Collegiate Sports Marketing

Volume 1, No. 1
Online ISSN: 3071-0898

© The authors. This article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons 4.0 License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Collegiate Sports Marketing

CONFERENCE ABSTRACT

Jack Welch* and Navpreet S. Pooni⁺

School of Business and Innovation, Barton College, Wilson, NC, USA
*Student author, ⁺Faculty mentor

CITATION

Welch, Jack; & Pooni, Navpreet S. (2026). Collegiate sports marketing [Conference abstract]. Barton Journal, 1(1), 164. https://bartonjournal.org/vol-1-no-1/2026-cat4-article-no-021

Abstract

Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) policies have significantly altered the landscape of collegiate athletics, especially at the Division II level, yet they are under-researched. This study aims to investigate the impact of NIL opportunities and marketing at Division II football programs, with a particular focus on a supposed correlation between increased spending on marketing and NIL. Data was collected with a structured survey distributed to Division II programs across multiple institutions, including Barton and peer colleges. The survey was designed to gather statistics on the NIL and marketing funding and the amount of staff and resources provided, and then compared that to the success of the football program at that institution. It was hypothesized that with an increase in spending and resources in these areas, there would be an increase in the success and prestige of the institution’s football team. The anticipated findings of this study are expected to contribute to a deeper understanding of how NIL and marketing affect Division II football programs, and how they should be managed and used by Barton College to improve its own program.

Keywords: name image and likeness (NIL), NCAA Division II, football

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