Ole Miss Family bringing tremendous growth to all-important Grove Collective NIL fund

The Grove Collective has experienced a period of explosion over the course of the last month. Since early October until now, membership...and more importantly donations...have surged from a tad over 300 to eclipsing the 3,000-member mark Thursday night. That means more NIL money and opportunities for Ole Miss student-athletes.

We spoke with Walker Jones, a former Ole Miss football player who is serving as executive director of the Grove Collective, on Friday morning.

"It speaks to the Ole Miss family for stepping up," Jones told Inside the Rebels. "We're putting together a real, well-thought-out, membership platform with real benefits. I think our fans realize the impact that their contributions can have to our athletes on and off the field.

"They stepped up. We asked them to step up and they did. We feel really good about what's happening. It's really just us trying to get the pieces in place. We're giving everybody the comfort of knowing that their money is going to a good place and a good cause."

The latest rush to membership caused the Grove Collective's website (www.thegrovecollective.com) to crash due to traffic earlier this week.

"Our website actually crashed on Tuesday due to the amount of traffic and membership, so we had to go in and make some tweaks on the run and quick changes. But we've ticked over 3,000 members and now running hard to 5,000 before the year end. These are good problems to have, as we're trying to acomodate this huge rush and passion for membership," Jones said.

Jones continued on to discuss the importance of the Grove Collective to the coaches at Ole Miss.

"I think they would all say it's certainly part of their decision-making process, their ability to be competitive from a roster management standpoint," he said.
Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin (Photo: John Bowen, 247Sports)

The surge from Ole Miss alumni, boosters and fans has been in part sparked by the recent reported interest of Auburn in head football coach Lane Kiffin.

"I think you're seeing it with Auburn right now. The one thing that Auburn is throwing around and everybody's talking about is Auburn's NIL platform. They're trying to lure and attract their next head coach. I think what you're seeing is the relevance of NIL on a national landscpae and how it's going to play a major factor in both retaining coaches and attracting coaches. I tell a lot of people it's all about the players, but the other inverse effect is supporting these coaches and giving these coaches the piece of mind to know they can be competitive in this NIL environment," said Jones.

"Lane Kffin loves everything about Oxford, Ole Miss and feels like he can win here. But we've got to continually give him and the other coaches the confidence that we have a well funded with a well run collective to support this NIL platform. As long as our coaches feel that, then I feel pretty good about attracting top talent, attracting the top coaches and retaining the top coaches. I think it works hand in hand."

SOURCE: Johnson, David. "Ole Miss Family bringing tremendous growth to all-important Grove Collective NIL fund." Inside the Rebels - 247Sports.com, 4 November 2022, https://247sports.com/college/ole-miss/Article/Ole-Miss-Family-bringing-tremendous-growth-to-all-important-Grove-Collective-NIL-fund-196778708/