The college athlete, once forbidden from profiting so much as a sandwich endorsement, has become something of a cottage industry unto himself. Now a company that helped build the plumbing for that industry wants to be in the electricity business, too.

Opendorse, which has spent the years since the name-image-likeness rules changed in 2021 providing compliance and transaction services for athlete endorsements, is introducing two products that represent what the company calls a shift toward "media and commerce infrastructure." The first, Opendorse One, is a curated network of more than 1,000 college athlete creators intended to offer brands turnkey campaign execution. The second, Athlete Commerce Media, connects content created by athletes to actual retail purchase data — the kind of closed-loop measurement that has long been the holy grail of influencer marketing and, for the most part, remained grail-like in its elusiveness.

"The infrastructure hasn't changed," Steve Denton, the chief executive of Opendorse, said. "What's changed is what it's connected to."

Mr. Denton said the company's revenue model is evolving accordingly, moving from software and marketplace fees toward media revenue tied to measurable outcomes. (The word "measurable" doing a great deal of heavy lifting in that sentence, as it tends to do in conversations about influencer marketing.)

The geographic concentration of college athletes' audiences — a Southeastern Conference quarterback's followers are, unsurprisingly, concentrated in S.E.C. country — is central to the pitch. Mr. Denton pointed to a regional soft-drink campaign featuring an S.E.C. athlete that generated a reported 62 percent lift in foot traffic and sales over three weeks.

Opendorse estimates that total spending on N.I.L. products and services will reach $4.2 billion during the 2026-27 academic year. The company says it works with more than 200,000 athletes and 250 athletic departments.

Whether brands will find the closed loop as closed as advertised remains to be seen. But the ambition is clear enough: Opendorse would like to be less of a compliance tool and more of a media company. The athlete, meanwhile, continues his unlikely journey from amateur ideal to verified retail outcome.

Original story published in sportsbusinessjournal.com: "Opendorse introduces Opendorse One, Athlete Commerce Media to NIL portfolio"