Fanatics, a digital sports platform and merchandising company, is bringing an exciting new opportunity to hundreds of student-athletes across the nation.

Through a collaboration between Fanatics Collectibles and Topps, two Fanatics-affiliated entities that specialize in sports memorabilia with various different institutions, will usher in a college trading cards program.

Fanatics Collectibles and Topps announced the news on Thursday morning.

Notably, this will be the first time that active college athletes will be featured on official trading cards.

This program is separated into two different types of partnerships: “exclusive” and “non-exclusive.”

The exclusive branch, which is aligned with “more than 35 institutions,” primarily caters to schools affiliated with big-name conferences like the Power Five. There are also approximately 200 individual student-athletes across these universities who signed name, image, and likeness (NIL) deals with Topps.

As for the non-exclusive branch, it will debut at “more than 100 additional institutions, including Oklahoma, Duke, North Carolina, Iowa and Syracuse.” The key differences between the exclusive and non-exclusive partnerships are that the non-exclusive ones are shorter and lack the presence of deals for individual athletes.

“Fanatics has been closely monitoring the ever-evolving NIL landscape, and we felt this was the perfect time to launch multiple, strategic college trading card programs that will allow schools and current student-athletes to create new levels of direct engagement with fans across hundreds of the top programs nationwide,” Derek Eiler, Executive Vice President of Fanatics College, said.

“There are tremendous opportunities for this untapped area of the hobby and to expand further across the collegiate sports landscape,” he continued.

Dave Leiner, Global Vice President and General Manager of Topps, also spoke on the groundbreaking initiative.

“This collection is the first offering of officially licensed collegiate cards featuring current athlete NIL rights. We’re thrilled at the opportunity to launch these comprehensive programs that combine premier student-athletes and elite institutions to create a best-in-class collegiate trading card product for fans and collectors,” Leiner noted.

However, it’s worth pointing out that not every athlete will receive a payday through the program.

While individually signed athletes can reportedly earn “well into the five figures” (depending on their position and other factors), non-exclusive athletes featured on the cards won’t earn such a payday.

Regardless, the move still proves to be a great opportunity for many.

“We are excited that Kentucky student athletes are a part of this exclusive new program with Topps and Fanatics which allows fans to collect official trading cards of their favorite current UK Wildcat athletes for the first time,” Jason Schlafer, University of Kentucky’s executive associate athletic director, said.

“With Fanatics shrewdly leveraging the iconic Topps brand they recently purchased, their launch into physical and digital trading cards will simultaneously boost their own revenues while creating yet another avenue for student-athletes to monetize their name-image-likeness,” Patrick Rishe, director of the sports business program at Washington University, added.

USC quarterback Caleb Williams also gushed over the deal.

“I’m so excited to team up with Fanatics and Topps on this new trading card partnership, which will allow me to create an even deeper level of engagement with fans and collectors everywhere,” he said.

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