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BOULDER — University of Colorado athletic director Rick George announced Monday the creation of "Buffs with a Brand," a department program that will coordinate NIL (Name, Image and Likeness) programming for the school's student-athletes. "Buffs with a Brand" will provide this comprehensive program for student-athletes focusing on three key pillars: personal brand management, entrepreneurship and financial literacy. Programming will be created by industry professionals, academic units and the CU athletic departments, and will include workshops, videos, one-on-one meetings and mentor sessions. This programming will educate CU's student-athletes to be provided with the tools and resources to enable them to capitalize on their name, image and likeness given the NCAA legislation that takes effect in January 2021. The program will be open to all current CU student-athletes in the school's 17 intercollegiate sport programs. "'Buffs with a Brand' will be an extremely impactful program for all of our current and future student-athletes, George said. "Building a personal brand, and developing the skills to be a successful entrepreneur will help our student-athletes capitalize and build on their time at CU and beyond." Student-athletes can voluntarily participate in the program, creating cohorts. Each academic year cohort will complete the program from August through April within the academic year. Those who choose to participate will gain hands-on, real world experience in building their brand, developing their entrepreneurial skills and understanding finances. To complete the program, student-athletes must accomplish the following: Brand Management: develop their own personal brand and marketing plan; Entrepreneurship: create a mock company and pitch the key facets of the company to the cohort at the end of the semester; Financial Literacy: create profit & loss statements. The three pillars above will be complemented with a compliance session that will go over extensive "Do's and Don'ts." The effort will be coordinated by Lauren Unrein, CU's assistant director of the department's Scripps Leadership and Career Development Program. CU is partnering with Jeremy Darlow of Brands Win Championships, who is an experienced brand consultant to athletes, coaches and teams, and will participate in his program, "The Darlow Rules." The school has enlisted the services of Erick Mueller, an award winner adjunct professor and faculty director of Entrepreneurial Initiatives in CU's Leeds School of Business. "In deciding which Pac-12 school to admit into the program first, my focus centered on each university's mission as it relates to the future of their student athletes," Darlow said. "What became clear in our conversations is that the University of Colorado is committed to providing the tools necessary to set their athletes on a path for success in life after sports, making them the ideal partner." "Buffs with a Brand is going to blaze the trail and foster amazing entrepreneurial opportunities for our student-athletes," Mueller said. "I'm thrilled to be a part of it in supporting our students to create great value in the world from their athletic careers and beyond."
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