6ai Sports

An AI-Driven Knowledge Platform for Athletes to Succeed in the Business of Sports 

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“NIL isn’t about empowerment; it’s a toll booth. And every deal a kid signs, an agent is standing at the gate taking 20%. Let me put that into perspective: in the NBA, it’s 4%, and in the NFL, it’s 3%. So, 20% for what? Introductions and Instagram posts? That’s not mentorship, that’s markup! A lot of these agents aren’t managing opportunity; they’re recycling it. They are brokering chaos. And the worst part, these deals don’t have governance. No contracts. No fiduciary oversight…just handshake deals. No standardized fees, no education pipeline teaching kids what ownership actually means.

That’s what the next evolution has to be! 1. Two to three-year contract, 2. AI-driven oversight to track contracts, fees, and bad actors.  3. Education that builds executives. How to negotiate, budget and invest. Freedom without structure isn’t freedom at all; it’s called exposure.”  

The NIL (Name, Image, and Likeness) system in U.S. college sports allows student-athletes to earn money from their personal brand through endorsements, social media, autograph signings, and other commercial deals. Before the implementation of NIL rules in July 2021, the system was rigged on the fallacy of amateurism, which strictly prohibited college athletes from receiving any compensation beyond their scholarships.

The advent of the NIL era has transformed the landscape of college athletics, offering them unprecedented opportunities to earn significant income. But it comes with challenges in managing the sudden influx of money. And can be overwhelming, especially for athletes lacking the right guidance and financial literacy, leaving them vulnerable to financial missteps and exploitation.

Coaches and colleges have and continue to earn millions and billions off the backs of mainly young Black athletes in football and basketball primarily.

The NCAA men’s basketball March Madness tournament, for example, now generates on the order of about 1 billion dollars per year in revenue. In the 2024 fiscal year, NCAA revenue was reported at about 1.38 billion dollars, with the men’s tournament contributing around 900 million dollars of that total. The largest share comes from long-term media rights deals with CBS, Turner/Warner Bros, ESPN and Discovery that pay the NCAA nearly 1 billion dollars a year for men’s tournament broadcast rights alone. Additional revenue streams include ticket sales, corporate sponsorships, and related marketing tied specifically to the men’s tournament.

NCAA football, as a whole enterprise across Division I schools, generates on the order of several tens of billions of dollars per year (tickets, media rights, donations, sponsorships, etc.). Public financial databases and athletics reports show that many top football programs each bring in 50–150 million dollars per year,  with dozens more programs in the 20–50 million range. Aggregating across the 130-plus schools, those program-level figures imply total annual football revenues well into the tens of billions of dollars even before including related conference and media network revenues tied to the sport, according to the New York Times.

But NIL has shifted the power landscape in NCAA football and basketball. Athletes have gained leverage: Players now negotiate deals and transfers freely, treating schools as platforms for personal branding, which has eroded traditional loyalty and coaching control. The biggest beneficiaries of NIL have been Black young men, as they make up the majority of college football and basketball athletes, and so, they generate the most revenue for the schools and corporations.

NIL money can be life-changing, and many can secure six- and seven-figure deals. For low-income kids, if managed diligently, it can set them and their families up nicely for long-term financial stability.

The broader empowerment of NIL money for Black athletes is that it has flipped the script of historical exploitation, where the colleges, coaches, big corporations and college towns profit off these athletes, but the athletes themselves make nothing!

Therefore, the decisions these athletes make about managing their NIL money can either set them and their families up for life or end up as just another familiar sad story about young Black athletes squandering opportunity or losing all their money.  

The Challenges

The other pressures that come with this sudden amount of money revolve around endorsement and business deals, overall money management, and navigating all the new people entering their lives. People want to influence and advise, primarily doing so in their own interest to set up their own income stream.

This can create incredible strains on their mental health and athletic performance as these inexperienced young people try to navigate this unfamiliar territory.

Research shows that NIL adds new stressors to athletes, who already face elevated mental health risks. Black college athletes face higher baseline rates of anxiety, depression, and barriers to care due to stigma and cultural factors. A 2025 case study in the Journal of Sport Psychology in Action details "Jamal," a Black-identified athlete whose NIL pressures triggered anxiety and mental exhaustion, which also contributed to poor on-field performance. And broader studies note that NIL exacerbates these pressures, i.e., social media management and deal negotiations, for which these players have no training. Lacking the capacity to navigate, compounding the issues.

As fast as big NIL cheques can be cut, bogus agents and advisors, friends, and family members start coming out of the woodwork, and the poor decisioning struggles begin:

• Bad Advice: Trusting the wrong advisors or investing in risky ventures can be disastrous.

  
  

• Short Careers: Many players won’t go to the pros or last long in the respective leagues, making financial decisions about NIL even more critical.

  
  

• Lack of Financial Literacy: Many lack formal financial education, leaving them vulnerable to poor budgeting and spending habits and vulnerable to making bad investments on bad advice.

  
  

• High Lifestyle Costs: Keeping up with peers and the pressure to maintain a lavish lifestyle, buying cars, watches and jewellry, including for friends and family. And having an entourage is also a sure-fire way of quickly depleting funds.

If the statistics at the pro-level are any indication, college players must be extremely cautious about decisioning to secure their future.

