- Amir Khan became the first student manager to sign an NIL deal.
- Khan leads the McNeese State men's basketball team onto the court with a boombox.
- McNeese will make its second straight appearance in the NCAA tournament Thursday.
Name, image and likeness deals that have changed the landscape of college sports apparently aren’t just for athletes anymore.
Amir Khan, a student manager at McNeese State, signed not one but three NIL contracts after video of him leading the men’s basketball team onto the court for a game last week with a boombox slung around his shoulder went viral. He’s now a pitchman for Buffalo Wild Wings, TickPick and Insomnia Cookies, per On3.com.
Khan, nicknamed Aura, picked up a wave of social media followers as McNeese pursued a bid to the NCAA Tournament. As of Tuesday, he had more than 10,200 followers on TikTok, 4,000 on Instagram and 2,000 on X.
“Amir Khan, you are officially a pioneer. In the wildest couple of weeks anyone could have, you’ve stayed so humble & true to yourself. First-ever college student manager to ink a NIL deal… 3 deals… all with global brands… in a week! Keep going. You deserve it all," Reed Vial, special assistant to McNeese head coach Will Wade, posted on X.
Boombox to make March Madness appearance
A senior, Khan is in his second season as a student manager at McNeese. He summed up his role this way in the team’s official bio: “If they kept manager stats for rebounding and wiping up wet spots on the court, I’d put up Wilt Chamberlain numbers.”
“Our players love Amir,” Wade told CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein, per On3.com. ”He’s always funny, he’s quick-witted, he’s always got something to come back and he knows everything about everything in sports. He’s a phenomenal kid. It’s been great just to see him get the recognition and the way he shared it with the managers and the team and how excited our team is for him is really, really cool.”
Khan is getting a degree in sports management at McNeese State, located in Lake Charles, Louisiana. “He wants to go into athletics, and certainly we’re going to help him start his career,” Wade said.
But he’s not done in college yet.
McNeese finished 27-6 on the season and won the Southland Conference tournament title, sending the Cowboys to the Big Dance for the second year in a row. They’ll face Clemson in the first round on Thursday at 2:15 p.m. in Providence, Rhode Island.
March Madness is sure to bring Khan more followers, as he’s poised to lead the Cowboys onto the floor with his boombox blaring.