Mocs Fans,
 
It is an exciting time to be a part of UTC Athletics, and I can't thank you enough for your continued support. We recently enjoyed conference championships in men's basketball, softball and soccer, along with individual titles in wrestling and women's golf. 
 
We also experienced record numbers in fundraising dollars, total donors and sponsorships.  Our ticket revenues are trending upwards, and this is all credit to those who support our student-athletes.
 
I am reaching out now to let you know about a new way you can support our student-athletes. You have all heard the term NIL when it comes to the current landscape of college athletics.  Name, Image and Likeness has opened many doors for our student-athletes and has the potential to do so much more.
 
I want to take a minute to point out of some of the things we are doing, along with new ways you can get involved with NIL and our student-athletes. 
 
In 2021, we launched our "All Aboard" program, designed to prepare Mocs student-athletes for success with the market's best resources. In a partnership with Opendorse. The All Aboard program empowers student-athletes to understand, build and protect their brands with the industry's leading education, marketing and compliance technology.
 
One of the unique pieces of the All Aboard program is the use of the Opendorse Ready education course.  With Ready, our student-athletes have access to the NIL Masterclass, an education series featuring experts on brand building, monetization and financial literacy from industry leaders including Instagram, Twitter, the Players' Tribune and Overtime.
 
We have embedded the NIL Masterclass into a first-year experience course (USTU1250) that all first-year student-athletes take.  The Mocs Academic Staff is also managing the implementation of the NIL Masterclass for all other student-athletes.
 
Another exciting part of All Aboard is our own NIL Marketplace, www.opendorse.com/chattanooga-mocs.  This is a platform where you can go directly to a student-athlete and partner with them to support your business.  Anything from a social media shoutout to a personal appearance can be arranged through the Marketplace.
 
We are also excited that Learfield's Mocs Sports Properties has entered into a sponsorship agreement with The FLOCK, a new, independent NIL collective supporting UTC student-athletes. Starting this week at our basketball games, you will see advertisements for The FLOCK. 
 
REP the C is another independent NIL collective supporting UTC student-athletes and it was one of the first collectives for any program at the FCS level. REP the C works mainly with our football student-athletes, while the FLOCK plans to work with all of our student-athletes. 
 
These NIL collectives are third-party entities that were independently established to create, develop and support NIL opportunities for UTC student-athletes. They pool funds from a wide array of donors and businesses to help arrange contracts, do promotional activities and perform other functions that help facilitate NIL deals. Meanwhile, Learfield's Mocs Sports Properties will continue to be the athletics' multimedia rights holder.
 
I know that there are a lot of questions surrounding NIL, so we have tried to put as much information as we can on GoMocs.com.  You can click here for our main NIL information page.  We will continue to add more information and communication as this new part of college athletics grows. 
 
In the meantime, I wanted you to hear from me on the importance of NIL opportunities for our student-athletes. It will be crucial for us in recruiting and retaining the best representatives of our University that we can.
 
With your help, we have enjoyed success in competition, in the classroom and fundraising. I know that if we all work together, we can make UTC the envy of all other institutions at our level when it comes to NIL opportunities for student-athletes. 
 
Go Mocs!
 
Mark T. Wharton,
Vice Chancellor and Director of Athletics