Oct 12, 2007; Walnut, CA, USA; Craig Curley of Pima won the men's 4-mile race in a course-record 20:10 in the 60th Mt. San Antonio College Cross Country Invitational. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee/Image of Sport-Imagn Images Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

Arizona Community College Set to become First JUCO in State to Offer NIL

Originally posted on NIL on SI | By Jacob Moss | Last updated May 10, 2025 8:00 AM ET

NIL has reshaped college athletics in ways that many never though possible beforehand, and it continues to do so every single day. Up until now though, this change has largely been relegated to the NCAA level.

While some NJCAA programs have adopted NIL, it really hasn't gained widespread popularity at the JUCO level yet. Most states, including Arizona, don't even have a single community college that offers NIL at all.

That's all about to change though, as according to KGUN 9 Tucson reporter Jason Barr, one Arizona JUCO athletic department has made the decision to become the first in the state to offer NIL opportunities to their student athletes.

Which Arizona JUCO is set to start offering NIL?

The Pima College Aztecs, who are based in Tucson, announced that they will be partnering with Opendorse to begin offering NIL endorsements to all of their athletics programs.

Opendorse has become one of several prominent digital NIL platforms to crop up over the last few years, and now they'll be making their entrance to the JUCO stage with Pima.

Barr recently sat down with Aztecs' women's basketball head coach Todd Holthaus to discuss the groundbreaking new development, and what it means for his team moving forward. For Holthaus, he said it represents a new tool to use in recruiting.

Pima is the first community college in Arizona to provide name-image-likeness support for its student-athletes. It's partnering with Opendorse, an NIL digital platform. https://t.co/CNCQ83yf9y
— KGUN 9 (@kgun9) May 9, 2025

"I think that's probably the biggest reason we did it," Holthaus said in reference to recruiting. "Just giving kids who we're recruiting the opportunity to do something for themselves, promote themselves, and do something with the NIL landscape that's out there now."

Prior to bringing NIL to the school, Pima had been utilizing coprorate sponsorships to help support their various sports teams. While these partnerships helped the athtletics department as a whole, Holthaus believes that this new NIL deal will let the indvidual athletes make something for themselves.

"We go to those companies to help Pima athletics," he told Barr. "Now, this presents an opportunity for student athletes to do something on their own with local businesses and individuals where they can make a few bucks on the side. It's not going to be millions and dollars in NIL money. It's not coming from Pima. It's kids promoting themselves and working on their personal brands that they can take with them when they leave Pima.

This is obviously a massive development for not only Pima College, but for JUCO sports in Arizona as a whole. Now that the Aztecs have knocked down the door, it will be interesting to see how long it takes for the states many other successful JUCO programs to follow suit.

This article first appeared on NIL on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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