Wright State NIL: The 1903 Collective, the Raiders, and a Horizon League NIL Reality Check

Wright State University isn’t a Power 4 program. The Raiders compete in the Horizon League. Home games are at the Nutter Center in Fairborn, just outside Dayton. The basketball budget is a fraction of what Big Ten or SEC schools spend on a single position group. But Wright State has been quietly building an NIL infrastructure that fits its actual scale — and 2025-26 was the year that strategy paid off on the court.

This is what Wright State NIL looks like, who’s behind it, and how fans plug in.

The 1903 Collective

Wright State’s NIL collective is called The 1903 Collective — sometimes written “Nineteen 03 Collective” — named for 1903, the year the Wright Brothers completed their first powered flight. It’s the natural reference for any Wright State branding, and it gives the collective a built-in identity that doesn’t depend on national recognition.

The collective is run by Wright State alum Andy Lawrence. Its website is weare1903.com, which lists giving options for fans and businesses interested in supporting Raider athletes.

The 1903 Collective came together as a direct response to a painful 2022. Wright State made the NCAA Tournament First Four that year (beating Bryant University, then losing to Arizona), with a roster that looked loaded for a return run. Then the transfer portal happened: Grant Basile left for Virginia Tech, Tanner Holden left for Ohio State. The athletic department, alumni, and fan base felt the loss immediately, and the lesson stuck — at the mid-major level, NIL isn’t optional anymore. It’s retention infrastructure.

That infrastructure has expanded since. Zach Beal, Wright State’s NIL Director, has framed the program’s approach around revenue sharing as much as collective payments. In a February 2026 interview with the Wright State Guardian, Beal said: “With revenue sharing, we can now invest more money and resources into student-athletes than ever before… [NIL and] revenue sharing [offers] more opportunities to invest in our student-athletes, school and community. We can provide athletic scholarships to every student-athlete, which hasn’t been the case in the past.”

The financial picture isn’t all upside, though. Athletic Director Joylynn Brown has been public about the cost side. The House v. NCAA settlement reduces NCAA funding to Wright State by approximately $150,000 per year, and combined with other settlement-related shifts, Brown estimates Wright State athletics needs to find roughly $850,000 annually that wasn’t on the books before — a figure that, as she’s noted, is roughly the size of an entire operating budget for some of the program’s smaller sports. That’s the financial reality the 1903 Collective and individual NIL deals are operating against.

How 1903 actually operates

Lawrence has been clear in interviews that Wright State’s collective doesn’t operate on a pay-for-play model. “We are certainly not going out and looking to buy victories,” he told WDTN. “You want to recruit, you want to build, you want to have what you have in the pocket, and the money comes back to the culture first. What we care about is good people, good guys on the court that you’re going to see go out there and build a winning culture.”

That framing translates into actual operating choices. Players have to do real work for compensation — community service, youth clinics, charity appearances. Specific examples reported by the Dayton Daily News:

• Players have worked at the Miami Valley Child Development Center
• Players have appeared at the Dayton Gala of Hope Foundation (a cancer fundraiser)
• Community engagement is treated as a core requirement, not an afterthought

That framing isn’t just marketing. It’s an actual operating choice that fits Wright State’s compliance posture and the reality that a Horizon League collective can’t outbid Power 4 NIL dollars anyway. If retention works at Wright State, it works because players want to stay — and a collective that builds visible community ties is one way to make that case.

The 1903 Collective has primarily focused on men’s basketball, which reflects where Wright State’s national visibility is highest. Trey Calvin is one example of a player who reportedly factored the collective’s existence into his decision to use his final year of eligibility at Wright State rather than transfer.

2025-26: The payoff season

Everything the collective was designed to support showed up on the court last season.

The 2025-26 Wright State Raiders, coached by second-year head coach Clint Sargent, won both the Horizon League regular season title and the Horizon League tournament championship. The Raiders earned an automatic bid to the 2026 NCAA Tournament — Wright State’s first since 2022.

