In a cutting edge move, WVU athletics is partnering with Robinhood

I’ve always thought of collegiate athletics as a babbling brook. You want your school to be a rock firmly rooted that sticks out and causes ripples, if not waves.

Lately, though, that babbling brook has swelled to a river gushing after a rain. The transfer portal and Name, Image and Likeness have caused much of that. On Monday, WVU athletic director Shane Lyons pointed to the NCAA vs. Alston Supreme Court ruling and announced Mountaineer student-athletes will each receive $5,980 as “additional financial assistance based on their academic achievement and progress toward graduation.” In other words, stay eligible with a 2.0 grade-point average, stay out of trouble and away from the transfer portal and that money is yours.

I’ve been impressed with how WVU has handled all the above. Wheelhouse Creative, where I work, has helped with Country Roads Trust, the NIL store co-founded by alums Oliver Luck and Ken Kendrick for Mountaineer athletes. The Trust has been at the forefront nationally and we’ve been impressed with the leadership.

And then today WVU, again with the help of Luck, has proven to be a leader within that gushing river that is now college athletics.

In a unique announcement, it was unveiled that Robinhood, the stock trading app, and West Virginia University are partnering to launch a financial education program for student-athletes for the 2022-2023 academic year.

Tomorrow WVU president E. Gordon Gee will host a reception to announce a 4-year partnership with the company. Luck, among others, will be there.

According to the release, “the partnership between Robinhood and West Virginia University will mean that WVU will become the first D1 school to make Financial Education coursework available for every student-athlete starting with the 2022-2023 school year.

“The course will be available to all student-athletes at WVU, no matter the student’s sport or gender. Components of this course will be integrated into the WVU freshman seminar so that all students on campus will receive financial education in 2022-2023. The course will be required for all WVU student-athletes on scholarship and optional for those who are not.

Lyons was quoted.

“We are very excited for the partnership between Robinhood Markets, John Chambers College of Business and Economics, and our Athletics Department to provide a financial literacy education class to all incoming student-athletes,” Lyons said. “We have always made it a priority to offer this type of educational services and career path seminars to our athletes in the past, but this takes it a step further to provide class credit in a classroom setting. Preparing our student-athletes for life after college is one of our top priorities as a department, and I am confident that the education provided through the financial literacy course will play a key role in helping our student-athletes develop the skills necessary for success in the future.”

If you don’t follow Wall Street, I urge you Google Robinhood. It’s been a hot topic and sometimes controversial among those dealing in stocks.

According to the press release, “Robinhood Markets is on a mission to democratize finance for all. With Robinhood, people can invest with no account minimums through Robinhood Financial LLC, buy and sell crypto through Robinhood Crypto LLC, and learn about investing through easy-to-understand educational content. Robinhood aims to build the most trusted, lowest cost, and most culturally relevant money app worldwide.”

Whether you’re a Robinhood fan or not, one has to admit this partnership with WVU is cutting edge stuff. And it’s nice to see the university thinking forward in such a way.

Reading about all the details in the coming days will be interesting.

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Mitch Vingle covered sports in West Virginia for 38 years. Follow Mitch on Twitter at @MitchVingle and be sure to check out the rest of Wheelhouse Creative’s website for your marketing and advertising needs. If interested, call us at 304-905-6005.