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The move is being made in anticipation of schools being allowed to pay college athletes directly.
Louisville baseball: Dan McDonnell on winning NCAA Regional Opener
Louisville baseball coach Dan McDonnell gives an opening statement after defeating East Tennessee State in the NCAA Regional Opener.
- 502Circle will use relationships with sports agencies like CAA, Klutch Sports Group and Excel Sports Management to continue assisting Louisville coaches with roster construction.
- If the House settlement goes through, the NIL market will be more heavily monitored by a clearinghouse. All deals exceeding $600 will have to be reported to and pass through the clearinghouse.
- Since 502Circle became the official collective of Louisville Athletics in 2023, five U of L sports teams have rose to, returned to or maintained national relevance. “We freaking crushed it.”
502Circle, the official collective of University of Louisville Athletics since 2023, will be absorbed by U of L and turned into a marketing agency, president Dan Furman told The Courier Journal.
Furman said his group will use relationships with sports agencies like CAA, Klutch Sports Group and Excel Sports Management to continue assisting Louisville coaches with roster construction. Otherwise, 502Circle will lean into its creative content arm, Floyd Street Media, and local business partnerships to help athletes grow their brands and maximize earning potential outside of revenue-sharing contracts with U of L, which are scheduled to start July 1.
“I still think the functionalities are gonna be pretty similar,” Furman said of pre- and post-July 1 502Circle. “It’s just gonna have more layers to it.”
This move is being done in anticipation of schools being allowed to pay college athletes directly. The House v. NCAA settlement, which received preliminary approval from Judge Claudia Wilken in October, would provide $2.8 billion in back damages to athletes who could not profit off their name, image and likeness between 2016 and Sept. 15, 2024 and bring revenue sharing to college sports starting July 1 with a projected cap for 2025-26 of $20.5 million per school.
“The contracting party with these athletes, as Dan talked about, has been 502,” Andrew Brandt, strategic advisor to Louisville Athletics and former Green Bay Packers vice president, told The Courier Journal. “That’s what we have, and we respect that, and are continuing that through July 1. From that point on, it’ll be more of a marketing-focused agency along with Floyd Street Media to make sure we’re providing the best opportunities outside of the rev-share agreement for our players.
“… We’re confident that role can be filled here by the collective, which may again turn into a different name or different type of entity going forward.”
Louisville athletics director Josh Heird has “a lot of confidence” that Wilken will approve the agreement, but she has yet to issue a decision since the final approval hearing April 7. Should Judge Wilken deny the settlement, U of L will likely pay athletes anyway as permitted by Kentucky Senate Bill 3.
“That’s probably the path we would go down,” Heird told The Courier Journal at ACC spring meetings last month. “Just from the standpoint of the more control you can have of the situation, the better. It’s been a little bit disjointed with outside entities, collectives, doing things. So I would presume that’s the road we would go down.”
If the House settlement goes through, the NIL market will be more heavily monitored by a Deloitte-operated clearinghouse called “NIL go.” All deals exceeding $600 will have to be reported to and pass through the clearinghouse starting three days after the settlement is approved. The clearinghouse is intended to assess athletes’ fair market value.
Officials from Deloitte have been sharing data with athletics directors and coaches over the last month or so, including:
Those numbers are a far cry from the millions collectives have reportedly spent on athletes over the last four years or so. Restricting compensation in this way feels, to some, like a step backward.
Louisville is adjusting by further emphasizing partnerships with businesses based in Louisville (like Buffalo Construction, The Galt House, L&N Federal Credit Union, Tom Drexler Plumbing, Angel’s Envy and Glow Brands) and upping athlete deliverables.
“(The clearinghouse) won’t necessarily impact how we spend,” Furman said. “It’s gonna impact how we operate. So we’ll just have to be more diligent with the reporting process. We’ll have to be more diligent with the deal structure. Like, make sure that what the athlete is doing for the money is more elaborate.”
Since 502Circle became the official collective of Louisville Athletics in 2023, five U of L sports teams have rose to, returned to or maintained national relevance.
Cardinals volleyball played for a national championship in 2024. Baseball will play in its first super regional since 2022 this weekend after missing three of the last four NCAA Tournaments. Football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball are all in ESPN’s way-too-early preseason top-25 polls.
As the revenue-sharing era of college sports looms, schools across the country are still trying to figure out what it’ll look like. But 502Circle and the University of Louisville have experience navigating uncharted territory en route to success.
“We freaking crushed it the last few years,” Furman said. “Like, has it been rocky? Yeah, 100%. Everyone’s trying to figure out the rules, trying to figure out what’s going on. But, golly, have we crushed it.”
Reach college sports enterprise reporter Payton Titus at ptitus@gannett.com, and follow her on X @petitus25.
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