Illini Guardians In The News

Pinkie Promise: A Behind the Scenes View of the Illini Guardians Watch Party event

Feb 7, 2023 | IlliniBoard

By Robert | Feb 3, 2023. I get on the bus and I immediately feel the need to let the players know I'm not a narc. There's ten guys all between the ages of 19-23 and then some random 50 year-old (me) riding with them. I know several of the players from interviewing them in the past, and the last thing I want is for...

Daily Digest | NIL event with fans ‘something special’ for Illini football players.

Feb 4, 2023 | Illini Inquirer

By JEREMY WERNER Jan 30, 12:01 AM Ten Illinois football players were paid on Saturday to attend a watchparty with Illinois fans. Organized by the Illini Guardians collective, the Illini players were bused from Champaign to Chicago to meet and greet about 350 Illinois fans gathered at Joe’s On Weed Street to watch the...

What’s fair game? Inside another surprising year of name, image, likeness.

Jan 20, 2023 | The News Gazette

By Ethan Simmons, The News Gazette. Photo by: Robin Scholz/The News-GazetteThe last year has proved a few of NIL's possibilities. It's grown and started businesses, been the basis of college-level courses, and as many argue, become a necessary recruitment tool. CHAMPAIGN — After losing the commitment of a highly touted...

Name, Image, and Lots of money: HoopsHD interviews the Illini Guardians NIL collective

Sep 22, 2022 | HoopsHD

HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel commences our coverage with the Illini Guardians NIL collective, who discussed what the group is about and what it has accomplished so far.

ILLINI FOOTBALL LINEMEN USE NIL OPPORTUNITES TO “HELP TACKLE HUNGER” IN STATEWIDE FOOD DRIVE

Sep 13, 2022 | Press Release

The “Help Tackle Hunger” program was the brainchild of Illinois alumni, John and Bonnie Dauer, who were determined to use the new name, image and likeness (NIL) possibilities to boost the competitive edge for Illini football while bringing attention to a statewide community crisis.

NIL IMPACT LAUNCH – OPEN LETTER FROM JOSH WHITMAN, ATHLETIC DIRECTOR

Aug 26, 2022 | News Article

I would like to introduce NIL Impact, a new Division of Intercollegiate Athletics campaign where we are asking everyone to support NIL engagements for Fighting Illini student-athletes.

ILLINI GUARDIANS SUBSCRIPTION MODEL LAUNCH

Aug 17, 2022 | Press Release

Illini Guardians NIL collective launches subscription program to support University of Illinois Fighting Illini student-athletes.

NIL, THE NCAA, AND THE NEW REALITY OF COLLEGE ATHLETICS

Jul 21, 2022 | FightingIllini.com

“Ultimately, we need to make sure we maintain certain core principles: integrity, competitive fairness, education,” Whitman said. “Those are all things that have to be central to what we do. But we have to get to a more progressive place, and we have to get to a place of stability and legal high ground where we can feel confident in our future. I’m hopeful that as a group of schools, we will do that in the months and years ahead.”

SPORTS ILLUSTRATED EXAMINES NIL AT YEAR 1, INCLUDING ILLINI GUARDIANS PERSPECTIVE

Jul 12, 2022 | Sports Illustrated

“What is it that you want your university experience to be and what is it that you want collegiate amateurism to be?” asked Adam Fleischer a founder of the University of Illinois collective, the Illini Guardians. “If you believe that it’s simply a vehicle for a stepping stone for the pros, then you’re going to see NIL and the NIL world as a much more commercial endeavor. But if you look at it and say that kids come to the university to learn to get an education, to be a part of a community and to figure out how to interact with the world around them, then NIL has a very different feel to it. It’s much more of a teaching mechanism and a community opportunity that is interwoven with commercial benefit.”

‘WE WANT TO REALLY LEAN INTO NIL’: ILLINI PROACTIVE, PROGRESSIVE IN EMBRACE OF APPROACH TO YEAR ONE NIL

Jul 1, 2022 | Illini Inquirer

“While you saw instances where there were two or three well-heeled donors funding some massive NIL program– for Illini Guardians we saw and continue to see the groundswell of your everyday people who have been sitting on the sidelines and in the woodwork for decades wanting to come forward and help with what we’re creating. This is it. It is amazing to see and kind of humbling.”