Dropback: Moneyball SaaS for college sports 🏆

Hey! Luke and Nick here, excited to announce Dropback.

Dropback helps college sports teams build competitive rosters. Starting with roster management and player valuation, Dropback is building toward “the Rippling for sports:” an all-in-one platform for headcount management, contracts, payouts, and more.

We’re excited to announce TrueNU, Northwestern football’s official NIL Collective, as our first public partner—with more major Power 4 Conference program announcements coming soon.

🏟️ Problem: Valuing and paying players is a headache for college sports teams

In 2021, the NCAA—the governing body of college sports—allowed athletes to earn an income beyond their scholarships. While athletes have earned $2B+ since, rapid regulation change and legal arbitrage have put college sports in disarray.

Athletes are capitalizing on the chaos: signing agents, negotiating contracts, and maximizing pay through free agency. Collegiate athletic departments, however, are lost. And now, with the Revenue Sharing Era of college sports beginning in 2025—an effective $22M+ “payroll” to athletes per school—teams need infrastructure to manage rosters financially and optimize spend to remain competitive.

For years, pro teams (NFL, NBA, MLB etc.) have spent millions on in-house engineering departments & data gurus to develop custom software for General Managers — like Brad Pitt in Moneyball — to do their jobs. It is just now legal for college teams to compensate their athletes, and they’re evolving to think like the pros too—yet today, don’t have the tech to do it effectively.

Today, the multi-million dollar business of college sports runs on whiteboards, bloated incumbent tech, and one-size-fits-all software. Dropback is fixing this.

🏆 Solution: Dropback is “Moneyball-as-a-Service” for college sports.

Dropback’s roster valuation platform lets elite programs build private, custom financial models and construct competitive rosters. We’re bringing the tools that power professional sports front offices to the world of college sports—at a fraction of the cost.

🧮 Calculate: Powered by a first-of-its-kind DIY Valuation Modeler, Dropback enables Collegiate General Managers & Coaches to value their athletes their way—via custom metrics, baselines, and weights.

🏗️ Construct: Optimize roster construction and spend with infinite budgets, versions, and rosters that update in real time.

🏆 Compete: Compare athletes across active roster, transfer portal, and high school head-to-head—with teams’ custom models—to build the most competitive roster within the bounds of your budget.

👀 Coming Soon: Athlete Management System & Recruitment Data Integrations, AI-powered historical analysis & projections, contract management & payouts, and much more…

🥅 Asks:

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Dropback is the front office software suite for college sports. We help major collegiate programs construct competitive rosters—through our roster valuation infrastructure that lets elite programs build private, custom financial models. Our growing list of partners includes TrueNU, Northwestern’s official NIL collective. Contact luke@dropback.com for a demo.