It's no secret that Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) is one of the most important factors in a college athletics department nowadays. Teams have to be competitive with their pocketbooks if they hope to be competitive on the field or court.

The University of Arkansas partnered with Blueprint Sports back on Nov. 28 to help manage its newest official NIL collective — Arkansas Edge — which was announced on the same day that reports came out saying Arkansas was hiring former head coach Bobby Petrino to be offensive coordinator of the football team.

Fans may also recall the UA's former NIL collective, OneArkansas, which was retired when Arkansas Edge was announced.

Blueprint Sports can be complex to understand, but at its core, it is a company that manages the collectives of several different schools. Things like Arkansas Edge's websites, fundraising drives, merchandise, memberships, etc. all look similar to the other schools Blueprint Sports represents.

RELATED: Company powering Arkansas Edge could be 'operating in gray area'

Zeroing in on the fundraisers, Arkansas Edge is currently working on its "Drive for Five" campaign, which began March 27. The effort aims to gain 5,000 Arkansas Edge members before football season kicks off in 58 days. As of July 2, there are 782 members, which is 4,218 short of its goal with a deadline that is coming quick.

Doing a little math, that means Arkansas Edge would need to average a little over 71 new members every day in order to reach the goal of 5,000 members before the Razorbacks kick off their season against UAPB at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock.

To be fair to Arkansas Edge, when the Drive for Five was announced, Arkansas wasn't set to kick off its season until August 31. That game was moved up to Thursday night on August 29.

So in that regard, for Arkansas Edge to reach its goal of 5,000 new members by August 31 — when the original date was scheduled — it would need to average 69 new members per day.

So, is it an Arkansas problem? Arkansas Edge is not the only school tied to Blueprint Sports that is working on some kind of fundraiser for their respective athletic departments.

Currently, Blueprint Sports lists 12 Power 4 schools in its portfolio, and 28 total schools. Of those schools, four are hosting some form of a drive for fan membership, according to HawgBeat's research — Arkansas, Penn State, Kansas and Wichita State.

What makes Arkansas Edge's fundraiser different from those, however, is that its campaign is working to gain members as opposed to also a total number of funds.

Penn State has a goal of $500,000. Kansas has a goal of $1 million. Wichita State's goal is similar to Arkansas in that it wants 5,000 members, but is looking for an annual donation of $500 or more.

Because it runs on memberships that start at $25 per month and go as high as $250 per month, Arkansas Edge's fundraiser — if the goal is reached — could net the school anywhere from $125,000 per month ($25 x 5,000) to $1.25 million ($250 x 5,000).

The reality is, it's extremely unlikely Arkansas Edge will have $1.25 million per month in NIL revenue through memberships, however unless some kind of legislation is passed by Congress, it's unlikely we'll ever know for sure.

So, how are other schools comparing when it comes to their respective fundraisers? We take a close look at each school's NIL efforts below.