Texas, Alabama, and LSU named 71 Blue Ribbon Elite athletes in three days. Here’s every school class Nike has announced so far, what the rosters reveal, and why adding up the press releases gets you the wrong number.
Three Schools, Three Days
Tommy Hagar holds Alabama’s school record in the 200-yard backstroke. As of September 8, he’s on the same Nike roster as Crimson Tide starting quarterback Keelon Russell.
Hagar is one of 18 Alabama athletes in Nike’s Blue Ribbon Elite NIL program for 2026-27. The class spans nine programs: eight football players, three softball players, and one athlete apiece from men’s basketball, women’s basketball, men’s swimming, volleyball, gymnastics, soccer, and baseball.
Alabama wasn’t alone. The day before, on Labor Day, Texas announced its second class: 13 athletes across eight sports, and not one football player. The day after, LSU went bigger than anyone, with 40 athletes representing 14 programs.
Three schools, three days, 71 athletes. Add Texas’s first class from March and summer classes from Clemson and South Carolina, and Blue Ribbon Elite now counts five schools, six classes, and 103 named athletes.
In July, we covered Nike announcing 37 athletes in 13 days: a football class in which every signee was a man, followed by a swim class. The school classes are the other half of the strategy, and they look less like a football signing list than like athletic departments.
What Blue Ribbon Elite Is
Blue Ribbon Elite is Nike’s college NIL program. It launched at LSU in December 2025, alongside a 10-year extension that keeps the Tigers in Nike through 2036, with a first class of 10 LSU athletes that included tight end Trey’Dez Green and cornerback DJ Pickett.
The name is a callback. Before it was Nike, the company was Blue Ribbon Sports, co-founded in 1964 by Phil Knight and his Oregon track coach, Bill Bowerman.
Nike’s pitch, repeated nearly word for word in each school’s announcement, is that these athletes do more than wear the Swoosh. Nike says they take part in brand campaigns, product innovation, and creative direction, and get individual support on training, styling, media, and content. Through the program, athletes at Nike partner schools sign NIL deals directly with the brand.
For perspective, Nike’s first NIL class, in October 2022, was five basketball players, including Bronny James, Caitlin Clark, and JuJu Watkins.
(Sourcing note: what the program provides is described by Nike and its partner schools. None of the announcements we reviewed disclose compensation or contract terms.)
Blue Ribbon Elite Timeline
- October 2022: Nike announces its first NIL class: five basketball players, including Bronny James, Caitlin Clark, and JuJu Watkins.
- December 2025: Blue Ribbon Elite launches at LSU with 10 athletes, alongside a 10-year Nike extension through 2036.
- March 13, 2026: Texas announces its first class of 16.
- July 1, 2026: South Carolina announces five athletes as its new 10-year Nike partnership takes effect.
- July 10, 2026: Four LSU athletes appear in Nike’s national back-to-school NIL campaign as Blue Ribbon Elite athletes.
- July 16, 2026: Nike announces its football class: eight featured college players and 11 high school prospects. LSU, Alabama, and Clemson announce their football contingents the same day: 11, eight, and five players.
- July 29, 2026: Nike Swim announces its own 18-athlete swimming, diving, and water polo class.
- July 31, 2026: Clemson announces 11 athletes.
- September 7, 2026: Texas announces its second class, “Volume 2,” with 13 athletes.
- September 8, 2026: Alabama announces 18 athletes.
- September 9, 2026: LSU announces its 2026-27 class of 40.
Every Blue Ribbon Elite School Class So Far
Five schools have published six classes as of September 10, 2026. We’ll update this page as more arrive. Athlete names link to their RallyFuel profiles where available, and otherwise to their school’s RallyFuel page, where you can find and fuel them.
| School | Class announced | Athletes | Programs | Football |
| LSU | Sept. 9, 2026 | 40 | 14 | 11 |
| Alabama | Sept. 8, 2026 | 18 | 9 | 8 |
| Texas (Volume 2) | Sept. 7, 2026 | 13 | 8 | 0 |
| Clemson | July 31, 2026 | 11 | 3 | 5 |
| South Carolina | July 1, 2026 | 5 | 2 | 3 |
| Texas (Volume 1) | March 13, 2026 | 16 | 9 | 5† |
| Total | 103 | 32 |
Programs count men’s and women’s teams separately. † Includes Jonah Williams, listed for both baseball and football.
