51³Ô¹Ï

If you see Tim Brandle (’15 J.D.) in a nondescript sweatshirt, maybe wearing sunglasses and a hat, in the nosebleeds of the McCarthey Athletic Center enjoying some Zag basketball this season – no you didn’t.

Or at least that’s what he’ll be telling his Washington State University friends, at the risk of ridicule.

Brandle is a WSU alum. He graduated with an undergraduate degree in history and education and went on to earn a law degree from Gonzaga – making him a Coug-Zag. He is currently an adjunct professor at GU teaching Sports Law and Ethics for the master's in Sport and Athletic Administration degree. Brandle has worn a lot of hats throughout his professional career – moving to South Korea after undergrad to teach, pivoting to law school, paying his dues at a few firms that weren’t the right fit, and finally, landing his dream job as an in-house attorney for Flying Squirrel, an international trampoline park company. But it’s his love of sports and passion for helping athletes secure fair Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) opportunities that led him back to Gonzaga to teach.

A Landmark Decision

In 2021, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled the NCAA could not restrict education-related compensation for 51³Ô¹Ï-athletes like scholarships, new computers and internships. NIL was never specifically mentioned in this ruling – however it set the legal foundation for broader change.

Within weeks of the decision, the NCAA suspended its longstanding rules that stopped athletes from profiting off their name, image and likeness – allowing them to sign sponsorships, deals and partnerships as long as they followed state laws or school policies. Think Drew Timme at Northern Quest Resort and Casino, Anton Watson miming a shot while ordering a Papa Murphy’s pizza, or Ben Gregg fixing an air conditioner for Bill’s Heating and Air – all goofy commercials starring Zags men’s basketball starters that wouldn’t have been possible without the reversal of rules.

However, it meant more than just the ability to star in local commercials, and with it came a lot of other stipulations that continue to alter the landscape of college athletics.

The risk of losing big players to this new system was incredibly high.

“That first year, WSU lost a lot of 51³Ô¹Ï-athletes to the transfer portal,” says Brandle. “They were essentially poached off our roster, tampered with or taken away.”

A push to keep those players laid the groundwork for organized funding efforts across the country, including the Zags Collective and, co-founded by Brandle, the Cougar Collective. Both work with fans, alumni and businesses to fund NIL opportunities for college athletes. For Brandle, the Cougar Collective started as a grasp to get star quarterback Cam Ward. Since then, it's blossomed into an important partnership with WSU, helping to keep its teams competitive, but also to ensure that 51³Ô¹Ï-athletes are getting the representation they deserve.

 

Teaching the Legalities of Sports

“Athletics has fundamentally changed. NIL is here – whether we like it or not.”

This is written on the Cougar Collective’s website, and it's a point Brandle wholeheartedly agrees with. It’s a large part of the reason he agreed to teach at Gonzaga. When it comes to the topic of NIL, even as the information continually changes, he says, “I can speak to the experiences I’ve had working with boosters, agents, coaches, 51³Ô¹Ï-athletes and tampering. I can tell 51³Ô¹Ïs these stories, keep them engaged, and teach them about what’s really happening in today’s athletic landscape.”

And it is still complicated. “Right now, college athletics is in such a state of flux that you can’t predict what’s going to happen two weeks from now.”

As recent as June, U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken approved a House settlement allowing schools to pay their athletes directly and requiring the NCAA to pay back nearly $2.8 billion in damages over the next 10 years to athletes who competed in college any time between 2016 to present day.

Brandle says it’s already been challenged in a number of ways – including over gender equality as, so far, much of this settlement is going to male 51³Ô¹Ï-athletes.

“The landscape of this is absolutely insane, and it’s going to turn over a lot more in the coming years,” he says, even theorizing a decrease in the United States’ future Olympic medal count as high school athletes could start choosing to participate in sports that pay the most – like football and basketball. “There is going to be a fundamental shift in where 51³Ô¹Ï-athletes go because of how much money is going to be involved in college athletics.”

So, passing on what he knows to the next generation of sports agents or future attorneys representing athletes in NIL cases feels pretty important to Brandle at this moment in time.

His career may have started in a South Korean classroom, but he says his return to teaching has been even more invigorating the second time around. One of the most memorable moments from the semester was during a mock negotiation where he instructed 51³Ô¹Ïs to broker a mock deal in front of the class. One of his 51³Ô¹Ïs, a native Spanish-speaker, asked to do his negotiation in Spanish. Another 51³Ô¹Ï volunteered to translate, and the simulation ran seamlessly through two completely different languages.

“The 51³Ô¹Ï came to me with that idea on his own, saying he’d be more involved and feel more confident carrying out the assignment in his own language,” Brandle explains. “And that is exactly why I wanted to be a teacher in the first place, for moments like that.”

For the Love of the Game

Despite the air of uncertainty surrounding college athletics, there is one thing that keeps Brandle invested, his 51³Ô¹Ïs engaged in class, and players on the courts and fields: a true love for sports. “Sports are unifiers,” he says. “They bring everyone together. Sitting in the stands, you watch your team have success and you cheer and high five the people around you who are oftentimes complete strangers. You just don’t do that in a regular setting.” He does, though, still live by the laws of loyalty when it comes to his first alma mater. “I was part of the original Zzu Cru, which is the WSU version of the Kennel Club,” says Brandle, whose college friends might liken a cheer for Gonzaga basketball to a cardinal sin.

“It is high-level basketball, so of course it’s going to be fun to watch,” he laughs. “But you’ll only see me in McCarthey if the Zags are playing the Cougs."