Jim In The News

"ESPN looked at 10 key areas where the sport is in flux, and we identified 11 of the biggest power brokers, influencers and advocates driving those changes. We asked each of them about the current state of college football, the issues that brought us here and what the future might look like as the sport continues to evolve."

"When Jim Cavale operated a chain of Iron Tribe Fitness gyms from the company’s base in Birmingham, Ala., he found that one of its members was Greg Sankey, commissioner of the Southeastern Conference. One day they started talking about the case of Ed O’Bannon, who had won a years-long court fight with the NCAA over control of his name, image and likeness."

Teamworks, the rapidly growing Durham, N.C.-based sports tech firm, has finalized another series of acquisitions that will enhance the company’s product line and move it closer to becoming an all-encompassing source for athletic and academic performance. The acquisition of four companies -- Smartabase, Retain, Grafted and NextPlay -- will take Teamworks to more than 300 employees living and working across 10 countries, and build on what it calls the operating system for sports. Those four newly acquired businesses provide Teamworks with expertise in athletic and academic performance to go along with the company’s previous capabilities in team scheduling, communications, nutrition and other areas of importance for college and pro athletes.

"At SEC media days last week, so much time was spent talking about college football realignment and super leagues. Yet, the major players in the country’s most powerful conference had plenty to say on NIL. SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey let loose on the need for national legislation, threatening that the SEC may need to take matters into its own hands. Alabama head coach Nick Saban said his team made at least $3 million in NIL last season. And Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin did not shy away from his opinions on NIL collectives."

"Trent Dilfer was in Birmingham on Wednesday for the strangest of reasons. UAB introduced the former NFL quarterback as the head football coach of the Blazers."

"For the past four school years, college athletes have become accustomed to INFLCR, a mobile app that allows them to post photos of themselves playing in games on their social media feeds. By doing so, they can increase their visibility to a vast audience on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook beyond just their own campuses. Soon, if name, image and likeness (NIL) legislation is passed, those same athletes could use the app to make money off their popularity, as well."

"Meta reached a three-year partnership with Teamworks’ INFLCR content and compliance software platform for student-athletes aimed at enabling them to boost their name, image and likeness earnings potential across platforms including Facebook and Instagram."

"NIL continues to evolve at breakneck speed. Yet, there are groups and individuals that impacted Name, Image and Likeness more than others during its first 12 months. There are also important people that are shaping this category in real-time. One year into the ever-evolving new world of college sports, here is On3’s list of the top 25 most influential figures in NIL. These people shape what NIL is today and what it will be in the future."

Jim Cavale '00, and his daughter Sofia, President Matt Keough and Board Chair Chris Harrigan '90 cut the ribbon for the Cavale Family Strength and Conditioning Facility. Jim Cavale ’00 and his family, along with President Matt Keough, trustees, alumni, student-athletes, faculty, staff, and friends of CBA gathered on Friday, Sept. 9 for a ribbon cutting ceremony for the Cavale Family Strength and Conditioning Facility.

"Brand-building and NIL (name, image and likeness) business management software INFLCR reached a three-year exclusive partnership with TikTok."

"ESPN today announced a collaboration with INFLCR, the leading content and compliance software platform for elite athletics, preparing staff and student-athletes for opportunities and guidelines around Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL). Andscape, a multi-media platform dedicated to embracing and sharing the full range of Black culture and identity, and espnW, the multi-media brand serving the interests of female fans at the intersection of women, sports, and culture, are the first ESPN properties to have their own branded pages within the INFLCR app, serving as a content and communication hub with direct access to INFLCR’s Global Exchange database."

"Former Rutgers guard Geo Baker spent the final summer of his college basketball career last year preparing for post-student life. He launched a clothing line, set up basketball camps and Cameo accounts and started learning to invest."

"LOS ANGELES, February 08, 2022--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jim Cavale, the Founder & CEO of INFLCR, the nationwide leader in collegiate athlete brand-building, joined two of the co-founders of Engage, a web-based platform designed to digitize the process of booking high profile athletes and celebrities for anything from speaking engagements to once-in-a-lifetime experiences, gathered for a spirited discussion on the NIL movement in college sports on the Impact Podcast with John Shegerian. The show is hosted by Shegerian, Chairman/CEO of ERI, the nation’s leading fully integrated IT and electronics asset disposition provider and cybersecurity-focused hardware destruction company."