LSU (40)
Announced September 9, 2026. LSU was Blue Ribbon Elite’s launch school, and its 2026-27 class includes six returning members from December’s launch class and, by LSU’s count, 34 newcomers. Deputy athletic director Zach Greenwell called the class unprecedented and said it took most of a year, including 14 team content shoots, to put together. According to LSU, offensive tackle Jordan Seaton is the first offensive lineman at any level to sign with Nike.
- Football (11): Ty Benefield, Harlem Berry, Jayce Brown, Lamar Brown, Caden Durham, Trey’Dez Green, Husan Longstreet, DJ Pickett, Jordan Seaton, Princewill Umanmielen, Whit Weeks
- Baseball (8): Cade Arrambide, Casan Evans, Landon Hood, Cooper Moore, Logan Schmidt, William Schmidt, Omar Serna, Bino Watters
- Softball (4): Kylee Edwards, Mackenzie Pickens, Madison Pickens, Ayla Tuua
- Track and field (3): Aniyah Bigam, Grant Buckmiller, Tima Godbless
- Gymnastics (3): Kailin Chio, Kaliya Lincoln, Konnor McClain
- Men’s basketball (2): Abdi Bashir Jr., Mouhamed Dioubate
- Women’s basketball (2): MiLaysia Fulwiley, ZaKiyah Johnson
- Soccer (2): Sariyah Bailey, Ava Galligan
- Men’s golf (1): Árni Sveinsson
- Swimming (1): Jere Hribar
- Men’s tennis (1): Erik Arutiunian
- Women’s tennis (1): Ella McDonald
- Volleyball (1): Jurnee Robinson
Alabama (18)
Announced September 8, 2026. The eight football players were first announced on July 16, when Touchdown Alabama noted that two of them, Cederian Morgan and EJ Crowell, had yet to play a snap for the Tide.
- Football (8): Zabien Brown, Ryan Coleman-Williams, EJ Crowell, Bray Hubbard, Dijon Lee Jr., Cederian Morgan, Yhonzae Pierre, Keelon Russell
- Softball (3): Jocelyn Briski, Vic Moten, Audrey Vandagriff
- Men’s basketball (1): Amari Allen
- Women’s basketball (1): Ace Austin
- Men’s swimming (1): Tommy Hagar
- Volleyball (1): Hannah Parant
- Gymnastics (1): Azaraya Ra-Akbar
- Soccer (1): Melina Rebimbas
- Baseball (1): Myles Upchurch
Texas (29 across two classes)
Nike and Texas have partnered for 26 years, and Texas now releases its Blue Ribbon Elite classes in volumes. Its September announcement lists all 16 Volume 1 athletes alongside the 13 new ones.
Volume 2, announced September 7, 2026. The first Blue Ribbon Elite school class without a single football player.
- Baseball (4): Sam Cozart, Linkin Garcia, Anthony Pack Jr., Adrian Rodriguez
- Softball (2): Katie Stewart, Isa Torres
- Women’s track and field (2): Mariah Maxwell, Mia Maxwell
- Beach volleyball (1): Lily Davis
- Men’s swimming (1): Rex Maurer
- Men’s tennis (1): Oliver Ojakaar
- Women’s tennis (1): Elizabeth Ionescu
- Rowing (1): Phoebe Wise
Volume 1, announced March 13, 2026.
- Football (4): Dia Bell, Cam Coleman, Colin Simmons, Ryan Wingo
- Baseball and football (1): Jonah Williams
- Baseball (2): Aiden Robbins, Dylan Volantis
- Softball (2): Reese Atwood, Teagan Kavan
- Swimming (2): Hubert Kós, Eva Okaro
- Golf (2): Tommy Morrison, Farah O’Keefe
- Volleyball (2): Cari Spears, Torrey Stafford
- Soccer (1): Ava McDonald
Clemson (11)
Announced July 31, 2026. Clemson’s Nike partnership began in 2002.
- Football (5): Gideon Davidson, Ashton Hampton, Will Heldt, T.J. Moore, Bryant Wesco Jr.
- Softball (3): Sarah Breaux, Marian Collins, Sierra Maness
- Gymnastics (3): Anna Flynn Cashion, Quinn Kuhl, Audrey Snyder
South Carolina (5)
Announced July 1, 2026, the day South Carolina’s 10-year Nike partnership took effect across all 21 Gamecock programs.
