The college athletics landscape is changing at a breakneck pace. Here’s how Alaska universities are keeping pace.

Max Helgeson has been the target of some playful ribbing in the UAA hockey team’s locker room this season.

But that’s OK with him.

Helgeson, a senior forward from Anchorage, is one of the few Alaska athletes who have taken advantage of the name, image and likeness (NIL) opportunities college athletes have become eligible to receive in recent years.

While Helgeson’s deal with a local Ace Hardware store is anything but lucrative, it’s not gone unnoticed by teammates.

“The boys were definitely chirping me a little bit, calling me the Ace man,” he said. “I may have to buy a few lunches here and there, but it’s all good.”

The NIL, along with rules that ease transfer from one institution to another, are a part of the rapidly changing landscape of college sports. While it’s changing at a breakneck pace throughout major universities in big conferences, it’s a change that’s felt in Alaska as well, with a pair of Division I hockey teams and a host of other Division II athletic programs.

“It’s incredible,” UAF director of athletics Brock Anundson said. “The (transfer) portal was such a huge emphasis and still is. The NIL adds another layer to that component. A lot of coaches I talk to throughout our conferences, it’s almost like you’re re-recruiting your students every year because there’s opportunities everywhere.”

Helgeson landed his deal through a connection from coaching at the Anchorage Hockey Academy. So far, it’s been limited to a couple of in-store autograph signing sessions of cards that featured his likeness. But he’s not opposed to expanding it and is looking at other opportunities, joking he might land a commercial and be able to recite the famed Ace jingle tagline.

UAA director of athletics Ryan Swartwood said being leading edge when it comes to NIL practices helps UAA become more attractive to student-athletes.

“The NIL has really changed things,” Swartwood said. “The importance of being adaptive and being nimble in this new environment is key for us.”

Helgeson said growing up with a goal of playing college hockey generally meant securing a scholarship as the end goal financially. Now there is much more economic opportunity for college athletes. But that also means more to potentially juggle in a schedule that already includes classes, training and competition.

“I definitely think it could be a little bit of a distraction too,” Helgeson said.

Both UAA and UAF recently partnered with Influxer, a company that creates co-branded personalized apparel that features specific players’ names and numbers.

The company allows student-athletes to take control of their opportunities for personalized merchandise. Helgeson said the student-athletes get 20% of the revenue from the merchandise sold through the vendor.

UAA is about to launch Seawolf Exchange, a marketplace that allows student-athletes to establish a profile with the potential to pair with businesses, boosters or institutions for NIL sponsorships or endorsements. UAF has a similar plan in the works as well, through a platform called Influencer.

The platforms also help with the regulatory portion of NIL, which is important for both athletes and athletic departments. They track transactions and assure that all parties are properly registered. Anundson said they include learning modules and seminars and other educational and training materials. All of that is on top of the sessions covering rules and best practices offered through the school’s compliance department.

“Putting these infrastructures and facilitating those deals gives us that monitoring, the tracking, the reporting functionality that helps stay in compliance,” Anundson said.

At the major conference Division I level, NIL is big business. Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders and LSU gymnast Livvy Dunne have deals valued at upwards of $3 million.

While the partnerships and marketplace won’t likely be used as much as at major Division I institutions, Swartwood said they’re moves meant to increase the student-athletes’ opportunities, which has evolved into an essential recruiting tool.

“As we were looking at the landscape, we talked about our coaches a great deal and thought it was the right thing to do to have a platform like that and to give our students the best possible chance to maximize their potential,” Swartwood said.

Not all the changes revolve around opportunities for the student-athletes. Some are focused on fans of the teams.

UAA recently launched a mobile app in a partnership with SIDEARM Sports, which also works with major Division I universities like Oregon, Oklahoma and Syracuse. Swartwood credited the Seawolves’ media relations team for work launching and maintaining the app. It includes stories, schedules, ticketing, multimedia and even a shop.

“We’re trying to make it as easy as possible for fans to follow our teams,” Swartwood said.

Some of the tech advances are coming on the field of play as well.

At UAF, the team is using Firstbeat monitors to help measure athletes as they train, perform and recover. Players on the Nanooks basketball and hockey teams are wearing the monitors that allow physiological measurements to be taken, providing a set of data for coaches and trainers.

“It creates a measurement tool so that coaches can see how efficient their student-athletes are, whether it’s in practice, lifting weights or competition,” Anundson said. “Our strength and conditioning coaches can kind of tell them where they’re lacking and what they need to get better at. It’s really cool.”

While sponsorships and partnerships are an age-old strategy in college athletics, even those traditional tactics are being updated.

Two years ago, UAF partnered with Fairbanks’ Latitude 65 Brewing Co. on Nanook 65 Golden Ale, a beer that funded scholarships for UAF student-athletes. The ale is sold at hockey games at the Carlson Center, The Pub on campus and the Latitude 65 brewery tap room with $1 per pint going toward athletic scholarships. Last year, a non-alcoholic option was released — a berry lemonade.

“The first year we raised the lion’s share of a scholarship, and last year we raised a scholarship plus,” Anundson said. “It’s growing every year.”

While scholarships are still important, Helgeson said the personal financial component has become a major factor for student-athletes, even at midsize institutions like UAA and UAF.

“It’s definitely getting bigger,” he said. “As an athlete, you can use yourself and create your own little business platform.”