A large percentage of NFL and NBA players face severe financial hardship or bankruptcy after retiring. 78% of former NFL players experience financial trouble within two years, and 60% of former NBA players go broke within five years.

So-called new and unqualified "agents and advisors" compound the problem by exploiting college athletes through onerous contracts (taking long-term huge cuts from player deals they negotiate in their own interest first), mismanagement of funds, poor brand advice, and conflicts of interest.

This unscrupulous bunch leverages the athletes’ lack of financial and contractual knowledge. And far too often, some agents even go as far as calling themselves the players’ “partners” and taking huge percentages (e.g., 25-50%) of endorsement and business deal earnings, leaving athletes vulnerable to future exploitation and earnings drain.  

Overspending, neglecting tax obligations, or failing to plan for the future can quickly consume all the cash from NIL deals in no time. Unqualified and suspect agents, advisors, friends and family members jockey for influence and power, but they end up causing irreparable harm. This prevalence of non-qualified, non-fiduciary and non-licensed advisors, overall, generates significant financial risk for NIL athletes. 

See the problematic spectrum below.

It is paramount that athletes seek out advisory services from registered fiduciaries professionals in regulated industries. Fiduciary duty means having a legal obligation to the client to act solely in their best interest, placing your interests above their own. Core duties include a duty of care to "know-your-client," investment suitability, loyalty, confidentiality, and full disclosure of any conflicts, with advisor, the firm and the investment products beings sold.

It’s best to seek out more mid-tier to top-tier firms and private banking institutions, such as J.P. Morgan Private Bank, Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management, Goldman Sachs Private Wealth Management, Northern Trust, Citibank Private Client, and similar. If something goes meaningfully wrong because of the advisors' advice, you’ll have recourse and often be made whole by the larger regulated firms.

The Building Blocks for Success

To take on the challenges of NIL and pro-sports, business and life, preparation must be a first principle. What is also required is a fact-based intelligent resource, a partner dedicated to teaching you the ropes. An AI-driven accessible platform that provides you with the knowledge-on-demand you need to handle your business smartly.

01 Learning | Knowledge: Knowledge is power, and learning is your path to knowledge. This gives you agency over your own life and the capacity and capabilities to make intelligent decisions that can positively impact your life.

02 Strategy Development: NIL is a business, and all businesses require good strategies to succeed. Strategy is both a roadmap and a risk management tool. Strategy aligns you with the reality of your situation—keeping it real! How to navigate the shark-infested waters of professional sports and entertainment.  

03 Financial Literacy: Understanding the basics of budgeting, saving, finances, investing, and tax planning will be at the core of future financial stability or regret. Understanding how to make your money work for you, how to make real estate purchases and property investments, stock market and business investments.

04 Contract & Business Dealings: Understanding contracts and negotiations, how to know and value your worth and negotiate is the key to coming out ahead on deals and limiting your risk. If you don’t understand these fundamentals, you will surely be taken advantage of by everyone, from agents to family and friends.

05 Mental Health & Performance: Mental health and performance are deeply interconnected; good mental health boosts focus, resilience, motivation, and decision-making, leading to better outcomes in sports, academics, work and life, while poor mental health leads to stress and anxiety, which impairs concentration and hinders achievement, highlighting the necessity of addressing well-being for peak performance and overall success.

Why 6ai – applied intelligence?

6ai is aligned with the digital age and offers athletes a one-stop AI-based strategy development tool and professional services platform to learn how to succeed in the business of sport! It’s a knowledge and skill-building resource hub where you can access vetted, licensed, and regulated professional services.

Again! Wealth is not about how much you make but about how much you keep and can grow over the long-term. 6ai is your partner in helping you protect and grow your potential wealth.

The applied intelligence (6ai) system empowers you to maximize opportunities and create long-term sustainable wealth. With just a little time and consistent effort you can manage your own portfolio.

Below is an illustration of how controlling costs and keeping more of what you earn can impact you over the ling-term.

The other simplified illustration below depicts a 10-year NFL player’s post-career wealth analysis. Once again, wealth accumulation comes down to keeping more of what you earn and growing it well.

As you can see, the difference in return after 10 years due to cost (2% vs. 10%) is massive!

Wealth: $137.7 millions vs. $63.3 million, even with both portfolios earning 9% annually.

The numbers speak the truth, loud and clear. 6ai offers athletes a playbook for making informed, well taught out decisions to protect and growth through knowledge; and begin to build generational wealth.

01. Where are we now? Once you understand your position, the opportunities and the system, the learning begins. 6ai’s knowledge acquisition AI platform partners with you to chart the right path for you, maximizing your present and future financial opportunities.

02. Where do we want to go? Clearly defining your vision, where you want to be over the long term and the wealth and legacy you want to build.

03. What is a credible path to get there? Objectives must be based on reality! Understanding the landscape and learning about investing and business is fundamental to success.

04. Why & How? A well-thought-out strategy with purpose and vision is behind achieving your desired goals. Focus efforts and define what success looks like 25 years out.

Always play the long game!

About 6ai Technologies

...applied intelligence (ai) involves applying critical and independent thinking to transform information into knowledge, fostering insight and rational strategic decision-making.

A defined six-step (6ai) Socratic human-centric software that doesn’t seek to make AI competitive, surpassing, or replacing human intelligence. It takes an augmenting approach instead, amplifying human intelligence capacity and capabilities.