Marc D’Amelio is making sure that UConn does not get left behind in an era where NIL money has a direct correlation to success in sports. The 55-year-old entrepreneur and local politician is the father to social media personalities Charli and Dixie D’Amelio.
He is also a crucial piece to the future of Huskies athletics.
Having the D’Amelio name attached to the university is a very big deal. Both in terms of status— and finances.
Charli, the younger sister, has about 45 million followers on Instagram and 152 million followers on TikTok. Dixie, the elder of the two, has nearly 22 million followers on Instagram and 57 million followers on TikTok.
Their social media brands are amongst the largest in the world, and they each have an estimated net worth of more than $10 million. Dixie also has a growing music career and their entire family is featured on the The D’Amelio Show on Hulu.
All of this goes to say that the D’Amelio brand has never been bigger.
Their father Marc, the CEO of D’Amelio Brands, is taking the opportunity to spread the wealth. He’s deeply entrenched in the back-end business of college sports!
Marc founded the D’Amelio Huskies Collective for his alma mater, UConn.
D’Amelio Huskies Collective is crucial.
In the modern age of college athletics, NIL collectives are a huge piece of the puzzle. While money is not the only thing in recruiting, financial opportunity plays a massive role in the process.
Schools that have more NIL money, through their collectives, have a higher chance of both keeping their current rosters in tact (instead of having athletes transfer for more money at another school), and signing high-profile recruits. The D’Amelio Huskies Collective was formed to “provide student-athletes with the opportunity to further develop themselves and their individual brands as part of their education at UConn while simultaneously serving others by supporting local entities.”
It is set up to help athletes connect with brands that will pay them in return for marketing and promotional opportunities. The athletes are also compensated through the collective while Marc helps them with managing and building their brands, like he has with his daughters.
That is a potentially life-changing opportunity for a college athlete and it has been an overwhelming success thus far.
UConn turned up in the Big Apple!
A large part of D’Amelio’s job with the collective is fundraising. He is tasked with finding innovative ways to tap into the Huskies fanbase, and more importantly, their wallets.
To do so, Marc hosted a party at a rooftop bar in New York City after the Big East Men’s Basketball Tournament game on Thursday. The first 20 people who donated to the D’Amelio Huskies Collective got an invite. Those who donated $500 or more got VIP access.
It looked like a banger!
Even QB1 Ta’Quan Roberson pulled up. He gave a speech on behalf of the athletes who are involved with the collective.
As did UConn’s all-time leading scorer Christopher Smith and a few other former athletes!
Considering that UConn doesn’t have the NIL support of, say, Ohio State, D’Amelio’s presence in the space cannot be understated. He is pushing the Huskies’ fanbase and alumni base to open up their checkbooks and help the school build a massive financial backing for athletes in a world where Name, Image and Likeness is directly tied to wins!