Collective? Charity? Whatever you call Boilermaker Alliance, it was needed
Purdue didn’t land Nijel Pack, but he’s still impacting in West Lafayette.
The Kansas State guard—and Indianapolis native who looked primed to transfer to Purdue to play for Matt Painter—was swept off his feet in April by a booster-fueled two-year, $800,000 Name, Image and Likeness deal from Miami (Fla.).
It caused a national stir for many reasons. At Purdue, it amplified the need for someone to establish a collective that would boost the school’s NIL efforts.
“I would say that's what brought it to the forefront,” said Jeff McKean, a 1986 Purdue grad, successful Indianapolis area lawyer and Boilermaker fan. “It's interesting because probably like all Purdue fans, maybe that jolted us a little bit. Had that happened to Arizona or somebody else, it might not have been on our radar quite like it was. But that was a bit of a wake up call that we need to maybe make sure we've got our ducks in a row.”
The Boilermaker Alliance was born and will work alongside the university's Boilermaker Marketplace Exchange that was launched in April to give Purdue a robust NIL offering.
“We don't really refer to it as a collective,” said McKean, a co-founder of the Boilermaker Alliance. “Other people might, and that's fine. We see ourselves more as a charitable foundation.”
Organizers recently established a website for the Boilermaker Alliance, which is billed as a “nonprofit that uses the name-image-likeness of Purdue University student-athletes to help them make a difference through charitable giving.”
“Athletics are so important to the university, and so important to our experience, the university needs to change with it,” said McKean. “We can't just wring our hands. We need to figure out how we can do this, and how it can be done, how Purdue can do it better, how Purdue can use its business acumen to make this a positive.”
Purdue needed this to happen. In fact, it's viewed as a necessity in the changing paradigm of college athletics as athlete compensation is normalized.
When will the Boilermaker Alliance--an entity operated separately from the university--cut its first deals?
“How do you know we haven't cut it?” said McKean. “Let's put it this way, I would say deals will be visible to the public this month. I think people will see stuff and we're excited about that.”
This is a passion project for McKean--a Kokomo, Ind., native and Sigma Chi brother of Jim Everett--and numerous others, many whom already are involved in support of Purdue through the Boiler Business Exchange. The BBE is a volunteer collection of Indianapolis business leaders that among other things looks to strengthen the Purdue brand in the Marion County area.
“You can't just complain,” said McKean. “So, I reached out to Purdue and just sort of said: What's going on? Just curious about what the plans are.
“I understand that this sort of arrangement has to be done with an outside group. I've been part of the Boiler Business Exchange. Pete Quinn and I sort of got that started about 10 years ago.”
McKean's message to Purdue A.D. Mike Bobinski: Is there something we can do to assist?
“So, that was sort of the beginning of it,” said McKean. I then went up and had a meeting with Purdue and learned a little bit more about things, came back and we started down the road.”
The Boilermaker Alliance eventually could have a staff numbering as many as four full-time employees. There are no plans for a brick-and-mortar office.
“We have to keep it really small,” said McKean. “We're really conscious because of the charitable aspect and the foundation nature that we're implementing, we're really sensitive to making sure that the vast majority of the money goes to the cause. And so our goal is to keep operational costs less than 15 percent.”
The Boilermaker Alliance is still a work in progress on many levels.
“There's still a long ways to go,” said McKean. “And we want to be really careful. We want to be methodical in this. We don't want to get ahead of ourselves. We want to do it the right way and there's a lot of stuff going on this week, next week. We are still developing our full board. We're going to have an executive board. We're also going to have an advisory board. Those are still in process.”
Anyone can make a donation, which are given to student-athletes after they perform work—appearances, autograph signings, social media promotions, camps, etc.—for a charitable organization. Per the website, Purdue student-athletes will agree to complete a specific amount of work for these charitable organizations in order to receive compensation.
The Boilermaker Alliance is in the process of applying for a tax exemption under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.
“We are most excited about the charitable nature of what we're doing in the ability to put some athletes together with some charities, for good causes, to help the charities, to promote the charities, to help athletes understand the importance of that service nature and all that,” said McKean. “And I mean that sincerely. We've got some really good ideas.”
Organizers have drawn inspiration from what’s going on at other schools.
“I think it's been almost a bit of an advantage that there are some other people that have started down the process some time before us,” said McKean. “Nobody's very far along in this. There's a couple of universities that have more than just months of experience. The ones that are really ahead of the game started in April, or something like that.
“There's not a lot of history here to any of this. I think there are a few. TigerImpact, Clemson's model, I think is something we've looked at. Ohio State has a couple different ones. One is called the Cohesion Foundation. The other one is just The Foundation. We've looked at Indiana's Hoosiers for Good. We've had discussions.”
What’s next?
“We'll probably go through a second iteration of the website this month that will likely include adding more information about perhaps donations, about being able to contact us more, give us more information," said McKean. "You'll probably see charity partners go up at that point.
“And then there will probably be sometime in August a more complete build out of the site that would include specific names and references to all the people involved both from an executive board and also an advisory board standpoint. That's sort of the expectation.”
The bottom line: Purdue is in the collective game ... or, charity game.
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