BYU helped broker NIL deal with Built Bar company that will pay tuition for football walk-ons

A sponsor of the BYU Cougars football program will pay the tuition for all 36 walk-ons through a name, image and likeness deal (NIL) that the university's athletic department helped set up.

A video posted to the BYU football team's verified Twitter account showed the announcement taking place during a team meeting Thursday morning. In the video, Nick Greer, the CEO of a protein bar company based in Utah called Built Bar, was addressing the entire team. Greer called up freshman walk-on quarterback Nick Billoups.

"We want you to be employee No. 1," Greer told Billoups. "We want to pay for your tuition."

The coaches and players in attendance all cheered and applauded after the announcement was made. Later in the video, Greer does the same thing with Talmage Gunther, a walk-on wide receiver.

"Talmage, you can thank coach," Greer said. "We want you to be employee No. 2 and we want to pay for your tuition."

Finally, Greer asks all walk-ons to stand up and refers to them as "employees one through 36."

Built Bar is part of the Built Brands company, which is an official sponsor of the BYU football team.

BYU released a statement and said that all 123 football players on the team were being offered an endorsement deal with Built, though scholarship athletes can earn $1,000 for being brand ambassadors.

"I love these boys, and I am overwhelmed with gratitude to be partnering with a company that is equally committed to assisting BYU football in building a culture of love and learning while enhancing the experience for all players," BYU head coach Kalani Sitake said in a statement.

The players who signed the NIL deals will wear Built branding on their helmets in practice and will also "participate in experiential events" for the company, the school said. Walk-on players will also do additional social media and experience promotions as part of their deals.

Under the arrangement, Built will pay the players directly.

"We're trying to put BYU on the map for all the right reasons," BYU associate athletic director Gary Vernon told ESPN. "We knew this would be exciting to be kind of the first ones to the dance in this area."

The deal raises questions about "pay-to-play" arrangements that are forbidden by the NCAA, in which an athletic department is not allowed to pay for student-athletes to be recruited or play for any team. Yet, since Built Bar is a sponsor and since the university helped secure the arrangement, the line becomes potentially blurry.

The state of Utah, however, does not have a law restricting NIL endorsement deals for student-athletes, making this arrangement possible. The NCAA has opted not to enforce strict guidelines against any such agreements, allowing individual schools to establish their own policies.

"We feel blessed because we don't have a state law on the books," Veron told ESPN.

The program announced that Built will also provide additional funding to the football team as part of its corporate sponsorship with BYU.