"The southeast holds a longstanding tradition of being the heartbeat of college football. In particular, the state of Alabama has long been home to some of the sport’s biggest powerhouse names. As the sport is currently experiencing dramatic changes such as the newly instituted policy of name, image and likeness (NIL), conference realignment, the transfer portal and playoff expansion, a handful of voices have risen to the top of these discussions."

"INFLCR, a content and compliance software solution for college athletic programs, is sharing data from its platform that gives us some insight into the role school-specific support organizations—often referred to as “collectives”—currently play in the name, image and likeness landscape."

"A first-round draft pick from a Power 5 school, let alone a QB of the caliber of Kyler and Trevor, is going to have a $4 [million] to $5 million off-the-field opportunity," said Jim Cavale, the founder and CEO of INFLCR, a content platform for elite athletics.

“Schools have shifted from being compliance-driven to more of a coach-driven mindset, and a lot of that comes from the schools being able to make up their own rules,” said Jim Cavale, CEO and founder of INFLCR, an NIL agency. “Coaches are like, ‘What the heck, I’ve got to recruit.’ So, with that comes mayhem inside the schools.”

"A weekly podcast during the season would be a natural fit for the son of Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim. The rising senior is working through NIL specialist INFLCR. His total revenue so far was not available because a few more deals are in the works." “Buddy personifies what I want other athletes to see, when it comes to NIL,” said INFLCR founder & CEO Jim Cavale, who emphasized that INFLCR does not receive any money from the athletes or the companies involved.

"While Thursday, July 1 was a momentous break from the principle of amateurism that has defined college sports throughout its existence, for INFLCR app CEO Jim Cavale, someone who has prepared years for the moment in sports history, it was more of a dog-and-pony show." "The reality is, it's the first day of a multi-decade marathon, it's not the end all be all," Cavale, a former college baseball player in Alabama, tells CowboysSI.com. "It reminded me of a press conference when a new coach gets hired. Everyone wants to judge if it was a good decision or not and how many games he will win or lose ... I don't want to call it overhyped because it's a big deal for the student-athlete but July 1st was a marketing event."

"The reality is, [making money off NIL opportunities] is just like anything else," said Jim Cavale, CEO of the content-providing software platform INFLCR (pronounced "influencer"). "What you put in is what you get out. Any student-athlete who thinks this is just going be an automatic windfall of revenue, is insane."

“All of a sudden, a product we had been selling since 2017 (is attracting a new wave of interest),” INFLCR CEO Jim Cavale said. “It was now top of mind because of (NCAA) legislation being announced. And so it's created a great deal of urgency."

Soon, Cameo will launch a tab within its sports vertical that will allow users to book messages from college players for free before making the services paid once the NCAA’s name, image and likeness legislation is officially enacted in the fall. INFLCR will assist by connecting their clients with Cameo.

Branding, a ubiquitous buzz word, will be important for college athletes who hope to cash in on their Name, Image, Likeness (NIL) once the NCAA permits the practice.

Cavale said INFLCR collects data about each athlete’s social media posts. Athletes can then use those numbers to pitch the reach of their “brand” to prospective advertisers.

“We have this database of who the athletes are, what their social media handles are, how many followers they have, how much they post, how much engagement they get per post,” Cavale said. “All that data is inside INFLCR, so now there are opportunities for an advertiser to be able to see all the different data-based entries and be able to put opportunities directly in front of the student-athlete. It’s a natural progression for our company.”

Fuller had approximately 1,000 Instagram followers before she joined Vanderbilt football. That total sprang to 140,000 in a week, said Jim Cavale, CEO of INFLCR, a software platform for teams and athletes. Cavale made the projection above on the value of her social media posts increasing 12,500%. Fuller's annual projected social media earnings went from $2,969 to $157,257, according to Lawrence.

"Most of the opportunity you create for yourself on social is from what you do on the field. Things that actually happen," said Cavale. "You have to be ready for it. The biggest thing with her is she was ready for it. She had a very well put together Instagram where she had been posting."

“Tens of thousands of athletes [have] shared hundreds of thousands of posts through our platform to grow their audience and engagement on social media,” INFLCR CEO Jim Cavale said in an interview. “We know that’s also growing their NIL value, but we’ve never been able at the college level to help them actually realize that value because it’s not been allowed.”

Cavale said the new legislation will change the college landscape, and INFLCR’s role in it. The Cameo deal was done in anticipation of those developments. “We not only can be involved on the front end, doing the brand building that we do with student athletes,” he said, “but [also] in the back end by bringing … tangible monetary NIL opportunities directly to them.”

