By Only two years ago, NextFan was unveiled at Long Beach State as the men’s basketball program’s first partnership in the new Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) era of college athletics.
Now, NextFan is a thing of the past with no updates on its return.
At the time, the athletic administration at CSULB looked much different than today, with athletic director Bobby Smitheran now at the helm.
That period introduced what is still today deemed the ‘Wild West’ of college athletics in regard to NIL, which is full of gray areas, a lack of stability and false promises.
“I can’t speak to what transpired with [NextFan],” Smitheran said. “I can’t speak to what the structure was before…Hopefully, we’re not going to have those kinds of certain situations where you establish something and then it just falls at the wayside because that’s not great either.”
NextFan, a fan engagement website for athletes, musicians and any creators with a fanbase to offer diverse fan experiences, was reported on by The Long Beach Current, formerly known as the Daily 49er in 2023, but not long after became defunct and the website no longer exists.
The Long Beach State men’s basketball team huddled up on Feb. 23 against CSUN at the Walter Pyramid. The NIL partnership with NextFan was supposed to allow the pictured players to profit from their name, image and likeness. Photo credit: Samuel Chacko
“The reality is that being a college athlete is a full-time job,” said NextFan CEO Mark Roah in March 2023 to The Daily 49er. “The goal for the coaching staff and the school was to integrate our products and our offerings with the team to help the team be more competitive and to keep these players happy.”
From the onset, that strategy was challenged, according to Roah.
“It’s been hard to get [fans] to engage. We’ve had more success working with boosters,” Roah said.
Nextfan 2.0 was scheduled to launch in Spring 2023, but the website rebranded into Channl.com on July 5 of this year as a platform for building, engaging and monetizing your audience targeted mainly at musicians.
In the 2024 season, the men’s volleyball program created the first NIL collective for student-athletes at CSULB, with Smitheran attributing it to maintaining their competitiveness.
Soon after, the Long Beach State Men’s Basketball Alliance was announced. This official NIL collective hopes to help stabilize and solidify the program’s identity.
Senior guard Devin Askew wearing the “Long Beach State Men’s Basketball Alliance” shirt in support of the new NIL fund at LBSU. The program aims to help with recruiting by offering athletes what schools around the country have been doing for the past two years. Photo credit: LBSU Athletics
For a mid-major like LBSU, these alliances present an opportunity to maintain competitiveness in an environment where team boosters spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on their programs.
“This new initiative will potentially put us in the position to retain players and build upon the legacy of an already well-established tradition here at the Beach. In order to do so, we need your support,” men’s basketball head coach Chris Acker said in a press release introducing the collective.
This year, the men’s basketball squad lost five crucial players from their NCAA tournament run in the transfer portal to teams that can offer them a lot more in NIL deals.
“If your best players are continually poached from your program, it just makes it that much harder to compete at that level,” Smitheran said.
