Mel Tucker of Michigan State dives into the world of NFTs
EAST LANSING – Third-year Michigan State coach Mel Tucker has already shown a mastery of building a high-level college football team and beating Michigan.
Now he shows that he is also at the forefront of something else: NFTs.
Tucker released a set of NFTs this month, called NFTuck, allowing fans to pick up a Michigan State collectible and gain behind-the-scenes access to the program while supporting charity. All proceeds from NFT sales will go to support the Boys & Girls Clubs of Southeastern Michigan.
For Tucker, the project was about diving into a new and evolving world to find out how it could benefit Michigan State’s players and program.
“I think it’s important to be able to show to our players that I understand the name, image and likeness, and I want to be a role model for them in terms of how to go about doing some things,” Tucker said. “When things are new, we’re going to attack them and we’re going to try to figure it out and see how we can take advantage of those things.
An NFT, short for non-fungible token, is a unique digital collectible, the ownership of which is documented in an online ledger called a blockchain. The NFTuck collection includes three types of NFTs: limited edition numbered coins (buyers receive both an NFT and a physical copy of the coin); Bowl Championship Ring, a unique image and digital animation of Michigan State’s Peach Bowl championship ring; and Tuck’s Shoe, an artistic rendering of a shoe worn by Tucker during a Michigan State game.
In addition to their digital asset, every NFTuck holder also gets a couple of other personal perks: passes to attend Michigan State practices during the 2022 season and access to video chats with Tucker throughout the season.
“This is really a ticket into the world of MSU football,” said Jeff Lambert, chairman of the public relations firm Lambert that helped organize the sale.
NFTs have exploded in popularity over the past two years from almost non-existent to a $3 billion marketplace, with sports collectibles making up a significant portion of that market.
This growth coincided with the NCAA changing its rules a year ago to allow college athletes to profit from their name, image and likeness.
Many people in college sports are now trying to marry NFTs and NILs to create opportunities for players. Beyond raising money for charity, Tucker said that with NFTuck, he hopes to “lay a blueprint” for how Michigan State athletes can use NFTs to maximize their NIL.
“Coach Tucker really believes it should be a student-athlete-led program, so he wanted to test the waters himself, and it’s going really well,” Lambert said. “The next step then would be to create a platform for student-athletes.”
And of course there is the recruiting angle. If a prospect’s family is interested in NFTs and how they can monetize college athletics, Tucker has something to point to.
“I think it’s important to show the parents and our prospects that we’re embracing things that are new and looking for ways to help our guys,” Tucker said.
Lambert said that as of the beginning of this week, more than 25 NFTs from NFTuck had been sold for dollar values between $400 and $900. The goal is to raise $50,000 for the Boys and Girls Clubs.
And the fundraising isn’t stopping anytime soon. Every time an NFT from the collection is resold in the future, a cut from that transaction will go to the Boys and Girls Clubs, generating revenue for the charity into the future.
“That’s the unique thing about NFTs is that there are actually built-in residual trading benefits that are really unique to charitable giving,” Lambert said.
