By Rubin E. Grant
Jake Levant figured he didn’t have the fame to cash in on his name when the ruling came down that NCAA college athletes would have the opportunity to benefit from their name, image and likeness, more widely known as NIL.
But that didn’t mean the former Vestavia Hills football player wouldn’t find a way to profit from the decision that took effect July 1.
Levant, a sophomore linebacker at Auburn, and a few of his teammates decided to form Princeps Camps LLC as a way for college football players to cash in on NIL.
According to their website, princepscamps.com, “Princeps” means “first” in Latin. It’s apropos because this is the first time college athletes have been able to host their own camps.
“Our goal for Princeps Camps is to provide an easy path for college athletes around the country to host a camp now that the NIL is in place,” Levant said.
Princeps will hold two elite camps this month, one at Montgomery Academy on July 24 and the other at Mountain Brook High School on July 31.
Levant, Tanner Dean, Bart Lester and Owen Pappoe – all Auburn football players – are partners in the company.
Dean graduated from Mountain Brook in 2017 and walked on at Auburn before being awarded a scholarship in 2020 and finishing his career. He completed his degree in mechanical engineering in the spring.
Lester, a linebacker who played in high school at Montgomery Academy, has been at Auburn since 2019 after a three-year stint at the U.S. Air Force Academy. He walked on the team and recently was awarded a scholarship for the upcoming season. This past spring, he graduated with an undergraduate degree in finance and plans on completing his MBA.
Pappoe, a junior and five-star recruit out of Lawrenceville, Ga., is one of the top linebackers in the SEC.
“We’re not some of the bigger named guys, but we thought we could make some money from camps,” Levant said.
“We thought we could work together and make a little profit and do something for the community,” Lester said.
The process of starting the company began in the spring before the NIL ruling was official. Dean was a key player in its formation since he had started his own business, Unconventional Design Solutions.
“We went to Tanner since he had started his own company and he knew all the stuff about forming a LLC, taxes and liability insurance,” Levant said. “It’s a lot of complicated stuff, but that’s what we did and we finally went public in June.”
“It’s been a good learning experience and we’ve gotten a good response,” Lester added.
Once the company was formed, the group recruited three of the better-known Auburn football players to be the camp instructors – safety Smoke Monday, running back Shaun Shivers and quarterback T.J. Finley, who transferred from LSU to Auburn at the end of the 2020 season. Pappoe also will serve as one of the camp instructors.
“We told them they just have to show up and make some money while teaching the kids and talking to them,” Levant said. “There will probably be some little Auburn fans who come.”
Levant said they want to give participants a first-class camp experience, focusing on the athlete’s development.
According to Lester, registration is going well and is still open. It costs $75, and interested athletes can register on the Princeps website. The age range for camp participants is 6-14 years old.
“We’re hoping to have anywhere from 150 to 200 campers,” Lester said. “Our max is 250. The Mountain Brook camp might be a little bigger and we might have to make it two days, but we haven’t made a decision about that yet.”
