Meet Connor Printz: Claremont McKenna Basketball

Connor Printz (Claremont McKenna Men's Basketball) shares his tips to efficiently grow your social media and NIL Deal flow. 1 Million+ Followers and 100+ NIL Deals in 1 Hour Per day

Being proactive has always been a strength of college athlete, Connor Printz. Throughout high school he was recruited to play basketball by numerous D1 universities but he decided to focus on highly academic D3 schools, reaching out to Claremont McKenna College in California where he now dons the number 10 at the guard position. 

Once NIL deals started, Printz thought only big name athletes who go to universities like Duke would qualify for them. However, he carried the same go-ahead mentality contacting numerous brands as soon as possible despite having a low follower count across all his social media platforms.

“Once I started realizing like ‘alright you know you can make money through brand partnerships and social media stuff’ I just started reaching out to brands right away.” Printz said.

Printz used Instagram and their advertisements to determine what brands he would initially contact. After tagging them in posts, he was receiving mini care packages from these companies that contained free soaps, deodorants and snacks. 

Printz prioritizes dedicating an equal amount of time to all of his social media platforms. He says on average he spends about 1-2 hours a day creating content to post online and  30-45 minutes reaching out to different brands to get deals. 

“Brands aren’t really going to sit there and reach out to you nonstop, you know of course you may have brands reaching out to you but you need to be reaching out to brands every single day just like how you may be in the recruiting process reaching out to different colleges.” Printz said. 

Printz is represented by his NIL agent, Alex Sheinman who runs a sports social media agency called Snapback Sports. Printz and Sheinman met through LinkedIn and talked a few times over zoom calls before they started working on pursuing NIL deals together. Printz also took the time to speak with other agents. 

“My biggest recommendation there is really just doing your research first, there are a lot of sketchy agents out there in the NIL world today so just doing your research, having zoom calls with people and taking your time to look at an agent,” Printz said. 

Printz's first official NIL deal was with Snapchat. Today, his NIL portfolio consists of brand deals with companies like Powerade, CVS and Reebok. Printz has garnered over a million followers through Snapchat, Instagram and TikTok combined. 

By the time Claremont McKenna College’s athletic department contacted their college athletes about the recent trend of NIL deals and offered them help, Printz had already received 40-50 NIL deals. Despite receiving most of his brand deals on his own, Printz says his college has been supportive of college athletes' Name, Image and Likeness.

“I hit them up and was like ‘hey i’ve done a lot of deals so far,’ and they were shocked so I met with them and they’ve been great overall with the process,” Printz said, “They haven’t really me get deals but but more with ‘hey you have any legal questions we’re here to help you out with that.” 

Printz has even taken the time to help educate other college athletes by joining a NIL panel with other people who run NIL platforms. During the panel, they give advice on how college athletes can get their hands on NIL deals. 

The question of whether or not college athletes should be paid by their colleges is a tough one for Printz. He thinks college athletes should be paid but not him.

“Look I don’t think I should be paid from my school, I don’t bring in any money into our athletic program but I definitely do think that players at the highest level should get paid if they’re bringing in money for their schools.” Printz said.

Printz advises college athletes who want to pursue NIL brand deals to start creating good quality content now and build their own personal brand through it. Printz’s NIL journey has led him to hold a long term career goal of being a content creator full-time who eventually owns his own business. 

“I really realized that there are a lot of priorities for me in life to have flexibility, be able to travel, spend time with family, live in a beautiful place and you know being a creator would be awesome to do that.” Printz said. 

Dylan Barbee is a second-year Journalism major at the University of Missouri. His previous bylines include articles in The Statesman, The Maneater, and MoMuNo.