Key contributors that season included:

• Michael Imariagbe — graduate-year forward, team-high 241 rebounds, 408 points
• TJ Burch — sophomore guard, defensive standout with 88 steals and 121 assists, 422 points (team high)
• Michael Cooper — freshman point guard who exceeded expectations, 416 points
• Solomon Callaghan, Logan Woods — returners from 2024-25 who provided steady leadership and outside shooting
• Kellen Pickett — freshman forward, 46 blocked shots, 299 points
• Andrea Holden — sophomore forward, 42 blocked shots and a steady defensive contributor
• Dominic Pangonis — transfer guard (from Stephen F. Austin) who emerged as a key piece

The team set a school single-season record with 152 blocked shots and won the Horizon League tournament championship over Detroit Mercy, 66-63, before drawing No. 3 seed Virginia in the NCAA Tournament First Round (a 73-82 loss).

The postseason awards underline how broadly the success was distributed:

• TJ Burch swept three major Horizon League awards — Defensive Player of the Year, Newcomer of the Year, and Tournament MVP — plus First Team All-Horizon League
• Kellen Pickett — Horizon League Freshman of the Year
• Michael Imariagbe — Second Team All-Horizon League
• Clint Sargent — Horizon League Coach of the Year

The story isn’t that Wright State suddenly outspent anyone. It’s that a roster built through a combination of returners, recruiting, and the transfer portal — supported by a small but functional collective — held together long enough to deliver a championship. That’s exactly the value proposition the 1903 Collective was sold on.

Sargent enters 2026-27 as a third-year head coach with the program’s most successful recent season behind him and the corresponding portal pressure to navigate.

What mid-major NIL actually looks like financially

The honest version: Wright State players don’t sign $1M deals. Andy Lawrence himself has said the collective “can’t keep up with the bloated sums being thrown around” at higher levels. Coach Scott Nagy (Sargent’s predecessor) publicly noted being told players could get $500,000 offers from other schools through informal channels.

What’s actually available at the Wright State level breaks down across a few streams:

• Collective payments through 1903. Contributions from fans and businesses get pooled and distributed to athletes who complete community-service requirements.
• Local sponsorships. Dayton, Fairborn, and Beavercreek-area businesses that want a connection to the program — restaurants, auto dealerships, local services. These deals are individually negotiated between the athlete and the business.
• Social content partnerships. Athletes posting for products or services with payment tied to deliverables. The biggest social followings get the biggest deals.
• Youth clinics. Athletes running paid skills clinics for area kids, with families paying a registration fee.

Total earnings vary widely by player — visibility, social reach, position, and playing time all matter. A starting guard with NCAA Tournament exposure earns meaningfully more than a bench contributor. That’s true everywhere in college sports, just more visible at the mid-major level.

Fans following individual players can browse athlete pages as another way to track and support specific Raiders directly.

Compliance and tax basics

Wright State’s institutional NIL policy is University Policy 3810, last revised March 7, 2025 (under Ohio Governor’s Executive Order 2021-10D). It’s specific enough to be worth knowing:

1. 30-day disclosure window. Student-athletes have 30 days from enrollment to disclose all current and expired NIL activities. Going forward, any proposed contract must be disclosed to the Wright State Athletics Compliance Office before the athlete signs it.
2. Prohibited categories. Athletes cannot enter contracts with companies in alcohol, tobacco, e-cigarettes/vape, controlled substances, medical or recreational marijuana, adult entertainment, casinos, or other gambling promotion.
3. No pay-for-play, no inducements. Compensation can’t be tied to athletic performance, can’t be conditioned on initial or continued enrollment, and can’t be for work not actually performed (sham agreements).
4. No Wright State IP without permission. Athletes can’t use Wright State trademarks, logos, uniforms, or facilities in their NIL activities without prior written approval from the university.
5. 1099 tax treatment. NIL earnings are independent contractor income. Athletes need to set aside a portion for federal and Ohio state income tax plus self-employment tax. The university provides some financial education through compliance and student-athlete services, but doesn’t provide or subsidize professional tax assistance.
6. Independent representation allowed. Athletes can hire agents or attorneys at their own cost, subject to NCAA, Horizon League, and Ohio Revised Code Chapter 4771 (which governs athlete agents in Ohio).

