Social media madness gives opportunities to Edert and others

While almost everyone in March Madness wants to be this year’sversion of reigning national champion Kansas, almost anyone playingover the next three weeks would also love to be this year’s versionof Doug Edert.

If that name doesn’t ring a bell, maybe Edert’s wispy mustachewill. Edert was the reserve guard from Saint Peter’s who turnedinto a social media sensation after scoring 20 points in afirst-round upset over Kentucky last March.

By the time he and the Peacocks made history by becoming thefirst 15 seed to advance to the Elite Eight, Edert’s mustache hadits own Twitter handle and Edert himself had deals hawking chickenwings and a few other products.

All of this was spurred by the confluence of social media’sever-growing imprint on society (and sports) combined with the newand loosely regulated world of NIL, the name, imagine and likenessdeals that allow college athletes to cash in on paidendorsements.

Edert’s success story is one of several examples of the wayssocial media has turbocharged March Madness, that one-of-a-kindAmerican sporting event that had communal elements built in —think, the bracket and the office pool — long before the interneteven existed.

The key for someone like Edert — and there will almost certainlybe another “someone like Edert” once the shots start flying — wasto move quickly.

“My main focus was basketball, and obviously, I’m trying to dowhatever I can to help my team win games,” Edert told TheAssociated Press. “But at the same time, I’m trying to capitalizeon a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

Some things — namely, the emerging love affair with his jumpshot, to say nothing of his ’70s-style ’stache — took on a life oftheir own, the way things often do on TikTok, Instagram and theother social media platforms that help drive the tournament’spopularity. Others — namely, the hot wings deal and a few moresponsorships — came because he struck quickly at the urging of hisfriends and parents, who were watching this unheralded guard from atiny school blow up in real time.

“Nobody was pressuring me, saying, ‘You’ve gotta do this, oryou’ve gotta do that,’” Edert said. “They were just behind me, andthey were offering to help in any way they could.”

Edert would not divulge the amount he has made from hissponsorships, which included a deal shooting celebrity videomessages and another promoting a website that offers adultrecreational sports leagues.

But, he said, it gave him a “nice little start, for whateverhappens after college.” Certainly, it gave him more than someonelike him might have gotten only a couple years ago. And it was notsomething anyone saw coming for a guard from a 3,400-student schoolin Jersey City, New Jersey.

“There’s always that chance that a star player, or an underratedplayer from a team that goes far, will capture the hearts ofAmerica, and where will they capture it? On social media,” saidJeffrey Weiner, senior vice president for NIL marketing at GSEWorldwide. “It’ll be on TV, and then they’ll go look for thatperson on social media. People are watching these games with theirphones in their hands.”

Edert said he rarely posted on social media, and had a followingof about 1,500 on Instagram in early March of last year.

“And after the Kentucky game, I look at my phone and it’s 6,000followers and it’s going up,” he said. It is now 149,000, barely ablip by hoop-star standards, but a 1,000 times more than he had ayear ago.

Perhaps the single most impactful social media post to emerge inthe NIL era came from the TikTok account of Oregon’s SedonaPrince.

Her takedown of the NCAA for the sparse weight room facilitiesat the 2021 women’s tournament shined a spotlight on thedisparities between men’s and women’s college sports. That videocurrently has been viewed more than 12.3 million times.

In the month between February 2021 and the time Prince posted amonth later, the hashtag “NCAA” spiked from 7 million to 490million views on TikTok. The hashtag “March Madness” has gone from957 million views in 2021 to 1.4 billion views this year on TikTok— and that 2023 figure was calculated before a single basket hadbeen made in the actual tournament.

Prince’s TikTok following now numbers 2.8 million. With theexplosion in popularity came a deal with an energy drink thatincludes equity and cash in exchange for creating content on socialmedia. Her current feed also includes sponsored content with Buickand Crocs, which means she now has a bank account to go with herunexpected fame.

“I’ve tried to optimize my NIL opportunities.,” Prince said inan interview last year with Yahoo Finance. “I take what I do offthe court, which is TikTok and certain brand deals, but turn theminto something I can use for the rest of my life., money that I canretire with, put my kids through college with.”

The NIL platform Opendorse estimated that companies spent $917million on college athlete deals in the first year they wereapproved. Most of those earnings were made via social media.

These days, many arrangements come on the front end throughso-called collectives that are tied to schools, often sealed duringthe recruiting process. Edert, however, was making no such moneywhen he signed to play for Shaheen Holloway at Saint Peter’s.

“At the beginning of the year, when they explained to studentsthat you can start your own business or have your own brand, I’mthinking, ‘This doesn’t really apply to me,’” Edert said of thepreseason athletic department presentations he sat through.

Now, it does, and Edert’s star turn at March Madness last yearalso played a roundabout role in his second run through therecruiting process. When Holloway left Saint Peter’s for a job athis alma mater, Seton Hall, several Peacocks, including Edert, usedsocial media to let the world know they were entering the transferportal.

“I announced early in the morning, and by 7:30 or 8, my phonestarted blowing up,” Edert said.

Most of those calls and messages were from coaches at Edert’snew school, Bryant University, where they knew a lot more about theguard out of Nutley, New Jersey than they might have the yearbefore. Those coaches weren’t the only ones.

“Even yesterday, I was signing autographs and taking somepictures with kids in middle school and high school,” Edert said.“They said ’We love you, Doug.” And I felt great. I’m just doingwhat I love to do. There’s a lot of love and support from a lot ofpeople, and it really means a lot.”