Through a new partnership between industry leader Opendorse and Northern Illinois University Athletics, Huskie student-athletes will be empowered to enhance their name, image and likeness (NIL) opportunities, NIU Vice President and Director of Athletics and Recreation Sean T. Frazier announced Wednesday.

The leading technology provider in the athlete endorsement industry, Opendorse is used by more than 75,000 athletes to build and monetize their brands in the NIL era. The platform serves the full cycle of supporting athletes: educating, assessing, planning, sharing, creating, measuring, tracking, disclosing, regulating, listing, browsing, booking and more.

“This partnership with Opendorse will provide Huskie student-athletes with a comprehensive platform that will connect them to NIL opportunities, with easy access to the tools so important in this new age of NIL,” Frazier said. “With the recent changes to the Illinois law regarding NIL, we’re pleased to be able to offer NIU student-athletes increased support in this area through Opendorse.”

Student-athletes from all every Huskie sports program will have the opportunity to create, develop and build their individual Opendorse profile customized to their various interests, needs and projects, which includes their social media channels and other NIL endeavors. Within the Opendorse app, student-athletes can review opportunities, receive deals, accept compensation and disclose NIL activities to their institution through their access to Opendorse’s NIL platform, which provides compliance, content and education tools.

Compliance: upon completing NIL deals, athletes can automatically disclose activity details to their institution to ensure eligibility.

Content: athletes receive on-demand access to share photos and videos from games, practices and more. Athletes can also receive content suggestions from their teams, encouraging fan engagement, fundraising initiatives, ticket sales and more.

Education: athletes receive in-person and on-demand virtual education sessions from industry leaders at companies including Meta, Overtime, Players’ Tribune and more.

The Opendorse platform will be available to NIU student-athletes and staff beginning in August. In addition, a community event is being planned for August for local businesses interested in learning more about NIL partnerships.