Started on one campus
NCEG began as a student organization at Georgia State University. Its founders had one idea: the music industry needs its own NCAA.
Raised on Atlanta music
By the mid-2000s, Atlanta had become hip hop's center of gravity. A generation of Atlanta kids grew up making music, throwing parties, starting companies and making money from it.
Then they got to college, and the support stopped. Music was treated as a hobby, not a business. But the music industry is service, hospitality, management, finance, marketing, film, photography and design all at once, and universities aren't built to grow music businesses.
So the students organized. They interviewed industry professionals, took internships and met with professors. One of them, Professor Steve Jones, told them the answer was a chartered student organization, and became their adviser.
Panther Entertainment Group
That organization was Panther Entertainment Group (PEG) of Georgia State University. The National Collegiate Entertainers Group takes its name from it.
Inside PEG, the founders kept researching. Their conclusion: the music industry needed what college athletes already have, a system that gives students real experience with real fans and real opportunities.
Three phases
1 · Prove it
Show that success isn't fame. Audition artists, build a team around them, and measure whether they gain fans.
2 · Earn buy-in
Run so much of campus entertainment that the university invests in what students are building.
3 · Fund the dream
Bring in public and corporate support that pays for promotion, events and, most of all, scholarships.
The timeline
- 2012The plan is drawn up
The founders map out a collegiate music league in three phases, knowing it will take longer than their own time as students.
- Year 1The first auditions
PEG holds open auditions. 23 students try out; 5 make the roster.
- ProofRoster artists win fans
PEG surveys students at the start and end of the semester. By the end, artists on the roster are named about six times more often than artists who aren't.
- Dec 2016NCEG is founded
The National Collegiate Entertainers Group is formally created.
- Oct 2017A studio of our own
Georgia State opens the $22.8 million Creative Media Industries Institute. PEG is chosen to represent student music entrepreneurs and oversee its recording studio.
- Record213 auditions
Interest keeps growing: 213 students audition in a single semester, up from 23 in the first year.
- 2021The tournament plan
NCEG lays out an intercollegiate music tournament to fund scholarships, so students can treat music like any other college sport.
- 2026A national league
Draft Day 2026, a board of directors from across the music industry, and NCEG campus artists on the Beam Top 50 college chart.
Where they are now
“If I didn't have PEG, I don't think that I would be able to operate the way that I operate now.”
“NCEG made the music industry accessible to people like me that aren't from Atlanta and don't have a musical background.”
“Being a part of PEG allowed me to explore the different options within the music industry to find my path.”
“Treat this like sports. There's winning to this, so figure out what you're good at.”
“Don't think that there's a whole other industry out there when you got it right there in your backyard.”
Write the next chapter
Join the team on your campus, or start one.