Tripp Powell Talks High Tide Traditions on Inside the Locker Room
High Tide Traditions, the brand-new NIL collective aimed at providing University of Alabama student-athletes with business and branding opportunities, has quickly become one of the most important weapons in the Crimson Tide's repertoire.
In just its first week of operation, the exciting organization signed four football athletes, inking Will Reichard, Tyler Booker, Ty Simpson and, most recently, Eli Ricks to deals.
One of the founders of High Tide Traditions, Tripp Powell, joined Inside the Locker Room to discuss what exactly the collective will be working to accomplish and how it plans to do so.
"High Tide Traditions has been pretty slow and methodical in making sure this was done correctly," Powell said, "There were a lot of folks that kind of jumped in front and wanted to lead, and the consistent message that was heard, both from [Larry Morris] and from the other guys as part of the group, was 'We're gonna do this right and do it right from the start.'"
"We have designed this to where, in the true spirit of the NIL opportunity, there are true marketing and advertising opportunities available for businesses and kids to ramp up their value," explained Powell.
Diving into the details of what potential deals for athletes may look like, Powell said, "None of this can be performance based nor can it be tied to the attendance of a specific institution. These NIL deals are crafted specifically to protect the kid and the investor. They're not extremely long term, they're not tied to their attendance at Alabama and whatever value is brought to both the student-athlete and the business is done in a manner that falls within the rules."
While the landscape of NIL is often likened to that of the wild west, Powell and High Tide Traditions is working to provide a clearer path for student-athletes to navigate the new waters.
Powell's entire interview with Wimp and Barry Sanderson can be found here. Tune into Inside the Locker Room weekdays from 7-9 a.m. live on Tide 100.9 FM or streaming on the Tide 100.9 app.