College Football is transforming. The current iteration of the sport is much different to what it was even a couple of years ago. The new 12-team playoff format and NIL have been at the epicenter of this evolution. As the season trudges towards testing waters with the former, the NIL era is already underway. This era is about to spring a new offshoot. The term “fan” is potentially about to mean a whole lot more.

A bunch of football savants, inclusive of former players and business folk, have announced the launch of Fanstake. This digital recruitment platform is a visionary service that aims to make fans a part of the recruitment process for their favorite teams. Essentially, people can “stake” money towards an athlete in 3 different verticals, depending on their status.

Fanstake will allow a fan to pledge money towards- keeping a coveted athlete at their program, recruiting a high school athlete to the program, or recruiting an athlete from the transfer portal. If the athlete ends up at the said program, whatever money was pledged will go to them in the form of a NIL endorsement deal. Otherwise, the fan will get their pledged funds back.

“It may sound idealistic, but we’re convinced there’s a win-win approach in this industry that benefits everyone. With Fanstake, we aim to create a scenario where athletes can earn their true market value, fans can finally have a meaningful role in shaping their teams, and the entire ecosystem thrives through the principles of an open market. We believe this transparent approach will truly change college sports for the better”, said Fanstake CEO and Co-founder Greg Glass.

The service has so far raised $3 million in a pre-seed round. With such an ambitious goal in sight, it is safe to assume this sum will increase exponentially. At the surface level, the platform will seemingly provide collegiate athletes with more financial remuneration. Also, fans of traditionally smaller programs will have an opportunity to aid in their school’s bid to land a highly-touted recruit. However, with NIL already being such a divisive topic, there will be concerns about its legitimacy. Not to mention the potential money-driven recruitment such a service may lead to.

More than that, superstar athletes who have a college career ahead of them can gain a lot with something like Fanstake. Take, for instance, the case of someone like Ryan Williams. Alabama fans will spend millions if it means they can prevent a future threat to their star WR from de-committing from Bama. A similar thing will be seen for Jeremiah Smith, another star in the making, who is having a historic freshman year at the Buckeyes. We have already discussed Arch Manning. The future comes with a lot of uncertainty for the college football landscape when it comes to NIL, but that uncertainty will make some players richer.

How schools may benefit from the advent of such a service

The introduction of NIL has already seen some benefits. Apart from the obvious monetary ones, it has made CFB a more level playing field. Talent is dispersing more equally across programs. The traditional powerhouses of the sport are no more in the driver’s seat when it comes to recruitment. A program like Nebraska, for instance, can attract the top QB in his class despite their lack of recent success.

An excerpt from the Fanstake website says, “Taken a step further beyond the top-tier programs, hundreds of other Division I schools simply can’t compete financially, effectively creating a new divide that will be coming within college sports. These budgetary constraints risk wiping out the long-cherished tradition of underdog success stories and cementing a new ‘two-tier’ reality in college athletics”. The platform aims to mitigate this difference between programs.

Initially focusing only on Men’s football and Men’s and Women’s Basketball, Fanstake will allegedly spread its wings into other sports across the nation. The service is functional and fans can use it via their website. The Tennessee Vols’ faithful, arguably the most obnoxious fanbase in the country, are already leading the charge. Arch Manning is seemingly pledged over 6 figures if he comes over to Knoxville. Good luck with that!