Rudy Gay, Rip Hamilton Flip Off Camera At NIL Event For UConn Collective Founded By Charli, Dixie D'Amelio's Father

Money, more than ever before, has a direct correlation to success in collegiate athletics and Marc D'Amelio is putting his wallet to work. The 54-year-old entrepreneur and local politician is the father to social media personalities Charli and Dixie D'Amelio.

Charli, the younger sister, has more than 45 million followers on Instagram and 150 million followers on TikTok. Dixie, the elder of the two, has nearly 25 million followers on Instagram and 57 million followers on TikTok.

Their social media brands are amongst the largest, period, and they each have an estimated net worth of more than $10 million. Dixie also has a growing music career and their entire family is featured on the The D'Amelio Show on Hulu.

All of this goes to say that the D'Amelio brand has never been bigger, and their father Marc, the CEO of D'Amelio Brands, is taking the opportunity to spread the wealth. He's getting into the back-end business of college sports.

To do so, Marc founded the D'Amelio Huskies Collective for his alma mater, UConn.

In the modern age of college athletics, NIL collectives are crucial. Although money is not the only thing in recruiting, financial opportunity is playing a bigger and bigger role in the process.

Schools that have more NIL money, through their collectives, have a higher chance of both keeping their current rosters in tact (instead of having athletes transfer out for more money), and signing high-profile recruits. Miami, led by billionaire John Ruiz, is the perfect example.

Marc D'Amelio is taking NIL to the next level at Connecticut.

The D'Amelio Huskies Collective was formed to "provide student-athletes with the opportunity to further develop themselves and their individual brands as part of their education at UConn while simultaneously serving others by supporting local entities." Fairly standard.

It is set up to help athletes connect with brands that will pay them in return for marketing and promotional opportunities. All the while, the athletes will also be compensated through the collective. Marc will also help them to manage and build their brands, like he does/has seen with his daughters.

The goal is to sign at least one athlete in every men's and women's sport. It has been a success thus far.

Not long after UConn won March Madness, Marc really started to make an even larger push. He wants to grow his collective into the primary NIL arm for Huskies athletics and is well on his way.

While back in L.A. over the weekend, Marc had a few guests over for a collective-focused event. The place was decked out to the nines and the menu was on point.

UConn legends Rudy Gay and Rip Hamilton were among those in attendance.

They took the opportunity to remind everyone that the Huskies are on top of the basketball world.

Considering that UConn athletics doesn't have the NIL support of, say, Texas A&M, D'Amelio's presence in the space cannot be understated. He is pushing the Huskies' fanbase and alumni base to open up their checkbooks and help the school build a massive financial backing for athletes in a world where Name, Image and Likeness is only increasing in importance.