Michigan State's Izzo Praises NIL for Solving Winter Break Problem

Tom Izzo and his Michigan State Spartans are preparing to go on winter break. After Thursday’s game against Stony Brook the Spartans won’t play again until Dec. 30.

Winter break can be a time when coaches get a little worried about their players. Players usually head home to see their family and friends. There have been times when players have gotten into trouble while at home.

During Wednesday’s lead-up to Thursday’s game with Stony Brook, Izzo spoke with the media, including MLive.com, about getting ready for winter break and said that, in one way, NIL money has helped solve at least one worry coaches have this time of year.

“It used to be that somebody would get picked up for shoplifting...Now, they have so much NIL money they don’t have to worry about shoplifting. So the NIL people, you solved a problem,” Izzo said.

Well, all right then. Izzo's comment was likely made in jest.

The Spartans are sitting in last place in the Big Ten standings after losing their first two leagues games but they are coming off a huge win over nationally-ranked Baylor on Saturday in Detroit, a game where the Spartans shot better than 60 percent from the floor for the game.

As for NIL at Michigan State, there are at least two collectives helping student-athletes with those opportunities. Spartan Dawg 4 Life is the official NIL collective for Michigan State but is focused on football. This is Sparta! Is focused on football, basketball and Olympic sports.

Michigan State also has its own NIL program called EverGreen, which partners its student-athletes with industry leaders in the areas of student-athlete branding, student-athlete development and financial education.

That program was selected as the Best Institutional Program at the 2023 NIL Summit in Atlanta.