- Football (3): Nyck Harbor, LaNorris Sellers, Dylan Stewart
- Women’s basketball (2): Joyce Edwards, Chloe Kitts
Also on Nike’s Roster: The July Football Class
Nike’s July football roster also includes players at schools that, as far as we could find, hadn’t published a full Blue Ribbon Elite class as of September 10: Ole Miss (Trinidad Chambliss, Kewan Lacy), Oregon (Dante Moore), Ohio State (Chris Henry Jr.), and Vanderbilt (Jared Curtis). Sports Illustrated has listed Ole Miss among the program’s partner schools. We’ll add full classes as schools announce them.
What the School Classes Show
Football leads, but it’s under a third of the roster
Across the six school classes, football accounts for 32 of the 103 athletes. No sport has more, and it’s still less than a third. Baseball is next with 15, or 16 if you count Texas two-sport athlete Jonah Williams on both sides. Softball has 14, basketball eight, and gymnastics seven. Swimming and track and field have five apiece; tennis, volleyball, and soccer four apiece; golf three; and beach volleyball and rowing one each.
At least 42 of the 103 compete in women’s sports. July’s football class had none. Alabama soccer player Melina Rebimbas said in her statement that she hopes to “inspire this next generation of female athletes to always dream big.”
Football seats stay in a narrow band. Reach is what varies.
Every school has at least three football players in the program, and none has more than 11. The bigger difference is how far each school goes beyond football. South Carolina’s class stopped at women’s basketball. Clemson’s added softball and gymnastics. LSU’s reached track and field, golf, tennis, and swimming. Texas’s second class skipped football entirely and went to rowing, beach volleyball, and tennis.
The SEC dominates the list
Four of the five schools with published classes play in the SEC: LSU, Alabama, Texas, and South Carolina. Clemson is the only ACC school so far. That echoes the tilt in July’s football numbers, when 40 of the 58 college football players we reported on Nike’s roster were at SEC schools. For how the conferences compare on team performance, fan engagement, and NIL activity, see RallyFuel’s Conference Hub.
Credentials travel
Several of the non-football picks arrive with serious résumés. Texas’s first class includes Hubert Kós, the 2024 Olympic champion in the 200-meter backstroke, and Teagan Kavan, Most Outstanding Player of the 2025 Women’s College World Series. Its second includes Rex Maurer, who swam on the Longhorns’ NCAA-champion 800-yard freestyle relay in March. Alabama’s includes Hagar, a first-team All-American at this year’s NCAA Championships. That lines up with July’s swim class, which leaned on proven champions rather than prospects.
The announcements follow the apparel contracts
Every class so far has arrived with a partnership milestone attached: LSU’s launch with its 10-year extension, South Carolina’s on the first day of its new Nike deal, Clemson’s framed around a 25-year relationship, both Texas classes around 26 years, and Alabama’s as the latest chapter in a long all-sports partnership.
That’s the business logic in plain view. Blue Ribbon Elite is an NIL program for athletes, and it’s also something Nike brings to the schools it outfits. Sportico noted last December that with Under Armour scaling back its college business, Nike and adidas are the two apparel giants left at the top. adidas runs its own NIL Network.
The Counting Problem
If you’re tempted to add these numbers to July’s, don’t.
Nike’s announcements come in layers: a launch class in December, school classes in March, July, and September, and a back-to-school campaign and football roster in July. The same athletes show up more than once.
Alabama is the cleanest example. All eight of its football signees were announced on July 16, nearly two months before they reappeared in the school class.
LSU describes its class as six returning members and 34 newcomers, which is accurate for its school class. It isn’t accurate for Nike’s roster. LSU’s own release ties its 11 football players to Nike’s inaugural football roster from July, and softball’s Kylee Edwards appeared in Nike’s back-to-school campaign that same month. Count the 11 football players, the four non-football holdovers from December (Kailin Chio, Casan Evans, ZaKiyah Johnson, and Jurnee Robinson), and Edwards, and 16 of LSU’s 40 had been publicly announced as Nike athletes before September 9.
Across the three September announcements, that’s at least 24 of 71 names that had been announced before. Texas’s Cam Coleman and Colin Simmons, meanwhile, were in the March class before Nike featured them again in July. Clemson’s five football players were announced on July 16, two weeks before the rest of the Clemson class.
