Michigan announces new in-house NIL executive general manager

Plenty of folks have wanted Michigan NIL programs to take a bigger step forward and the University appears to have taken another step making a big-time hire to assist with NIL.

After a partnership was announced between Michigan and Altius Sports Partners recently, there was talk of an in-house position that could essentially be the general manager for Michigan NIL. This is the realization of that and the hire is Terese Whitehead, who is an “expert in brand building.”

Inbox: Michigan athletics names new in-house executive GM for NIL. pic.twitter.com/UmoYiDnrao

— Aaron McMann | MLive.com (@AaronMcMann) May 8, 2024

She’s also a Michigan alum. Coming from the NFL, she’s got extensive experience building brands and was the Vice President of Consumer Products and Strategy for the NFL Players Inc. the for-profit arm of the NFLPA.

According to the release, Whitehead will “spearhead Michigan’s NIL program in her new role, leading the department’s strategy and to provide athletes with comprehensive support.”

What this means for Michigan football and other programs

All of that sounds great. Michigan NIL has improved greatly and the collectives are in much better shape in terms of funding than they were at this time a year ago.

The Michigan football team was able to retain most of its players despite the departure of Jim Harbaugh. Also despite huge offers from other programs to get those players into the portal.

In terms of Michigan football and basketball, I’m not sure how much this will move the needle. If the philosophy is still “transformational not transactional” then Michigan football is going to miss out on some recruits. That’s just the way it is.

Michigan has to come up with something to sell high school recruits. I’m not saying promises of millions of dollars but the high school recruiting strategy for NIL needs to improve.

Otherwise, Michigan fooball and frankly basketball too can forget about five-star talents. The Wolverines haven’t signed any five-stars since the 2022 class and haven’t really come close.

So hopefully, this new general manager will lead to some changes in the way Michigan NIL operates because even though it’s improved a lot, the Wolverines are still fighting with one hand tied behind their back compared to programs like Ohio State, Alabama, and Oregon.

That makes the fact that Jim Harbaugh won a national title with Michigan football even more impressive.

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