UH Goes Big on NIL

Senior Jovi Lefotu plays as a guard for the Rainbow Wahine basketball team. Photo: Courtesy of UH Athletics

Since her freshman year, UH women’s basketball player Jovi Lefotu has received financial support from such brands as Waiākea and Hawai‘iUSA Federal Credit Union through the university’s Name, Image and Likeness program. “That was really helpful for me, and I loved it,” says Lefotu, now a senior. “It takes pressure off our shoulders during school, where our sport and academics become very demanding. So not having to worry as much about working gives us more time and energy to dedicate to our school and sport.”

College athletes across the country have been securing similar corporate sponsorships since 2021, when the NCAA approved noninstitutional name, image and likeness branding and compensation. In exchange, the student athletes might agree to such things as appearing at autograph signings or in commercials. The landmark policy allows all incoming and current college student athletes to monetize their names, images and likenesses without losing NCAA eligibility.

Name, image and likeness policies were expanded in July 2025, permitting universities to establish their own financial agreements with student athletes. Deep-pocketed colleges have quickly mobilized to establish funding for such efforts to help them recruit top athletes.

UH Mānoa assessed it needs about $5 million annually in name, image and likeness support to be competitive in the Mountain West Conference—which it recently joined as a full member—and nationally. At first, the university and the state Legislature couldn’t agree on how to fund the UH program, with a promising bill failing to pass this past May.

A month later, five contributors—Bank of Hawai‘i, First Hawaiian Bank, Matson, Jack Tsui and Walter Dods—each committed $200,000 annually for program funding, to be distributed by the UH Foundation. The funds totaling $1 million per year will be disbursed over the next five years. (Tsui and Dods are both former executives of First Hawaiian Bank.) UH plans to fundraise to make up the rest of the total.

“What this is able to do is allow our coaches to be able to go out and recruit and entertain elite student athletes,” says Hunter Niswander, director of development and NIL for UH Mānoa Athletics. “So what does that mean for us? Well, it starts with being able to keep the local talent here—that is like the No. 1 priority for our coaches—and then to be able to go out and recruit on top of that.”

Ideally, the NIL program will help draw student athletes to UH, and after they graduate, they’ll choose to stay in the Islands. “So hopefully, it’s kind of a full circle approach that is impacting the whole state, not just athletics. They’re taking their degrees and their experiences as a student athlete and deciding to stay here and be sort of that next generation for the next round of student athletes to look up to.”

Along with the $5 million raised from the donors, UH is welcoming donations from the public to the general Boost the ’Bows Fund or any of UH’s 21 athletic programs that have their own funds. “Let’s say it goes to a team—then it’s up to that coach to be able to utilize those funds to recruit and retain their student athletes,” Niswander says. “For example, support through the Boost the ’Bows Fund helps create the resources coaches can use to build their rosters, while providing student athletes with additional resources that support their success at UH.” This is different from noninstitutional name, image and likeness efforts, where student athletes can enter into direct partnerships with brands.

Other groups are also finding ways to raise funds and promote opportunities for Hawai‘i’s student athletes, such as the Downtown Athletic Club of Hawai‘i’s NIL Collective. UH also offers an official marketplace, ’Bows Exchange, to connect businesses with student athletes, and develops opportunities through corporate partnerships via Hawai‘i Sports Properties.

Katrina Valcourt is the executive editor of HONOLULU Magazine.