- Beats Electronics signed eight top college football stars to its 2026 Beats Elite NIL roster, led by quarterbacks Dante Moore and Bryce Underwood.
- The athletes will wear custom Beats 360 over-ear headphones featuring school colors and interchangeable ear and headband cushions.
- Moore and Underwood return for their second consecutive season with the Beats Elite program alongside four other returning 2025 honorees.
- The campaign will showcase the players during national game day broadcasts, tunnel walks, and digital media throughout the 2026 season.
Audio brand Beats Electronics has announced its 2026 Beats Elite class, signing eight top college football stars to its flagship Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) roster.
The new lineup features Oregon quarterback Dante Moore, Michigan quarterback Bryce Underwood, Alabama wide receiver Ryan Coleman-Williams, Georgia running back Nate Frazier, USC quarterback Jayden Maiava, Oklahoma quarterback John Mateer, Ohio State quarterback Julian Sayin, and Texas defensive end Colin Simmons.
Now in its fourth year, the Beats Elite program celebrates student-athlete personality away from the field. This season, the campaign equips players with custom Beats 360 over-ear headphones made to match each player’s school colors. The headphones feature swappable ear and headband cushions, allowing athletes to tailor their look for pregame walk-ins and campus life.
This design-led rollout follows the brand’s broader lifestyle push, where Kendall Jenner fronted Beats’ new customizable Beats 360 headphones campaign to introduce the modular audio hardware to fashion and culture fans.
Moore and Underwood are no strangers to Beats. Both signal-callers return for their second straight year in the Beats Elite program, joined by returning members Simmons, Frazier, Mateer, and Coleman-Williams (who updated his surname from Williams in March 2026 to honor his mother).
Beats has built a deep footprint in college sports, previously partnering with stars like Caleb Downs and Shedeur Sanders. The tech brand continues to bridge collegiate athletics and global culture through enduring relationships with icons like LeBron James, who recently fronted the high-profile Beats x Nike collaborative earbud rollout.
The new Beats deal expands a loaded commercial calendar for both quarterbacks. Moore led Oregon to a 13-2 record and a College Football Playoff semifinal appearance in 2025, throwing for 3,565 yards and 30 touchdowns.
Meanwhile, Underwood arrived at Michigan as the nation’s top high school recruit before posting 2,428 passing yards and 17 touchdowns as a true freshman. The duo previously crossed paths off the field earlier this fall as marquee additions to Celsius’s 2026 athlete roster.
Fans will see all eight athletes sporting their custom Beats 360 headphones on national television broadcasts and digital media throughout the 2026 season.
Takeaways
Beats continues to demonstrate why it owns the intersection of sports culture and consumer electronics. Rather than limiting NIL deals to one-off sponsored social posts, Beats embeds its hardware directly into Saturday stadium rituals and tunnel walks.
By bringing back familiar faces like Dante Moore, Bryce Underwood, and Ryan Coleman-Williams while adding rising stars like Julian Sayin and Jayden Maiava, the brand secures valuable brand visibility across the Big Ten and SEC.
Tying the campaign to the Beats 360, with swappable, school-colored cushions, transforms audio gear into personalized campus streetwear, letting players represent their team identity while displaying their own personal flair.
Does seeing college football stars sport custom, school-colored Beats 360s make you more interested in customizable headphones? Do multi-year NIL partnerships with returning stars like Dante Moore and Bryce Underwood carry more marketing credibility than signing a completely new class each year?
