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March 6, 2024

UConn basketball star Clingan inks NIL deal with RITZ crackers

UConn men’s basketball star and Bristol native Donovan Clingan has signed an NIL deal with the cracker company RITZ ahead of the NCAA tournament.

UConn men’s basketball star and Bristol native Donovan Clingan has signed a name, image and likeness (NIL) deal with the cracker company RITZ ahead of the NCAA tournament.

RITZ, a sponsor of the tournament, has hatched agreements with 16 men’s and women’s basketball players across the nation to promote its two new flavors of toasted chips: sweet habanero and honey barbecue.

Clingan and the other 15 athletes will post content related to the new flavors on social media throughout the tournament as part of the deal.

The RITZ brand is owned by Mondelēz International, which has its North American headquarters in East Hanover, New Jersey.

Until a new law took effect on July 1, 2022, Connecticut was one of two states in the country that banned student-athletes from using their school logos — a prohibition that opponents argued constrained students’ ability to obtain endorsements, putting the school at a disadvantage when it came to recruiting top athletes.

One of the first athletes to take advantage of NIL was UConn women’s basketball star Paige Bueckers, who has inked endorsement deals with Gatorade and StockX. The Wall Street Journal reported she could make $1 million a year from those endorsements.

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