TAMPA, FLA., MAY 23, 2023 – The Fowler Ave Collective — the 10-month-old third-party organization that supports USF student-athletes through name, image and likeness (NIL) initiatives — is transforming its ambitious, creative plans into reality.

 

The collective has hired a pair of familiar names — development director Larry Antonucci, a former longtime USF assistant athletic director and director of football operations, and fan engagement director Will Turner, a well-connected and respected reporter who most recently served as publisher of the Bulls247 web site — while taking additional steps to assure professionalism, accountability and transparency.
 
Corey Staniscia, the collective's co-founder and chairman, announced a financial advisory committee that includes former USF football players Jay Mize and Andrew Ketchel, along with prominent boosters Suzanne Ward, David Goldstein and Marc Ostroff. The committee will help the collective with financial oversight and goal-setting.
 
"These are all very smart people who care a great deal about USF,'' Staniscia said. "We've got some great infrastructure in place and now we're really going to accelerate into job at hand — and that's supporting our USF student-athletes.''
 
By 2024, the collective has set a goal of reaching 1,000 members who pay monthly dues or pledges, and reaching a total annual contribution of $3.5-million. USF student-athletes who choose to affiliate themselves with the collective are paid for appearing at events and interactions with members at fan-access or meet-and-greet initiatives, both in-person and digitally. Collective members can also receive exclusive merchandise and memorabilia, and there are also plans to establish member events at tailgates and USF road games.
 
The idea is to keep USF athletics competitive in a college sports recruiting/retention landscape that is now heavily influenced by NIL opportunities and the transfer portal. For prospective USF student-athletes, NIL funding has joined a checklist of attractions such as playing time, facilities, coaching staff, academic degree offerings and the Bay area.
 
Staniscia said the collective currently has about 200 members. By growing that number to 1,000 by 2024, he projects that will translate to roughly $350,000 in annual contributions. Currently, there are monthly contribution plans of $10, $25, $56 (in honor of the USF-founding year of 1956), $100, $200 and $500.
 
Staniscia said Turner's familiarity with the USF fan base will allow him to focus on soliciting memberships in those contribution ranges. Staniscia and Antonucci will mostly focus on corporate sponsorships and larger donations.
 

"It's the best of both worlds — Will will help us grow our membership base and Nucc (Antonucci) has such great institutional knowledge with the boosters and football alumni,'' Staniscia said. "For anyone who had been hesitant to get involved, the relationships will be solidified with Will and Nucc. I think we're going to see an influx of folks who will really get excited with the opportunities we're offering.''
 
Antonucci, who left his athletic-director position at Sarasota Cardinal Mooney High School to join the collective, said he has followed the changing face of college sports and had questions about NIL. But after meeting with Staniscia and learning about the first-year NIL impact on USF student-athletes, he has grown excited about the collective's potential.
 

"It seemed like every time I turned around, I was reading stories about kids who were supposedly getting paid millions and that just seemed wild to me,'' Antonucci said. "What I'm finding out is NIL really helps kids with everyday expenses. It helps them get mom and dad to a game, if they're out of town. They can fix the broken washer and dryer, maybe fix their car. Necessary stuff that everybody needs.
 
"Now all of that makes great sense to me and I think it's a wonderful idea whose time has finally come. This isn't some Ponzi scheme. These kids aren't going to Las Vegas for the weekend or taking Mediterranean cruises. These are things that are needed to get USF on an even playing field with its current competitors and where it wishes to be in the future. So, this is definitely a message I can get behind and I think fans, once they truly understand it, will want to get behind it in a big way and help our program thrive. It's going to help our student-athletes. It's going to help USF. It's going to help our community. I'm excited about all of that.''
 
Antonucci said the "education piece'' is critical because of all the information/misinformation circulating about NIL.
 
"Through all of this, trust is a huge factor,'' Staniscia said. "When you have someone like Nucc, who is basically the godfather of USF football, the trust factor is very high with our donors, alumni and athletes. So, the relationships are going to click a lot faster. And he's really going to connect with getting a lot of our former football players back in the fold.''
 
Staniscia, a Pompano Beach-based political strategist and a former USF football student manager, said the collective is taking up 90 percent of his time while providing 0 percent of his income. He described it as a "passion project'' that allows him to express devotion to his school.
 
And there's this: Staniscia, who aspires to become a college athletic director, actually wrote the State of Florida's initial NIL legislation, which was passed in 2020 and implemented one year later.
 
In 2019, Staniscia was driving to Tallahassee with State Representative Chip LaMarca (R-Lighthouse Point) when he saw California had filed its first NIL bill.
 
"I was like, 'Chip, have you ever heard of NIL?' '' said Staniscia, who was LaMarca's chief of staff at the time. "And after I explained it for half an hour Chip said, 'let's do it!' So, I told him what we needed to do. We got behind it, we wrote it, and we took it on and got it passed. It was an investment in me because I ultimately want to work in college athletics and this collective is an overall investment in USF. I believe this work will do a lot of good for our student-athletes. It already has."
 
Staniscia said as the collective has grown tremendously over the previous months, he has been met with passionate support for USF Athletics and the University and a growing understanding of how NIL initiatives impact future success.  
 
"We are after the same thing. We all want USF Athletics to be as good as it can be. And we want our student-athletes to be successful, whether they get into professional athletics or pursue a career in anything else. Through the collective, we're going to have a chance to help.''
 
Antonucci said he likes the fact that the collective is another way that fans and alumni can help USF.
 
"Even though I don't work for USF technically, the approach is all Team USF,'' Antonucci said. "We're not robbing Peter to pay Paul. If people have their hearts set on contributing to the scholarship fund, the building fund, the Bulls Club or wherever, we encourage that.
 
"The collective is a new way to help our student-athletes. The people I know who have been involved financially with football from the beginning, it's done out of love for the program and love for their school. There's tremendous pride in that. That's exactly the feeling and emotional investment that makes people want to get involved.''
 
For more information on the Fowler Ave Collective, log onto www.FowlerAvenue.com.