Fans at the south end of the Fieldhouse go wild as the starting lineup is announced prior to tipoff against Brown on Sunday, Dec. 22, 2024 at Allen Fieldhouse. Photo by Nick Krug

With a new era of compensation for college athletes on the horizon, the Mass St. Collective has ceased operations, Executive Director Keon Stowers told the Journal-World on Thursday.

The collective has long facilitated payments to University of Kansas athletes for name, image and likeness considerations. But beginning with the approval of the pending House v. NCAA settlement, which is expected to take effect for the 2025-26 academic year, KU and other universities will be able to pay their athletes directly for the first time, marking a sea change in college sports.

KU athletic director Travis Goff had previously suggested in July that there could potentially still be utility for a collective after the advent of revenue sharing, to help facilitate commercial NIL — that is, corporate endorsement deals for student-athletes — but that KU might opt for an in-house “agency approach” instead. Indeed, Goff and the university ultimately chose to take matters in house, announcing on Dec. 18 the creation of FLIGHT, a partnership with Mission-based marketing agency Walz Tetrick and multimedia rights partner Learfield that “will play a prominent role in connecting Jayhawks with commercial endorsement opportunities,” according to a press release.

The inception of FLIGHT essentially brought an end to Mass St. Collective. In the same press release, Goff said, “We are thankful for Mass Street Collective’s impact on our student-athletes and our programs throughout the first chapter of Name, Image and Likeness. Looking ahead, it is imperative that we continue to adapt with the ever-evolving landscape of college athletics, and the launch of FLIGHT ensures a progressive path forward.”

In an interview with the Journal-World on Thursday, KU Deputy Athletics Director for External Affairs and Revenue Generation Jason Booker characterized the announcement of FLIGHT as a forward-looking move, noting that with the implementation of the House settlement (expected July 1), the NCAA has enlisted Deloitte to help ensure that endorsement deals for athletes do not exceed “fair market value.” As KU enters this new NIL paradigm, Booker cited Walz Tetrick’s professionalism, credibility and extensive experience securing corporate endorsements as key points in favor of the agency approach. He said collectives, on the other hand, were built to fundraise, not to seek sponsorship deals.

“Actually going and negotiating a deal with an Adidas or a Wendy’s or corporate brands is not really what collectives are built to do,” Booker said. “Agencies who we’re partnering with, that’s what they live in every day.”

The goal in announcing FLIGHT long before its work truly begins, he said, was to provide an opportunity for KU to build brand awareness and begin preliminary conversations with corporate entities well in advance of July 1.

“We’re just getting a head start on it, so we have a six-month runway here to kind of get the program and platform built a little bit better,” he said.

When FLIGHT is operational, Booker said he hopes the agency approach can provide a competitive advantage and attract prospective athletes looking to elevate their personal brands in an era where — because schools will be uniformly limited to sharing about $20 million total with their athletes — many other factors will be held equal between athletic programs.

“We’re thinking about this differently and trying to pivot in a positive way in the new world,” he said.

Donors who have been supporting Mass St. Collective, Booker said, should consider contributing to KU Athletics Development in the future to help provide scholarships for student-athletes.

The end of Mass St. brings to a close more than three years of NIL efforts surrounding KU. After NCAA athletes first gained the opportunity to profit off NIL in 2021, many KU athletes worked with Wichita-based 6th Man Strategies and 12th Man Strategies, founded by former KU baseball players Matt and Ryan Baty. Those organizations eventually reformed as Mass Strategies, which evolved into the Mass St. Collective.

The collective was for some time overseen by Matt Baty and former KU administrator Dan Beckler. During the summer of 2023, it sponsored a team of former KU men’s basketball players that competed in The Basketball Tournament.

In November 2023, the national organization Blueprint Sports began operating Mass St., and three months later Stowers, a former KU football player and fundraiser for the KU Alumni Association, assumed the role of executive director, a position he held throughout 2024.

“The collective has ended its operations with the announcement of Flight,” Stowers told the Journal-World in a text message. “Incredibly thankful for the opportunity KU gave me this past year!”

A spokesperson for Blueprint Sports did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

KU follows a variety of peer institutions in folding its collective. For example, UCF announced on Nov. 18 that its collective, The Kingdom, would cease operations on July 1.