All-things NIL | Kristi Dosh

Yeah, so in 2020 when I knew that some of the state laws were coming, you know, California was the first, and then Florida and Colorado followed pretty quickly after.

As soon as it became kind of apparent to me that this is the direction we were headed, uh, I actually called an SEO coach.

Um, I already had my website businessofcollegesports.com, and it was the pandemic.

We were all sitting at home and had time on our hands, and so I called this SEO coach and I said, "When this comes online next year, I want to be-- I want my site to be like the place people go to to learn about NIL, and, like, how do we do that from an SEO perspective?" So people who don't know, SEO is search engine optimization.

I wanted when people googled NIL, they found my website.

Um, and I worked with her throughout the pandemic for the rest of 2020 and into early 2021 to sort of prepare the backend of my website for that, but also to strategize the type of things I would write about going forward.

And so I really wrote about NIL t- from the time it was announced all the way through us actually starting NIL in July of 2021.

I mean, by the time July rolled around, I had already been writing about it for months.

Um, and where-- what's interesting is I thought it would keep me busy for about six months.

I kept saying like, "I'm gonna write about only NIL for six months for Forbes, for my site, for anywhere else that I write.

I'm gonna ignore everything else happening in college sports and in pro sports, and I am only gonna write about NIL.

And then in like six months it's all gonna even out.

We're gonna know what it looks like.

It's gonna be old news, and then I'll go back to my regularly scheduled programming and I'll write about other things." And here we are more than five years later, and it is still the only thing that I write about and consult about and teach about and speak about.

[chuckles] So I don't know when it's gonna end, uh, but I don't think it's anytime soon.

Okay.

So if you tomorrow had to take a hiatus, what's one topic that you can't explore right now because you don't have the time, 'cause you're in such demand, that you would love to just dive into?

That's a good question.

Um, it's flag football.

[chuckles]

Oh, good.

I know virtually nothing about flag football, and I get these super interesting pitches in my inbox from people about the growth of flag football.

And then this summer I was at the NACDA convention and I was on two different panels with folks from campuses who were talking about the incredible experience they've had with flag football, and I just kept thinking like, "I have got to carve out time to learn more about flag football." And I even told my editor a few days ago so that she would hold me accountable, "I am going to carve out time in September to learn more about flag football and write about it a little bit." So now everybody listening to this can hold me accountable too.

[chuckles]

That's right.

Yeah, so in 2020 when I knew that some of the state laws were coming, you know, California was the first, and then Florida and Colorado followed pretty quickly after.

As soon as it became kind of apparent to me that this is the direction we were headed, uh, I actually called an SEO coach.

Um, I already had my website businessofcollegesports.com, and it was the pandemic.

We were all sitting at home and had time on our hands, and so I called this SEO coach and I said, "When this comes online next year, I want to be-- I want my site to be like the place people go to to learn about NIL, and, like, how do we do that from an SEO perspective?" So people who don't know, SEO is search engine optimization.

I wanted when people googled NIL, they found my website.

Um, and I worked with her throughout the pandemic for the rest of 2020 and into early 2021 to sort of prepare the backend of my website for that, but also to strategize the type of things I would write about going forward.

And so I really wrote about NIL t- from the time it was announced all the way through us actually starting NIL in July of 2021.

I mean, by the time July rolled around, I had already been writing about it for months.

Um, and where-- what's interesting is I thought it would keep me busy for about six months.

I kept saying like, "I'm gonna write about only NIL for six months for Forbes, for my site, for anywhere else that I write.

I'm gonna ignore everything else happening in college sports and in pro sports, and I am only gonna write about NIL.

And then in like six months it's all gonna even out.

We're gonna know what it looks like.

It's gonna be old news, and then I'll go back to my regularly scheduled programming and I'll write about other things." And here we are more than five years later, and it is still the only thing that I write about and consult about and teach about and speak about.

[chuckles] So I don't know when it's gonna end, uh, but I don't think it's anytime soon.

Okay.

So if you tomorrow had to take a hiatus, what's one topic that you can't explore right now because you don't have the time, 'cause you're in such demand, that you would love to just dive into?

That's a good question.

Um, it's flag football.

[chuckles]

Oh, good.

I know virtually nothing about flag football, and I get these super interesting pitches in my inbox from people about the growth of flag football.

And then this summer I was at the NACDA convention and I was on two different panels with folks from campuses who were talking about the incredible experience they've had with flag football, and I just kept thinking like, "I have got to carve out time to learn more about flag football." And I even told my editor a few days ago so that she would hold me accountable, "I am going to carve out time in September to learn more about flag football and write about it a little bit." So now everybody listening to this can hold me accountable too.

[chuckles]

That's right.