Three simple letters can stir up a long, heavily debated conversation among college sports fans. Those letters, you can probably guess them, are NIL (Name, Image and Likeness). If asked to paint a picture in your head of what NIL looks like, one might envision a top running back driving around campus in a sports car. Or maybe the star point guard wearing a Rolex watch on his wrist.

In the new age of college sports, NIL has been a major talking point, and a highly controversial topic. There are certainly pros and cons to it. One of those cons is that international student-athletes aren’t able to get a piece of the NIL pie directly if they are in the U.S. on a visa. One Michigan State player turned that negative aspect of NIL into a positive and changed lives in doing so.

Michigan State center Mady Sissoko is from a small, rural village in southwestern Mali called Tangafoya. He used to walk 90 minutes to school. Sometimes, he even did it barefoot. Sissoko arrived in the United States at age 15. Before coming to East Lansing, Sissoko attended Wasatch Academy in Mt. Pleasant, Utah. There he developed a relationship with Mike Clayton, his guardian, who helped change his life.

Before the 2022-2023 season, Sissoko sat down with Clayton wanting to help his village in Mali. Out of that desire came the Mady Sissoko Foundation, a way for Sissoko to use his notoriety as a MSU basketball player to pursue donations using his NIL to a non-profit that would provide funds to his home village. Some of the goals of the foundation were to build a school and provide running water.

In May, Sissoko visited his home village to see the new Mady Sissoko Foundation School, which was built in three months. Sissoko’s father even donated some of his land to provide more space for the school to be built.

Sissoko and Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo met with the media on Thursday, including Jack Ebling, a friend of Spartans Illustrated, to talk about his visit back to his home village. Listen to Sissoko’s and Izzo’s full comments on Ebling’s podcast, "The Drive with Jack," here (or below).

While Sissoko never saw the school in-person until he visited, people from his village sent him pictures of the progress. In May -- once he walked into the school -- he was on the verge of tears. Other schools in the area even closed for the day to come join the celebration for Sissoko’s new school.

“I wasn’t a big crying guy, but I almost did to be honest because I thought it was gonna be just my village,” Sissoko said. “But the rest of the villages, closer villages, everybody came to celebrate with us … It almost felt like it was magical stuff.”

The school is aimed for kids ages 8 through 15. It has four classrooms that fit 60 to 70 kids per classroom.

“The mission is to keep growing,” Sissoko said. “The mission is just to give kids the chance. There’s a lot of smart people in the village, but they don’t have a lot of chances because they are way far from the school.”

The Mady Sissoko Foundation School is much closer for the kids of Tangafoya to access. Sissoko wanted to build this school because he grew up walking an hour-and-a-half to school. It inspired him to provide a better situation for the kids in the village today and for generations to come.

“What makes a great person is not one who’s great himself,” Izzo said. “It’s one who helps others be great. That’s what makes great people. And Mady is helping kids, for not only this year’s kids, but down the road it could be generations of kids."

Sissoko was there with some of his family form Utah for two days to help open up the school. While Sissoko was there to give the people in Tangafoya a gift, he received a gift of his own in return.

“In the villas, people would give us two cows so we can have that to cut the cow head," Sissoko said. "They invited a lot of people to come celebrate with us. It was amazing.”

Sissoko is not the type of person to toot his own horn. He didn’t even want the school to be named after him. Despite that, he was treated like a celebrity when he arrived back home.

“When I was there, it definitely felt like I was the mayor,” Sissoko said. “Even the mayor was there, too, but everyone was just coming to me. It was the craziest thing I’ve ever been around. To do something in the villas like this, people will always appreciate it.”

Before Sissoko departed Tangafoya, he left the people with an important message.

“One thing I told all them was just, ‘Make sure you tell your kid to go to school,’ because people put a lot of work into this and we've got to make sure kids go to school,” Sissoko said.

In addition to the school being built, running water was installed in the village, something the people of Tangafoya have never had the luxury of possessing.

“When the first water come out, everybody was like, ‘No way’,” Sissoko said. “It was a crazy moment.”

Clean water also helps keep people helathy. Whether it be pregnant women or people getting sick from malaria, clean water helps the villages’ overall health.

“He’s giving people a chance to actually survive,” Izzo said. “He’s doing things, people are living and getting educated and, God, it’s so cool. I feel like I haven’t done anything compared to what he’s done.”

Soccer is king in Mali. It is the most popular sport in Sissoko’s home country. Sissoko is also trying to spread the sport of basketball. He and the foundation provided a basketball hoop for the village. It’s safe to say the kids need some work on their jump shots.

“We were playing on the basketball hoop there and I shot it and then the kid comes behind, ‘Can I shoot it?’” Sissoko explained. “He just grabbed it with two hands and threw it way up and it was not even close.”

Sissoko is a perfect example of somebody who takes advantage of the platform he is given in a good way.

“We have a platform that is really good,” Izzo said. “Some people make really good use of it and some people take advantage of it. Here’s a kid who’s made very good use of his platform.”

Sissoko still has projects that he wants to do in Tangafoya, but at the moment, he is proud of what he was able to do for his village.

“I’m not an emotional guy, but to do that over there is very big,” Sissoko said. “It’s absolutely the best thing you could do for them. Nobody expects that.”

Sissoko is doing more than providing an education and running water to a poor community. He is helping people survive and thrive in their situations.

“I’ve helped guys become millionaires, let's say,” Izzo said. “He’s helped guys that are gonna survive. I mean there’s such a big difference and it gives you a perspective.”

NIL is more than fancy sports cars and expensive jewelry. It was the difference for a remote village in Mali to have running water and a school, thanks to Sissoko and his foundation. Through NIL, Sissoko changed many lives for the better.

“I’d like every Michigan State fan to give a dollar toward this thing,” Izzo said. “Wouldn’t that be cool? We've got 650,000 alums. That’d be $650,000.”

To donate to the Mady Sissoko Foundation, click here.

Listen to the full episode of The Drive with Jack.

Update: Listen to Ebling's interview with Sissoko.

Update: Listen to Ebling's interview with Sissoko's guardian Mike Clayton.

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