NHL's Panthers offer historic endorsement deals to 200 Florida Atlantic FEMALE athletes to counterbalance sponsorship offers flooding men's college sports

• The Florida Panthers announced that the NHL franchise will sign any interested and eligible Florida Atlantic University female athlete to endorsement deals
• Terms of the offer have not been revealed, but FAU female athletes will be invited to attend Panthers games and engage with their social media followers
• No other major sports franchise is known to have made such an offer; however, several major college men's teams have signed team-wide endorsement deals 
•  The Panthers became the first pro team to sign a college athlete as an endorser when they struck a deal with Miami quarterback D'Eriq King earlier this summer
• Until July, the NCAA forbid all athletes from earning money off their name, image, and likeness -- a rule that effectively prohibited sponsorship deals 

The Florida Panthers announced Wednesday that the NHL franchise will sign any interested and eligible Florida Atlantic University female athlete to a deal under the new rules that allow college players to capitalize on their name, image and likeness for endorsement opportunities.

No other major sports franchise is known to have made such an offer, and it comes after the Panthers became the first pro team to sign a college athlete as an endorser when they struck a deal with Miami quarterback D'Eriq King earlier this summer.

'There are a lot of businesses out there that are doing deals with full teams, but they're all on the men's side of things,' Panthers chief strategy officer Sam Doerr said. 'And we said, ''Why not do that on the female side of things?'' We talked about basketball and a couple other sports at FAU, then decided we didn't want to leave anyone out and said we'd just make the offer to everybody.'

FAU fields women's teams in basketball, beach volleyball, golf, soccer, softball, swimming and diving, tennis, cross-country and track and field, volleyball and spirit - a total of just over 200 athletes. The campus is in Boca Raton, about a 30-minute drive northeast of the arena where the Panthers play.

The FAU athletes will be invited to attend Panthers games and engage with their social media followers, receiving some team merchandise in return. Interested FAU athletes will register with Dreamfield, a company King co-founded, to redeem the Panthers' offer; Dreamfield has partnered with the team and will manage the logistics that come with the deals.

For years, the NCAA claimed to be protecting amateurism by penalizing athletes for signing endorsement deals, selling autographs, or making paid appearances, among other violations. But while the college sports governing body will continue to bar schools from paying athletes directly, the organization caved to outside pressure by lifting NIL restrictions in July. 

Doerr said the Panthers have allocated funds in anticipation of all 200 athletes signing.

'We talked about this from Day 1,' Doerr said. 'We really, truly believe there is a market out there for female athletes. We've got 200 athletes we can work with in different ways and grow the brand. And at the very least, as a community member, we feel really positive about the impact we'll be able to have with a school right up the road.' 

King's deal with the Panthers includes plans to develop a merchandise collection and his own exclusive concession menu item to be available at all Panthers home games and events for the coming season. The Panthers were the first NHL team to unveil a plan for partnering with college athletes in these now-approved endorsement opportunities. 

For the Panthers, the King deal makes sense given their fluctuating popularity over the years.  

Even prior to the pandemic, the Panthers were consistently among the NHL's worst teams in attendance. In 2018-19, the final full NHL season before coronavirus spread across the country, Florida ranked 29th out of 31 league teams with just 78.2 percent of tickets sold for an average attendance of 13,261 per game. 

On the other hand, the Hurricanes are among the most successful programs in college football history, their recent struggles notwithstanding. Even in 2018, when Miami was on its way to a mediocre 7-6 season, the Hurricanes still ranked 22nd among all college football teams with an average attendance of 61,469 fans, according to the NCAA. 

The following year a 6-7 Hurricanes team still averaged 52,829 fans at home games.

Given that level of notoriety, it's no wonder why the Panthers wanted to attach themselves to the program's most visible player. 

'D'Eriq is a superstar both on and off the field and we are excited to reach and engage South Florida sports fans in new ways through this collaborative partnership,' Panthers chief strategy officer Sam Doerr said.

As Doerr referenced, there have been team-wide sponsorship offers for men's teams.

In July, owner of a chain of Florida gyms offered to pay $6,000 in endorsement money to all 90 scholarship players on the University of Miami football team.

In total, America Top Team gyms owner Dan Lambert proposed paying up to $540,000 for Hurricanes players to promote his business on social media and through public appearances. He is a former University of Miami student who says the offer is partly-motivated by his love of his old college, and desire for its team to do well.

It's unclear how many players will jump at the chance to make $500 a month for the next year.

This week, a former Michigan State basketball walk-on named Mat Ishbia reached a similar arrangement with the Spartans men's football and basketball teams.

The 133 players on the two teams will each make $500 month as part of a sponsorship agreement with Ishbia's company, United Wholesale Mortgage. In total, UWM will pay each player $6,000 during the 2021-22 academic school year.

Isbia also recently donated $32 million to the school.