Missouri’s Every True Tiger Brands to hire former New Mexico State AD Mario Moccia as CEO
· Yahoo Sports
Every True Tiger Brands, Missouri’s NIL agency, is set to hire Mario Moccia as CEO, On3’s Pete Nakos confirmed. He spent 10 years as the athletics director at New Mexico State from 2015-25.
In the role, Moccia will take on a key role in revenue-sharing and third-party NIL. He will replace Brad Larrondo, who left to become the executive senior associate athletics director and general manager at Washington State. Wazzu also hired former Missouri offensive coordinator Kirby Moore as its next head coach.
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It’s a return to CoMo for Moccia, who previously worked as an associate athletics director at Mizzou from 1998-2006. He then became the AD at Southern Illinois from 2006-14 before taking over at New Mexico State.
During his time at New Mexico State, Mario Moccia helped oversee a transition to Conference USA in 2023 after leaving the WAC. On the football side, he hired former head coach Jerry Kill, who helped the Aggies move from an FBS independent into CUSA. During its first year in the conference, New Mexico State won 10 games for the first time since 1960.
Moccia was let go as New Mexico State’s athletics director in January 2025. The decision came in light of an investigation into the athletics department, which came about in light of allegations of hazing within the men’s basketball program.
Every True Tiger launched in 2022 and is a full-service marketing agency for Mizzou, and Missouri’s state law plays a big part in the relationship with the school. The law allows an NIL collective to receive institutional funds for distribution to athletes, meaning Every True Tiger shifted from operating as a donor-driven collective to a marketing agency.
But in addition to the support from Every True Tiger, which he has praised, Missouri head football coach Eli Drinkwitz said there’s also a need for more support – especially after House settlement approval. He cited the NIL Go clearinghouse, which vets third-party NIL deals worth more than $600, as a reason Fortune 500 companies should build relationships with athletes.
“I believe it’s 11 Fortune 500 companies in the state, which is fourth largest among the SEC footprint, and we’ve got to continue to develop the relationships with those companies and get those companies to invest in our athletes, whether we’re talking about football, basketball, women’s basketball, softball, women’s soccer, wrestling, volleyball, baseball,” Drinkwitz said. “We need their support. We are the institution of this state. We provide those companies with a lot of workers, so it would be awesome if we got to see some reciprocal investments in that.”