Students enrolled in Florida State University’s new NIL course are not studying athlete marketing through traditional tests and exams. Instead, they are building athlete brands, creating social media content, contacting businesses, and helping secure real NIL deals.
SPM 4931, or Special Topics in Sports Management, is being offered for the first time this fall through FSU’s Department of Sport Management. The course is taught by Kristopher White, a teaching faculty member whose work focuses on athlete branding, collegiate athletics, and NIL.
“I don’t even say that this is a class,” White said in an interview with the FSView. “This is the FSU NIL agency. This is more of a job than it is a class.”
Students build brands through real NIL work
In the class, students are placed into teams based on their skills and interests, with roles involving content creation, social media, law, strategy, and operations. Each team is assigned an athlete and works to develop that athlete’s brand and pursue business opportunities.
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“We’re actually building stuff,” White said. “It’s all about growth on social media, building a real brand, connecting with local businesses and national businesses, and getting real industry experience for everyone in the class.”
Students begin by developing an athlete brand profile and examining analytics such as reach, impressions, shares, and follower growth. They also create two content calendars, each requiring more than 20 Instagram posts within 30 days, and review the results to determine what performed well.
The work also takes students outside the classroom. During one class, the groups held a photo shoot for the athletes at Picked, a local Tallahassee business. Each team also contacts potential partners and works to turn those conversations into deals, events, or merchandise opportunities.
Graduate students gain hands-on industry experience
FSU sports management graduate student Grace Gerlach works in operations for a group that represents the agency as a whole. Her responsibilities include organizing contracts and contacting businesses on behalf of the athletes.
“I think a lot of times they just see these Instagram posts and think, ‘Oh, they just took a photo and posted it on Instagram,’” Gerlach said in an interview with the FSView. “But seeing behind the scenes of how that deal came to be, from the beginning of somebody reaching out on behalf of the athlete or as the athlete, to the completion of the deal, it’s been cool to see the whole process versus just the end product.”
Another FSU sports management graduate student, Lia Sorrentino, previously interned with two NIL agencies and enrolled to approach the industry from a different perspective. Her group manages the agency’s social media page, produces content, and conducts brand outreach, including 10 outreach emails every two weeks.
“This is big on consistency, especially in NIL, and the social media stuff — you need to do it every day,” Sorrentino said in an interview with the FSView. “You have to be on top of it.”
Sorrentino plans to attend law school and pursue a career in athlete representation. She said the course has strengthened her understanding of storytelling, social media hooks, and building an audience.
Victoria Cervantes Millan, also a graduate student studying sports management at FSU, brings experience with NIL from a student-athlete’s perspective. She works in operations, helping maintain her group’s calendar and connecting the students handling creative work with those pursuing deals.
“It has definitely expanded the way I see NIL,” Cervantes Millan said in an interview with the FSView. “I had the opportunity to see it from the business side of things — not just from the athlete perspective, but also from the business perspective.”
Course expands opportunities across FSU
Although the course currently works with volleyball players, White plans to include athletes from additional sports in future semesters.
“We’ve hit the ground running so fast,” White said. “Each athlete in the class at this point has multiple NIL deals, and each group is working on actualizing and activating those deals on social media, whether it’s an event or even merchandise.”
The NIL course is open to undergraduate, graduate, doctoral, and law students from any major. Since the class operates through specialized teams, students must apply and are selected based on their experience, interests, and potential roles.
White plans to offer the course every fall and spring and hopes it will attract applicants from across FSU. The course is expected to return in spring 2027, giving another group of students the opportunity to gain practical experience in the changing NIL industry.
“Once you leave the class, you have a blend of all of those skills because everything is collaborative,” White said. “You have real industry experience in each of those areas, whether it’s creating a contract, learning analytics on social media or partnership relationships.”
Valentina Vasconcellos is a Staff Writer for the FSView & Florida Flambeau, the student-run, independent online news service for the FSU community. Email our staff at contact@fsview.com.
This article originally appeared on FSU News: A new course at FSU has turned the classroom into a 'NIL agency'