7/27/2021 basketball Edit

NC State basketball point guard Cam Hayes inks deal with Bojangles

Justin H. Williams • TheWolfpackCentral

Staff Writer

Less than one month after the NCAA introduced an interim policy allowing college athletes to receive compensation for use of their name, image and likeness, an NC State men's basketball player has landed the first endorsement deal of note within the school's athletic department.

Bojangles, a popular chicken fast-food chain that was originally founded in North Carolina, announced Monday evening that it is partnering with freshman Wolfpack point guard Cam Hayes.

Hayes, a 6-3, 175-pound guard from Greensboro, N.C., started in 14 of his 23 appearances in his debut campaign in 2020-21. He averaged 7.8 points and 3.1 assists in 23.5 minutes per game, all stats in which he was the leader among the team's five freshmen last season.

NC State Wolfpack basketball Cam Hayes — Freshman point guard Cam Hayes started in 14 of his 23 appearances in 2020-21. (Andrew Shurtleff)

The partnership marks the first significant public endorsement opportunity for an NC State athlete, although the terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Last week, Bojangles also announced a partnership with North Carolina quarterback Sam Howell, who was named the 2021 preseason ACC Player of the Year Tuesday morning.

So far, Hayes has been the most active of any Wolfpack athletes as it relates to NIL. Last Wednesday, the freshman point guard announced that he will co-host a one-day camp session called "Red and White Basketball Camp" along with two fellow NC State basketball players, freshman guard Breon Pass and junior forward Greg Gantt (a transfer from Providence).

At the 2021 ACC Football Kickoff last week, all three of the Wolfpack's player representatives cited their intent to "take it slow" with NIL.

Only one, redshirt sophomore quarterback Devin Leary, shared that he dipped his toes into NIL waters thus far.

Leary, who started in three games last season before suffering a season-ending leg break in October, has an account on Cameo, a third-party app that connects fans with celebrities and athletes to create personalized video messages for a fee.

“I think it’s really cool,” Leary said at the ACC Kickoff. “It’s a great opportunity for us players to use our platform to expand out to others, and for businesses to have us represent them. I think that’s a great opportunity. Multiple players on the team have done little endorsements, like percentage codes on websites for discounts and that kind of thing.

“For me personally, I haven’t dove deep into NIL yet as far as understanding the regulations and rules. The only thing that I’ve done is Cameo. I’m on Cameo now, so I give different birthday shout-outs or pep talks, little things like that. It’s been really cool. As of right now, I think I’m going to wait a little bit to understand the whole process more and then really dive deeper into it.”