Two Ohio State NIL collectives are merging with the hope of efficiently supporting its athletic programs.
On Thursday, THE Foundation announced the consolidation of its collective with The O Foundation, another collective that supports Ohio State football and basketball.
THE Foundation, founded by former Buckeyes quarterback Cardale Jones and notable Columbus real estate executive Brian Schottenstein, took to Twitter to announce the merger.
“THE Foundation and The O Foundation, two top collectives supporting Ohio State football and Ohio State basketball have come to an agreement to join forces and merge! Both of these groups are ‘team players’ and are supporting the same cause, with ONLY the goal of embettering the Football and Basketball programs as well as local charities. This merger was highly coveted by all NIL groups and both ‘THE’ and ‘O’ are proud to be the ones merging into one brand,” THE Foundation said in a statement.
According to a press release posted in the Twitter announcement, the merger will work to “efficiently support the same cause.”
“With these two collectives coming together, this is now undeniably the No. 1 joint NIL collective for Ohio State,” the press release reads.
As part of the merger, The O Foundation will become part of THE Foundation’s website and branding. THE Foundation was the first collective to hit campus in March 2022.
The move comes shortly following comments by Jones who said the university gives little support to its collectives. While many schools have gone through the efforts of calling out support for their collectives following the clarification on NIL rules by the NCAA in October — including Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith — Jones says Ohio State falls short.
“[THE Foundation is] completely different; we don’t work for Ohio State,” Jones said on 92.3 The Fan in Cleveland. “Sad to say, but we get very little support from Ohio State, and all we are trying to do is help them continue to win games by getting great recruits, by pretty much trying to solidify coaches’ jobs.”
Jones said unlike schools such as Florida, Texas, Alabama and others who he claims their athletic departments work hand-in-hand by partnering with their collectives in recruitment, Ohio State does not.
“I would imagine those conversations would work as if, during the recruitment process, those coaches can direct those recruits to the collective who can work hand-in-hand and educate them on things [the collective] can do immediately for those players. We’re completely different,” Jones said.
It’s no guarantee whether or not consolidation will mend the wounds between collective and university at Ohio State, but for a program consistently at the top, buy-in from both sides is crucial to continue success.
As Jones put it, Ohio State needs to adjust to the NIL-era, and failure to do so while other programs across the countries rise could lead to the Buckeyes reign at the top of the NCAA totem poll to come tumbling down.
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