Rising Spear, Warpath merger unites two biggest NIL collectives for benefit of FSU athletes

Even though the people working at both Rising Spear and Warpath didn't see it this way, they were aware of how it looked.

Both name, image and likeness collectives around the Florida State athletic department were created with the idea of helping create opportunities for FSU athletes to financially benefit in this new age of NIL.

Each brought their own perspective to the table. Warpath was all about the fan experience, offering invitations to online chats and in-person meet and greets with FSU athletes for a monthly subscription fee. Rising Spear was focused on the athletes, supporting their charitable causes and finding opportunities in the community for them to be compensated in order to make appearances.

And yet, these two collectives, which launched mere weeks apart earlier this year, could definitely be seen as combatants fighting for money from the FSU fanbase to become the superior FSU collective.

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In an effort to show that their ultimate goal is to help FSU remain competitive in this rapidly-evolving era of NIL collectives, Rising Spear and Warpath announced on May 5 that they were joining forces, merging under the Rising Spear name to unite the two biggest names in the FSU NIL space.

"Once I was named CEO, one of the first things that I wanted to do was clear up the donor confusion in the space," Rising Spear CEO Matthew Quigley told the Democrat.

"I'm sure you saw like on Twitter and social media, I saw numerous people that were like, 'Well, do I donate to Rising Spear or Warpath? I don't know what to do.' It was very important to me to get that cleared up and do this merger...

"Everyone's done exceptionally well. The team at Dreamfield is awesome to work with. We were able to clear up any sort of donor confusion in the Florida State space to where all the NIL donors will just go to RisingSpear.com, donate from there and then we'll allow Dreamfield to handle the fan engagement aspect for us."

Warpath was actually the first FSU NIL collective to officially launch, doing so on March 16. It was the second NIL collective launched by Dreamfield, an Orlando-based NIL marketplace that has established itself as one of the most prominent in the space and lists former FSU and UCF quarterback McKenzie Milton among its co-founders.

Rising Spear was originally announced on Dec. 7, 2021. However, it didn't really charge into the NIL space until the lead-up to FSU's spring game on April 9 under Quigley's guidance.

Merger plans for Rising Spear and Warpath started early

Even though the merger didn't come together until both collectives had launched separately, talks of the merger began before either one officially launched.

"The goal was never to come in here and be competition, but there was clearly a need that needed to be filled at the time. Ultimately, once Quigley came on board, they really started to get trajectory and they got someone that understood the landscape. They got someone who had a goal in mind and we started talking to Quigley immediately," Corey Staniscia, external affairs director at Dreamfield, told the Democrat.

"Once he came on board, we were talking to him immediately and that was even before our launch. We said 'Listen, the wheels are in motion, we're going. If you guys can catch up and launch as well then let's talk about how do we end up merging or at least not have an overlap of benefits.'"

The Rising Spear launch was as good as its board members had hoped and definitely strong enough to convince Dreamfield that a merger would be beneficial for all parties.

According to state law, Florida schools are not allowed to be affiliated with NIL collectives, a hindrance when compared with many other states nationally where schools are allowed to be involved directly with NIL collectives.

FSU's collectives got a late start in relation to a few other collectives across the country, including UF's Gator Collective, which is among the biggest in the country. However, Rising Spear has definitely done well to catch up.

In less than two months' time, Rising Spear has amassed over 1,300 recurring or one-time donations to benefit FSU athletes. The collective has more than 55 ambassadors who are FSU athletes, 28 of whom are FSU football players.

That list of ambassadors is a mix of FSU football veterans like Amari Gainer and Jordan Travis, FSU football newcomers like Tatum Bethune and AJ Duffy and members of the FSU soccer and softball teams.

The addition of former FSU women's basketball director of player development Will Cowen as Rising Spear's new COO further legitimized the collective considering Cowen was a co-chair on FSU's NIL task force when he was still at the university.

"We're really happy about it. I've been really happy with Quigley. He's shown true leadership and has a direction. Him and Will are just tremendous, they get it, they understand it, they're moving the ball forward every day," Staniscia said.

"The goal here is not to be selfish or the face of the program. It's to let the athletes be the face of the program and benefit. It's not about an ego like we're seeing in South Florida. It's about working together for the benefit of the Seminoles and the Seminole athletes. So we were able to put the egos aside and said, 'Look, let's just kind of roll ourselves up with you guys, let us still do the same programming we were doing at Warpath and now we're gonna add an additional layer of benefits to your Rising Spear membership.'"

Rising Spear, Warpath merger should allow parts of new company to focus on their strengths

Under the merger, both sides of the collective get to focus on what they did upon launch. The Garnet Spirit side is Rising Spear's model at launch, funding donations that 100% of which go towards FSU athletes. The Gold Standard side is powered by Dreamfield and follows the Warpath model, allowing fans opportunities to meet and talk to current and former FSU athletes as part of its monthly subscription service.

These perks will start shortly after Memorial Day with Twitter spaces and will soon move to Rising Spear's private discord server. It's a model that has worked well for Dreamfield with its first NIL collective venture at UCF.

"Dreamfield is awesome at this fan engagement stuff. I don't know if you've been paying attention to what they've been doing at UCF with their Mission Control fund and their fan engagement down there," Quigley said.

"They do a great job with it and we just thought this was a great merger and we both bring a lot of stuff to the table."

An added benefit for Rising Spear under this merger is that it sets the collective up with Dreamfield's marketplace of sponsorship and advertising opportunities. Dreamfield has worked to create NIL deals with a number of sizable companies, including Mercedes Benz USA and FTX.

"Corey and the guys at Dreamfield have done a phenomenal job with these Fortune 500 kind of large endorsement deals that they were able to bring, like the FTX deal that they brought to some of our student-athletes," Quigley said.

"That's just one avenue that Dreamfield is gonna bring to the table and how we're going to work together. Because at the end of the day, it's about providing the student-athletes with as many avenues as possible to make money. That is our goal at Rising Spear."

By the start of football season in late August, Rising Spear's hope is that it will have doubled its current donor total of 1,300.

Both Quigley and Staniscia believe this partnership is the kind of thing that can make this goal far likelier to become reality.

Reach Curt Weiler at cweiler@tallahassee.com or follow him on Twitter @CurtMWeiler.

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This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Two biggest FSU NIL collectives now united under Rising Spear banner