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‘Canes Connection’ is a collective looking to help Miami stay competitive in the NIL space

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By DAVID LAKE Aug 10, 2022

In the quickly changing and evolving landscape of modern college athletics, providing name, image, and likeness opportunities for student-athletes is critical to attracting, developing, and keeping talent in a program.

Miami Hurricanes fans can now support UM student-athletes through a collective, Canes Connection, in an effort to keep the university on an equal playing field in the competitive NIL landscape of college athletics.

Canes Connection, a collective that will look to receive funding from both individual fans and businesses, is an independent entity created to work with and serve UM student-athletes through a variety of NIL activities.

It will serve as a vessel to help Miami student-athletes maximize their NIL opportunities while also helping businesses earn a return on their investments.

All funds are paid to student-athletes in a manner compliant with the NCAA and Florida law. The money raised by Canes Connection, a LLC, is dedicated to create NIL opportunities for UM student-athletes. Due to the law in the state of Florida, the university cannot have any affiliation with the collective.

Co-CEOs Zach Burr and Brian Goldmeier are political fundraisers from each side of the aisle with more than 30 years of experience in that field, raising close to $500 million in their careers.

Burr, a Miami alum, is confident UM’s passionate fanbase and the local South Florida business community is going to help the Hurricanes be competitive in the NIL space.

“From a fundraising standpoint, the University of Miami has some advantages and disadvantages,” Burr said. “Our alumni base is not as big as other schools around the country, but there is a big advantage with the local commerce and business. At the end of the day Brian and I really care about UM football and the university as a whole. We just want to do our part in helping as much as we can.”

The Canes Connection is looking to help supplement the generosity of local billionaire and UM alum John Ruiz in helping serve the university in the competitive NIL space. Canes Connection has partnered with LifeWallet Sports, which will ensure all UM student-athletes have agreements in place that comply with all laws and NCAA rules.

Ruiz, who Burr and Goldmeier have consulted with, has made it known that his annual NIL budget is close to $10 million. The Canes Connection has set an annual goal of raising $10 million to help supplement that number. For this 2022 calendar year, Canes Connection is on track to hit that number.

Canes Connection is excited about its partnership with Shadow Lion, an award-winning sports content creation company, that will help create original brand content across all digital platforms for each UM student-athlete that opts to work with the collective.

Shadow Lion has been a part of creating content for quarterback Tom Brady, including the Hertz commercials and documentaries ‘Tom vs. Time’ and ‘The Great Brady Heist.’

“This is a partnership that is going to help streamline the process for businesses that want return on investment,” Burr said. “We can provide the legal, we can provide the compliance, and we can provide the content creation for these businesses with a reputable brand that can create really good content for these companies.

“We can help connect players with different businesses that are interesting. Some players may be interested in hospitality, some may be interested in technology, some may be interested in crypto. We can provide opportunities to these student-athletes in a city that is on fire in terms of growth.”

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