ Adams is a great kid. Ernest Udeh Jr. is really funny. It’s going to be fun to bring their personalities to life.
This conversation has been edited for brevity and clarity.