Ohio doesn’t have a comprehensive state NIL statute beyond the 2021 executive order. Wright State athletes operate primarily under NCAA policy, Horizon League rules, the Ohio executive order, and Policy 3810.

How fans plug in

Three real paths for supporting Wright State athletes:

1. Contribute to The 1903 Collective. Visit weare1903.com to see current giving levels. This is the formal, athletic-department-aligned channel that flows through to signed athletes.
2. Attend games at the Nutter Center. Direct attendance signals fan demand, supports the program economically, and contributes to the visible energy that attracts both recruits and sponsors.
3. Use RallyFuel’s Wright State NIL page. Conditional NIL contributions activate only if the athlete stays at the designated school — useful in transfer-portal environments where mid-major programs like Wright State face constant retention pressure from larger schools. Funds auto-refund if conditions aren’t met.

Q&A

What’s the official Wright State NIL collective? The 1903 Collective, named for the Wright Brothers’ first flight in 1903. Run by Wright State alum Andy Lawrence. Website: weare1903.com. Primarily focused on men’s basketball.

Who’s the Wright State basketball head coach? Clint Sargent, entering his third season in 2026-27. He led the Raiders to the Horizon League regular season and tournament championships in 2025-26 and an NCAA Tournament bid.

Who runs Wright State’s NIL program? Zach Beal serves as the WSU NIL Director, working out of the athletics department. He’s publicly framed Wright State’s NIL approach around revenue sharing alongside the 1903 Collective.

Who’s Wright State’s Athletic Director? Joylynn Brown. She has publicly noted that the House v. NCAA settlement reduces Wright State’s NCAA funding by approximately $150,000 per year, contributing to roughly $850,000 in annual financial pressure the athletic department needs to navigate.

How did Wright State do in 2025-26? The Raiders won the Horizon League regular season title and tournament championship (66-63 over Detroit Mercy), then lost 73-82 to No. 3 seed Virginia in the NCAA Tournament First Round. Key contributors: Michael Imariagbe, TJ Burch, Michael Cooper, Solomon Callaghan, Kellen Pickett, Logan Woods, Andrea Holden, and Dominic Pangonis. TJ Burch swept three Horizon League awards (Defensive Player of the Year, Newcomer of the Year, Tournament MVP). Kellen Pickett was Freshman of the Year. Clint Sargent was Coach of the Year.

Why was the collective formed in the first place? Wright State lost two of its best players (Grant Basile to Virginia Tech, Tanner Holden to Ohio State) after the 2022 NCAA Tournament First Four appearance. That portal exit made it clear that mid-major retention required NIL infrastructure.

Is the 1903 Collective pay-for-play? No. Lawrence has been public that 1903 requires actual community service or appearance work in exchange for payments — Miami Valley Child Development Center work, Dayton Gala of Hope Foundation appearances, youth clinics. Players have to earn the checks.

Do non-basketball Wright State athletes get NIL deals? Yes, though basketball is the primary focus of the 1903 Collective. Individual NIL deals can flow to any Raider athlete with enough local visibility or social reach. Wright State sponsors 16 NCAA Division I sports across men’s and women’s programs.

What’s a realistic NIL number for a Wright State athlete? Specific figures aren’t publicly disclosed. The realistic range for a Horizon League player is four to low five figures annually for most athletes, with marquee returning players or high-visibility transfers potentially earning more through combined collective and individual deals. Power 4 numbers don’t apply at this level.