BILLINGS — Montana State has gone out of its way to market its student-athletes through the Bobcat Collective, and it’s the faces of the university that are benefiting exponentially.
“My brother, Wilson, is pretty happy for me, but then I tell my borther Mitch and he says, 'What? How come I didn't get any of that?' He gets pretty fired up," said Montana State senior defensive lineman Paul Brott, whose brothers played previously for the Bobcats.
"They're paying for me to eat every month, and as you can tell it's kind of expensive. Probably around 2-3 pounds of beef. A lot of carbs, so the grocery bill is upwards of 200 bucks a week."
"The Montana Army National Guard one is super cool," said Montana State women's basketball player Taylee Chirrick. "We got to fly in a Blackhawk up to Helena, which is crazy. We shot some guns — M4, M249 — shot a machine gun. It was super, super cool to experience. That's a fun NIL to have."
For guys like Brott, a few extra bucks in the pocket certainly doesn’t hurt. Brott has put on roughly 80 pounds since arriving in Bozeman years back, but he's been able to do so in a healthy way.
"Back in the day when I was really bulking, it was six meals a day. Seven if I would sneak one in. It was 6,500, 7,000 calories a day, and when you were done it was like if you moved you were going to throw up," Brott said. "It would be a lot harder, because with the NIL I'm able to pay for all the stuff I need, to where I might have to eat a little dirtier if I didn't have the money."
NIL — a acronym for name, image and likeness — represents a giant shift from times of less than a decade ago where we saw athletes get punished for receiving monetary benefits. Now we see athletes with their faces on t-shirts and trading cards helping inspire the next generation.
With the recent approval of the House settlement, the athletes now have the ability to earn revenue from the school directly.
“It's so cool. Just to see that you're a leader for young girls and they look up to you so much. It shows such an impact that you have," Chirrick said. "To keep playing and keep working hard, it honestly pushes me even more to want to represent Montana and represent these young girls that want to play past high school and push to play college basketball, because it's a really cool opportunity."
It's been a busy summer making appearances, but it certainly makes the college life a bit more comfortable for these Bobcats.
