Who We Are
We are a collegiate athletics advisory firm
Starnes Sports is a strategic advisory firm dedicated to helping athletic departments navigate the financial, regulatory, and governance realities of the NIL era. We advise athletic directors and university leadership on decisions where competitive strategy, institutional risk, and regulatory frameworks intersect. Our advice is designed to help athletic departments create a competitive and efficient NIL strategy while maintaining universities’ fundamental principles and goals as institutions of higher learning.
While most NIL advisors specialize in marketing, education programs, or technology platforms, Starnes Sports brings a different perspective. Our approach is shaped by experience working at the intersection of athletics governance, regulatory rules, and the operational realities of college.
Our experience includes work across:
- NCAA/CSC governance and compliance
- Intellectual property and licensing
- Creation/strategy for external revenue sharing entities and over-the-cap revenue-generating entities
- Best practices for athletics administration and operations, including general manager role and scouting processes
- Crisis communications advisor to universities during high-profile incidents
- Institutional risk and stakeholder management
Based on our team’s years of experience in college athletics, Starnes Sports understands the evolving regulatory landscape and the practical realities of collegiate athletics. We translate complex NIL dynamics into clear operating models, repeatable processes, and data‑informed decisions that align with your institution’s goals and values.
Why we built Starnes Sports
College athletics now requires the discipline and infrastructure you’d expect in professional leagues—strategy, efficiency, and analytics—but adapted to the unique governance reality of higher education.
Our team’s unique background advising universities, research foundations, large intellectual property portfolios, and private equity firms, provided the necessary skillset to implement a strategic conversion of athletics departments. Our experience structuring external operating entities, managing athletics department procedures, and navigating constantly evolving regulatory environments gave us a practical playbook: how sophisticated organizations protect market value, deploy incentives, and manage various stakeholders.
Our Philosophy
Modern college athletics is a business with a mission. Universities win when they can:
attract and retain talent
activate their brand at scale
operate smartly and efficiently
Starnes Sports exists to help you do all three—practically, efficiently, and operationally.
The Starnes Advantage
Our work focuses on helping leadership teams move forward with clarity and confidence. Our mission is to provide an experienced perspective that helps universities solve real problems and make practical, informed decisions.
That means:
Cross-Disciplinary Perspective
Starnes Sports operates at the intersection of athletics governance, regulatory structures, and the operational realities of college athletics. That combination allows us to bridge the gap between regulatory frameworks and the practical decisions athletic departments must make every day.
Institutional Risk Awareness
NIL decisions increasingly involve significant financial commitments and public scrutiny. Poorly structured arrangements can expose universities to reputational risks, governance challenges, or unsustainable financial obligations. Our role is to help leadership achieve competitive success while protecting the institution’s long-term interests.
Insight Into the Regulatory Environment
The rules governing NIL continue to evolve. Our work includes engagement with the leaders and governing bodies shaping the emerging regulatory framework. Our experienced perspective provides insight into how rules are interpreted and applied in the real world.
Real Market Intelligence
Understanding the NIL market is critical to remaining competitive in today’s college athletics environment. Reliable information about NIL markets is surprisingly hard to find. Public reporting often exaggerates deal values or lacks meaningful context. Inaccurate information leads to decision-making that is not based on the true market and an NIL strategy that could significantly affect a program’s ability to remain competitive. Since we work across multiple programs and see real deal structures and financial commitments, we provide an informed perspective on how NIL markets develop.
Clarity When the Decision Matters
Today’s NIL decisions often involve millions of dollars, competitive implications, and institutional visibility. In those moments, leadership teams want more than theoretical guidance. They want to know: Will this structure work? Will this get approved? Will this protect the institution? Starnes Sports provides an experienced perspective and data-driven analysis that helps leadership answer those questions with confidence.