the dark side of the portal

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Coastal Carolina’s first NIL collective is closing. Why it could hurt CCU going forward

Ben Morse

4–5 minutes

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CMC - Sports

Coastal Carolina University’s first name, image and likeness collective for CCU football will be no more by the end of 2023, dealing a blow to CCU’s continuing efforts to compete at the national level.

The Teal Collective announced via social media that it would close at the end of the year.

“I regret to inform you that The Teal Collective will be ceasing operations effective 12/31/23. We have been working with the university the past few months to find a suitable replacement; however, to date nothing has materialized,” The Teal Collective announced via X. “As of today, all subscriptions have been canceled and there will be no further donations accepted. We appreciate your support of Coastal Football and The Teal Collective over the past 2 seasons!”

The closure is a setback for CCU’s football program. One of the biggest incentives in order to recruit players and retain talent in the modern college landscape, is through NIL deals for student-athletes.

NIL collectives like the Teal Collective also serve as a deterrent for players to enter the NCAA Transfer Portal, but without a functioning collective, Coastal will be at a disadvantage compared to its Sun Belt Conference rivals and other programs and could hinder the program’s growth for the future.

The collective was formed by three CCU football alumni, Brian Kepple, Patrick Hall and Maurice Simpkins.

Part of the collective’s work was securing NIL deals for CCU football players, but the organization also sold subscriptions and merchandise including jerseys. In an interview with The Sun News in August, Teal Collective co-founder and CCU football alumni Patrick Hall said the collective’s goal was to help the university make sure every football player was involved and provide the football program some protection from the Transfer Portal.

“The ideal goal is to have every player receiving something on the team; we want to protect our roster; that is the number one thing we want to do for our athletics program,” Hall said in August.

Hall also said Executive Director for Football Joe Moglia and Head Football Coach Tim Beck were supportive of the collective, and he added the subscription model was a good way to do this. With the shuttering of the Teal Collective, no more donations will be received.

He added one of the biggest challenges for the collective has been getting donations from Coastal alumni.

“If you go to Alabama, you go to Oklahoma, they have hundreds of years of history where they have donor bases from established individuals ... if you think about it, coastal is really dealing with a bunch of, you know, mid-30s, maybe early 40 guys who are still in the process of building their wealth, and their livelihood,” Hall said in August. “The alumni has been a challenge. It hasn’t been as easy as I thought. I thought there would be a little bit more support from them on that basis, but it really hasn’t come to fruition.”

Coastal does have a baseball NIL Collective, The Legacy 14 Collective, which has signed several members of the Chants baseball team.

The collective inked several deals for CCU players during its existence, including Quarterback Grayson McCall’s deal with the Conway Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram car dealership.

Ben Morse is the Retail and Leisure Reporter for The Sun News. Morse covers local business, Coastal Carolina University and high school sports. Morse previously worked as an intern for The Island Packet covering local government. Morse graduated from American University in 2023 with a Bachelor’s Degree in journalism and economics, and he is originally from Prospect, Kentucky.