As Caleb Williams was leading Oklahoma back from the dead, from down 21 to the biggest comeback in Red River history, phones across America began buzzing. Williams, a true freshman, had never started a college football game before. As he engineered touchdown drives, his star brightening by the play, fans took notice.
So, too, did companies.
Zach Soskin, an athlete brand builder, was texting with people who work for them. “People who write pretty significant checks to athletes,” he says. People who, under the NCAA’s new Name, Image and Likeness rules, can sign players to endorsement deals.