The Sevensdiscussed

Eddie's continued pursuit of niche sports (he wished Jack were on to color-commentate). Youth sports has no traditional individual creators building businesses yet, but it does have digitally native brands with content flywheels — and elite 7-on-7 'notepad' football is the ripest recruiting proving ground in the high-school offseason. The Sevens was started by three NIL media-industry operators (most leagues are started by coaches who don't understand the media product). Invite-only, where top recruits get game tape college coaches take seriously, plus cash prizes and endlessly clippable viral moments. The Atlanta debut drew six five-star recruits, 70+ four-stars, 330 athletes holding D1 offers, coverage from On3 and 247Sports, and NFL stars who just wanted to be around it. Current business is nascent: ~$1,000 per team entry, $20K+ purses. The tech wrapper is what got Eddie: they're building or licensing AI-video 40-yard-dash timing ('The 40') captured during actual gameplay — today's 40 times are gear-dependent (flown-out laser rigs) or inaccurately hand-timed, so a camera-only capture is something platforms could license while The Sevens accumulates the best data in the space. Megan's pushback: they seem subscale for the claimed network, it's 'just a brand' without a creator at the center, probably a little early — but worth talking to. Eddie's counter: there's a built-in micro-influencer network (recruits with 5–20K followers posting from events, plus distributed assets), and the only way into these is early. Eddie is already in touch.