The real star of the NCAA tournament: McNeese State’s student manager becomes first non athlete to sign NIL deal

It’s the time of year when brackets are busting, Cinderella’s are dancing and stars are born. March Madness is one of the most passionate, emotional and anticipated times on the sports calendar. The day is finally here, and all eye’s will be on one man. A viral sensation that swept the nation and has inspired kids around the country to a future of mopping floors and filling water bottles.

A star is born

Unless you’re a college basketball super fan, or from Lake Charles, Louisiana you probably can’t name one player on the McNeese St. men’s basketball team. You may not know much about the team, or their chances in the Big Dance, but I bet you’ve seen their student manager, Amir “Aura” Khan vibing out on Instagram.

A couple months ago, Khan and his team went viral for their walk up to a game against Texas A&M Corpus Christie. The clip was him leading the the Cowboys to battle to the tune of “In and Out” by Lud Foe. Donning the boombox around his neck, he amped up his guys who would go on to win that game 73-57.

Since then he has been a phenomenon. A social media storm would sweep the country, and the nation took notice. People around social media became instant fans of Khan and the Cowboys and big business came flocking to Amir’s door looking to sign him to an NIL deal.

NIL money coming after “Aura”

Since the Texas A&M CC game, not only has McNeese State won 11 of their last 12 games on the way to winning the Southland Tournament, but Khan has signed on with three different companies as he started to cash in on his social media stardom. He signed with Buffalo Wild Wings, Insomnia Cookies and Tick Pick has sponsored his boom box to become the first student manager to sign an NIL deal.

The senior from Lake Charles is ready to lead his university to a deep run in the dance. McNeese is the 12 seed in the East region, and they take on 5 seed Clemson at 3:15 p.m. ET. The 5 vs. 12 matchup is traditionally one of the most upset prone games in the tournament each and every year. You know Amir “Aura” Khan will have the Cowboys ready to pull an upset and lead McNeese to a deep tourney run.