Cal NIL collective posts football billboards in ACC country

The California Golden Bears need all the awareness they can get for their East Coast alumni.

For those of you unfamiliar with the California Legends Collective, they have been hard at work raising NIL (name, image and likeness) funds to ensure our student-athletes get the resources they need to feel like they are properly taken care of in Berkeley. That led to both Cal football and men’s basketball posting top 20 classes in the transfer portal, as the Bears rebuilt their roster to hopefully compete at the highest level in the ACC.

(This is of course your monthly reminder to donate to Cal NIL!)

Aside from general donation drives during the portal period, other events that have been organized to raise NIL funds by the Collective with top Cal alum include:

• A Cal football trip to Italy for a youth football camp, which also helped raise NIL funds from major donors.

• Cal golf events in Northern and Southern California, where Cal donors can play 18 holes with Golden Bear legends like Ron Rivera (A Northern California event is coming up in Napa next month).

And now Cal Legends has reportedly moved to the brand marketing side, posting up funds for billboards in ACC country (this billboard below is in Charlotte, North Carolina—Cal will play in-state on November 8th in Wake Forest). Sources confirm that there are several other billboards either already set up or being setup in other major ACC East Coast markets.

Source: Bud Elliott, via CGB alum Mike Foiles

It might seem strange to do this type of marketing across the coast, but Cal has large alumni groups on the East Coast that have rarely been touched. Cal alumni outreach has been marginal at best in the past decades, so one of the most important ways to raise awareness for the brand is to try and activate those groups and let them know the Bears are coming out East regularly.

All hands need to be on deck for the Golden Bears in the coming years, as the situation with the ACC remains in constant flux.