Softball All-American Allie Skaggs was destined to be an Arizona Wildcat. Born in Tucson before playing her first three years of high school softball in Louisville, Skaggs returned to the Old Pueblo for her final prep season at Ironwood Ridge High School. When she committed to the Cats and legendary head coach Mike Candrea, the slugger posted photos of her as a young girl decked out in Arizona gear. Her Name, Image and Likeness journey at Arizona is built on the high-profile nature of playing for Arizona Softball, but it focuses on causes near and dear to her heart.

"I want to represent things that are the most meaningful to me and speak for a brand that has a message to it," Skaggs noted. "I decided to go the route of mental health awareness, and I found an opportunity to work with an organization in this very important field. My mindset towards NIL started to evolve towards representing brands that mean a lot to me."

Skaggs began working with SonderMind a mental health and therapy service that focuses on self-care, depression and anxiety. She also used her work with SonderMind to pursue other opportunities with other brands. Her exploration of the newly-formed NIL space had some trepidation at first, but her worries were eased the more immersed she became in the athletic department's Arizona EDGE NIL program.
 

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"Name, Image and Likeness can be a little scary at first because you don't really know how to get started, but the athletics department has done a great job of educating us and giving us useful resources like the Arizona EDGE Marketplace, INFLCR, MarketPryce and really informative guest speakers. It's all been really helpful to me and relieved a lot of the anxiety and stress about NIL."

In addition to her deal with SonderMind, Skaggs was part of Arizona Softball's team-wide deal with G.O.A.T. Fuel that was secured through one of the department's many NIL partnerships. MarketPryce is an agency that focuses on athletes growing their brands and aligning their personal brands with local, regional and national sponsors. MarketPryce champions their work of assisting with deals for female student-athletes, which is another passion for Skaggs. She also was a featured panelist at Arizona's first-ever NIL Open House, which connected student-athletes and local businesses.
 

me: how should we launch our official partnership with a big-time program like Arizona? @JadeLoville + @allieskaggs9: Hold my @goatfuel pic.twitter.com/sN9E2yi3Z8

— MarketPryce (@marketpryce) January 19, 2023

The junior knows the status of the Arizona Softball program is a catalyst for her NIL deals and opportunities.

"Playing softball at the University of Arizona creates so many opportunities with sponsors or brands," she continued. "It's such a well-known program that if you reach out to a business, they are going to know who you are and the place you hold in the community. Having that name behind you resonates with the community, and now Carlie Scupin, Izzy Pacho, Allie Skaggs and others who are the current faces of the program. The members of this team have a reputation with businesses and advertisers as outstanding softball players who are also great students and members of the community. That's a big part of our brands."

Southern Arizona is a community that supports Arizona Athletics in a variety of ways. You see it in the stands as the Pac-12's leader in attendance in ticketed events. Arizona student-athletes are the highest profile athletes in town, and that's not lost on Allie Skaggs.

"The city of Tucson is full of great local businesses, big and small, that are passionate about Arizona Athletics and want to support student-athletes from all of the programs," Skaggs said. "That's something that is unique and really cool because there's so many great athletes on campus, and we all want to see each other do great things."

It's a "high tide rises all boats" mindset that has grounded Skagg's NIL journey. She looks back at her first two years in this new space with a great sense of pride. She's proud to be able to represent things that are meaningful to her. She's proud of the opportunities to pursue deals that are personal and unique to her.

She also hopes to be a part of a Wildcat movement that pushes NIL opportunities towards bigger and better things in the future.

"My hope is that NIL opportunities and the Arizona EDGE program will continue to grow hand-in-hand to the point where dozens of athletes from all of our teams are getting involved at some level. There's so many great men and women in our department who are amazing athletes and dedicated students that I hope can all utilize on their platforms they have as Arizona Wildcats."