Jack Betts recently graduated from Amherst College. As a D3 football player, Jack taught himself how to maneuver the NIL world. Through trial and error, Jack became known as “The King of D3 NIL.” He also started his own NIL education platform called The Make Your Own Legacy Academy. Today, Jack Betts sat down with us to talk about his experience with NIL and how small school athletes can make the most out of it.

Why Amherst College?

I really wanted to prioritize the academic and athletic balance…I really felt that I could get the best of both worlds, both athletically and academically, given that Amherst is a Division III institution.

The start of his NIL journey

I began texting my friends and my teammates in all of our group chats and I was like “Oh my gosh guys, we have the chance to do something really cool; we could make money off of just being collegiate athletes!” I had to get a little reality check from them that we are Division III athletes in the middle of Massachusetts…

Teaching himself about NIL

I think there were a couple of things that I unconsciously picked up that I was able to apply to everything I did NIL-related…I had to take the approach of selling Jack Betts as the entrepreneur as opposed to selling Jack Betts as the athlete.

The Make Your Own Legacy Academy

I kind of approached it like “I want to be the change that I want to see in the world.” I began having formal conversations with [athletes who reached out to me], sitting down and acting as a consultant. That's how The Make Your Own Legacy Academy was founded.

The Future of NIL

During my time as a NIL athlete and now that my time as a student-athlete has come to a conclusion, I've seen the landscape really shift in favor of Division III and smaller-market athletes.