Though Cunningham won't be able to make money from the audience he's building on social media this year -- that time appears to be coming soon -- INFLCR has prepared schools and players to engage in a discussion that was previously taboo within college sports.

"In 2017, when I first started, 90% of the people wouldn't take a meeting with me," said Jim Cavale, founder of INFLCR, which works with more than 80 collegiate programs to provide licensed content and education about the power of social media.

"...young athletes are now able to begin the process of building and promoting their personal brands much sooner than ever before thanks to the power of social media. Bronny James, the son of LeBron James, currently has 3.8 million followers on Instagram. Recent UCLA alum and star gymnast, Katelyn Ohashi, has 1 million followers.

On the first session of Day 2 at the conference, Jim Cavale (CEO of INFLCR) spoke of the importance tied to giving student-athletes easier and better access to content they are part of (be it photos or videos of them in action)."

Certainly, such access makes life easier for student athletes trying to build a personal brand. However, Cavale argued that since many of the student-athlete’s social media pages draw more eyeballs than social media accounts tied to the athlete’s team or athletics department, allowing the students better access to their own content could boost the marketing value for the athletics department as a whole."

"Teamworks, the leading athlete engagement platform for collegiate and professional organizations, announced today an investment in INFLCR, the premium social media content delivery platform in sports. Teamworks' investment will create the infrastructure for INFLCR to continue its rapid growth in the athletics industry, from its Birmingham, Alabama, headquarters."

"INFLCR Founder & CEO JIM CAVALE believes that time is the most important asset. Thus, he schedules and scripts out his day to the minute in his calendar, so that when he wakes up before the sun, he already has a script for all he wants to accomplish.

Cavale takes time every morning to think about his larger purpose, and then lives his personal life and runs INFLCR -- a SaaS platform which helps colleges, sports teams and athletes store, track and deliver content -- in accordance with that larger purpose. Recently, he carved out some time to talk THE DAILY through a jam-packed Monday."

Schools would be wise to combine their players’ social media power with their own accounts, giving advertisers or sponsors much greater reach for their dollar, said Jim Cavale, founder of the INFLCR company, which works with teams at Duke, Miami, Oregon, Auburn, and dozens of other schools that want to help athletes promote their brands on social media.

Cavale said such exposure “becomes just as valuable, if not more valuable, than the stadium signage.”

“Becoming part of the Teamworks family is a strong culture fit, as both companies were founded by former collegiate student-athletes who share a strong vision to serve and empower athletes,” said Jim Cavale, Founder and CEO of INFLCR. “The shared athlete-first DNA reinforces our mutual goal to deliver best-in-class technology solutions across the industry. We’ve enjoyed rapid growth since our inception, which will only be accelerated by the support and network Teamworks has to offer.”

"INFLCR is a more recent entrant into the athlete social media promotion market. So far, it has concentrated just on college teams and their athletes. INFLCR has about 70 colleges signed up, with over 10,000 active users, including current and former college athletes, 300 of whom are now playing in either the NFL or NBA. Like opendorse, INFLCR charges the teams, not the athletes. But INFLCR is trying to deliver a different kind of value to its clients, according to the CEO Cavale. INFLCR works with teams that have not only game videos and pictures, but also pictures from practices and other settings. The company also has a rights deal with USA Today for its clients to use its photos and is working with broadcasters to obtain similar rights. During the 2019 NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments, more than 350 players used the INFLCR platform, posting more than 1,400 times, thereby reaching millions of followers on Instagram and Twitter, according to the company."

"INFLCR was founded in 2017 by Jim Cavale, a former college baseball player who felt NCAA athletes were losing out on a golden opportunity to leverage their stardom. Schools pay between $10,000 and $50,000 per year for the service, and in return athletes receive approved content on their phones right after a game or practice. The service uses the professional cameramen that schools already employ.

“Athletic departments are often so focused on the return on investment, which to them means ticket sales or merchandise sales,” Cavale said. “Our service is a different kind of play. This is about recruiting, reaching a wider audience, and a better student-athlete experience. It’s a bit more abstract.”

Schools are coming around to the idea. Kentucky bought the Snell Yeah trademark and website, then transferred both to the running back after he left school. Guy Ramsey, who oversees the Wildcats’ website and social media, said the department’s approach has evolved over the past few years to become more collaborative. The school understands that its athletes reach an audience that the Wildcats' accounts often miss."