However, Michigan State University's football booster, The Downtown Coaches Club, is still alive and fighting for its place in the new college sports landscape.

Collectives vs. Sports Boosters

NIL collectives emerged at universities in August 2021. These independent organizations collect money from fans, donors, and alumni to pay student-athletes for endorsements, branded content, public appearances, and autograph signings.

Some collectives operate as nonprofits, functioning like charities, while others are for-profit businesses.

Collectives like This is Sparta!, East Lansing NIL Club, and Spartan Nation NIL provide funding for MSU athletes.

Collective funds directly support individual athletes, whereas sports boosters traditionally support all school sports teams and athletic departments, often funding facility development. While MSU once had multiple sports boosters for individual sports, only a few remain. The Downtown Coaches Club, MSU football’s booster since 1946, has endured.

The Downtown Coaches Club

Michigan State University Athletic Director Clarence Lester "Biggie" Munn organized a group to form a booster organization to support MSU football.

"They met downtown, that’s why we’re called the Downtown Coaches Club," last year’s President of The Downtown Coaches Club Gary Mugnolo said.

In the 1990s, the booster funded the 50/50 raffle, provided the football team with wireless headsets, and funded the marching band, but have since lost the same cash flow they used to have.

Chuck Sleeper, who served as MSU’s director of MSU development at the time told Mark Hollis who served as the Athletic Director from 2008-2018 decided to eliminate the 14 existing booster clubs and move fundraising operations in-house. However, the Downtown Coaches Club continued to hold events and fundraise for the program.

Since the landscape has changed, and the money in college football has gone up, the club has lost traction, and fewer people have joined.

They receive donations from local businesses and will pay athletes for their appearances at events they host, but before Mark Dantonio’s final year, all the head coaches would make an appearance at their events.

The current President of the club, Brad Gray, said that players like Nate Carter and Jonathan Kim had made an appearance at their events and their current focus is building relationships with the players.

The dollar amounts going around in college sports have heightened over the years, and the sports boosters can’t keep up.

As fans move to donate toward collectives and pay athletes directly, the organizations that stick around will have to learn to evolve in a fast-paced environment with constantly shifting dynamics.