Sacramento State and Nelligan Sports Marketing agreed to a five-year contract granting NSM the rights to represent the university’s athletic department and marketing program on Feb. 20.

Sac State joins a collective group of university’s who have partnered with NSM over the years such as University of Louisville, Long Beach State and Rutgers University.

“I am genuinely excited about this opportunity because I think it will benefit not just the athletic department, but the university in totality,” said Sac State’s Athletic Director Terry Wanless. “We decided it was in our best interest to look at how we were going to grow the corporate relationships and the public private partnerships that are needed to survive in this economically challenging world. We looked for an outside company that would come in with the right expertise, history and personnel to make this a reality, and found that in NSM.”

NSM Executive Vice President Mike Palisi feels this opportunity will be beneficial to Sac State and his company.

“We’re thrilled to be partnering with Sacramento State and continuing our expansion in the California State University system,” Palisi said in a press release.

The partnership with Sac State makes it the fourth for NSM in the California State University educational system and fifth in the state.

“It’s an honor to be associated with an institution that provides quality education and competitive athletics to a wide range of students,” Palisi said. “In addition, Sacramento State provides an excellent opportunity for corporate America to reach college sports’ fans located in the capital of the country’s most populous and diverse state.”

On the company’s website, it shows NSM being well-documented throughout it’s history in building long-term relationships with universities by increasing revenue growth through it’s corporate relationships.

Sac State now can begin expanding its image with the help of NSM to not only local companies but larger business communities that feel it is in those businesses best interest to be a part of the university’s future.

“We haven’t done a really good job of branding our product and athletics can help in that category,” Wanless said. “Certainly, everything we do is interrelated to the campus imagery here and what we bring as a department to the campus is literally the front door. We have the ability to be in the paper numerous times and on television to create a hopefully positive image about Sacramento State.”

Recruiting young high school and community college athletes from the Sacramento area can potentially increase for Sac State due to this partnership, said Assistant Media Relations Director Joe Waltasti.

“If you grow up a Hornets’ fan, the chances are you want to play for the Hornets. If you can bring people in with the help of this marketing company that can only help you down the road,” Waltasti said. “Anything and everything impacts recruiting. It seems like the more exposure you get in the area the better recruiting you’re going to have and more money being brought in. Everything about this deal can affect recruiting.”

The partnership with NSM gives the company the ability to sign television and radio package deals particularly for basketball and football, which will expand Sac State’s image even more, Wanless said.

“I don’t want to mislead anybody in thinking that there is not a financial gain wanting to be made,” Wanless said. “We’re doing this because we believe we can improve the finances of the athletic department by entering into this agreement. We can create business partnerships and open doors of opportunity for those partnerships to occur far greater than we can do by ourselves.”

Once the local businesses see there is a value associated with Sac State, it would be obvious they will want to invest, Wanless said.

“To be honest, we were not able to get anybody interested in the past and I think that is a reflection of where our athletic department has been,” Wanless said. “But as we have gotten better, people are now starting to pay closer attention to Sacramento State now, and companies like this saw an opportunity to partner with us. It all works together, the more success you have the better it’s going to be. It’s not easy, but it’s better.”

Gabriel Pacheco can be reached at [email protected].