What’s NIL price for Fresno State to attract Pac-12 players? $6.5 million a year
Marcus McMaryion, the former Fresno State quarterback, got a chance to swing the golf clubs last weekend. That was not the only highlight for McMaryion, who now runs the Name Image and Likeness (NIL) collective called Bulldog Bread. It raises money for the university’s student-athletes.
In hosting Bulldog Back 9, a golf fundraiser that was set up inside Valley Children’s Stadium, he noticed a subtle-yet-perceptible and badly-needed shift, he told The Bee, as fans and donors took their hacks from tee boxes set up around the concourse; some holes playing 60 rows downhill.
Most affirming for McMaryion was the turnout. He saw some faces he was not familiar with, heard some names he did not know.
“It was kind of cool. I think we’re starting to reach a broader audience, not just your die hard Fresno State fans,” he said. “We reached the golf enthusiasts and Fresno State alumni who maybe don’t have roots in athletics, but they’re Fresno State alumni and they thought it was cool to golf in the stadium. We were able to get them some awareness of what Bulldog Bread is and how important NIL is. That has been a primary focus for us.”
Fresno State will need every one of those donors. The Bulldogs’ football program, an athletics department source who asked to be anonymous told The Bee, is looking to raise around $4 million to $5 million annually to retain and recruit players and be competitive with its peers in the Pac-12. The basketball program is trying to get to $1.5 million.
The NCAA approved allowing athletes to profit from their name, image and likeness through endorsements, personal appearances and merchandising in 2021. Former Fresno State women’s basketball players Haley and Hanna Cavinder were among the first to take full advantage, parlaying a large social media presence into deals with national brands including Boost Mobile. But on a local level, Fresno State has been playing catch up.
It is the reality now in college athletics and whether or not the Fresno State fan base is ready and willing, gifts and particularly major gifts that go toward retaining and recruiting players will be vitally important to a program’s success, just as important perhaps as any third-down play call. Those donors and the players that a well-funded program will be able to retain and recruit will be separators, particularly in non-power conferences like the Mountain West and Pac-12.
“The top five to 10 contributions each year are crucial for fundraising and competitive success.” said Jason Penry, founder of Penry Advisors, a consulting firm focused on NIL and college athletics fundraising. “There is broad agreement that major gifts still drive a majority of NIL revenue. Most estimates place their share at 70-80% of total NIL funding.
“In this new revenue-sharing era, major gift donors will continue to lead the way. Because of the fungible nature of operating budgets, ultimately more unrestricted supporter funding equals more money to invest in a winning program. As one leader recently said to me, donor support may be the last truly open-ended revenue stream available.”
The importance of those donors, Penry said, cannot be overstated.
Fresno State, and a donations gap
But it has been a challenge for Fresno State, where for decades a donation to the scholarship fund and buying season tickets were enough to fuel a winning football program.
Fresno State has lots of ground to make up, judging from contributions to its athletics department.
Among the seven football-playing schools committed to a rebuilding Pac-12 next fall, Fresno State ranked last in contributions to athletics in 2024 at $7.4 million, which includes $2 million in-kind donations at market value such as dealer-provided automobiles, equipment or services.
That revenue went to operating expenses, not to players.
Oregon State, at the top of the conference, reported $16.8 million in contributions on the revenue and expense report it submitted to the NCAA. Boise State reported $15.7 million.
That is a significant gap for Fresno State to cut into and now its fan base is being asked to embrace NIL, with revenue sharing on its way. It is a bill that will come due every year, for coach Matt Entz and the Bulldogs staff when looking to upgrade the roster.
McMaryion broke it down to its simplest: If you have two job offers and one of them comes with insurance and benefits and the other one doesn’t, which will most people take?
A changing landscape for college football
“It’s not that the kids are being greedy or selfish or anything like that. It’s the landscape of college football,” McMaryion said.
NIL, he said, has raised the bar for every program in the country.
“Fundraising strategies in college athletics have undergone a notable shift,” Penry said. “For decades, fundraisers led with stories about ‘athlete impact’ to inspire donor support. Today, however, large NIL payments and the constant movement enabled by the transfer portal have changed donor motivations. Support at the highest level is now driven less by personal connections to athletes and more by a desire to fuel competitive success.
“In programs that have fully embraced the new realities, top NIL contributors increasingly view their investments as a way to amplify the university’s most visible marketing engine: athletics.”
McMaryion tried to tap into and nurture that with the Bulldog Back 9. It was a building block for the collective; an opportunity to engage with participants paying $79 for a loop around Valley Children’s Stadium with pitching wedges and short irons in hand. One group, a foursome, did. Twice. They finished their round, added up the scores, and found the only non-regular golfer in the group somehow had the low score.
“They said, ‘How much do we have to pay to go again? There’s no way we’re going to let him win,’” McMaryion said.
So off they went, again.