Even the official running totals don’t line up. Nike’s South Carolina release put its elite NIL roster at roughly 80 on July 1, and Clemson’s announcement put it at roughly 85 on July 31. Texas’s September release still says “over 60.” There’s no clean public count, and adding up press releases won’t produce one.
The Reality Check
Start with scale. More than 100 athletes across five athletic departments is a big commitment for one brand. It’s also a small slice of the athletes at those five schools, and a rounding error against the roughly half a million NCAA athletes we pointed to in July.
Then money. Gear, product input, content support, and campaign work have real value, especially in sports where brand money is scarce. But Nike hasn’t said what Blue Ribbon Elite pays, and every description of the program so far comes from Nike or a partner school.
Then access. Every class so far has come through a Nike school. Athletes at programs outfitted by another brand are looking at a different door, if there is one.
What This Means If You’re an Athlete
Your school’s apparel deal is part of your NIL market. Every Blue Ribbon Elite class so far has come through a Nike partner school, announced alongside a partnership milestone. If your school wears another brand, find out what that brand runs.
School classes are where Olympic sports get seats. Softball players, gymnasts, swimmers, rowers, tennis players, and track athletes are landing Nike deals through school classes, and the ones selected so far tend to have national-level results. If you’re in one of those sports at a Nike school, results are the credential that travels.
Treat it as a season, not a lifetime. Alabama’s and LSU’s classes are labeled 2026-27, Texas releases its classes in volumes, and LSU says its roster will keep evolving as Nike adds new and emerging athletes. Four of the 10 athletes from LSU’s December launch class aren’t on the new list.
Read the contract and your state’s rules. Terms aren’t public, and NIL rules vary by state. Our state guides, including Alabama’s, are a good place to start.
Q&A
Question: What is Nike Blue Ribbon Elite? Short answer: Nike’s college NIL program, launched at LSU in December 2025. It signs athletes at Nike partner schools to NIL deals that, according to Nike, include brand campaigns, product input, and creative work, plus individual support on training, media, and content. The name comes from Blue Ribbon Sports, Nike’s original company name.
Question: Which schools have announced Blue Ribbon Elite classes? Short answer: As of September 10, 2026: LSU (40, September 9), Alabama (18, September 8), Texas (13 on September 7, its second class after 16 in March), Clemson (11, July 31), and South Carolina (5, July 1). Nike’s July football roster also includes players at Ole Miss, Oregon, Ohio State, and Vanderbilt.
Question: Who is on Alabama’s Blue Ribbon Elite roster? Short answer: Eighteen athletes across nine programs: eight football players, including quarterback Keelon Russell; softball’s Jocelyn Briski, Vic Moten, and Audrey Vandagriff; and one athlete each from men’s and women’s basketball, men’s swimming, volleyball, gymnastics, soccer, and baseball. The full list is above.
Question: How many athletes are in Blue Ribbon Elite? Short answer: There’s no clean public number. Nike’s South Carolina release put its elite NIL roster at roughly 80 on July 1, Clemson’s put it at roughly 85 on July 31, and Texas’s September release still used “over 60.” The six school classes name 103 athletes, but many of them were also announced earlier through Nike’s football roster or campaigns.
Question: Is Blue Ribbon Elite the same as Nike Swim’s NIL class? Short answer: They appear to be separate. Nike Swim announced its own 18-athlete swimming, diving, and water polo class on July 29 and called it an ambassador program. Blue Ribbon Elite school classes include swimmers too, among them Texas’s Hubert Kós, Eva Okaro, and Rex Maurer, LSU’s Jere Hribar, and Alabama’s Tommy Hagar.
Question: What if I’m not at a Nike school, or not on the list? Short answer: That’s nearly everyone. National brand programs like this reach a small number of athletes, mostly at high-profile programs. For everyone else, the realistic paths are local and regional partnerships, collective and school-facilitated deals, and direct fan support. RallyFuel carries profiles for Division I, II, and III athletes, so fans can back the athletes they already watch, and contributions are refunded automatically when a deal’s conditions aren’t met.
Keep Following
This page is updated as new Blue Ribbon Elite classes are announced. For July’s football and swim classes, read Nike NIL 2026: 37 Athletes in 13 Days. For school context, see Exploring NIL Deals at the University of Alabama, LSU Tigers NIL Deals 2026, and the 2026 SEC QB NIL Index. To see where each school’s conference ranks, visit RallyFuel’s conference rankings.
