Launched on August 28, 2025, Aztec Link and Craft & Cause teamed up to bring a premium vodka to San Diego to raise money for SDSU Athletics. 

“Raising money in this community is not the easiest thing in the world,” Aztec Link Director of Operations Mike Colman told EVT in a recent interview. “For the first couple of years, you’re trying to approach all the different angles to get the fan base engaged to support what’s going on within college athletics.

Aztec Link Vodka can be found in over 50 locations in San Diego County, listed at https://www.azteclink.vodka. $3 from every bottle sold is donated to SDSU’s Student-Athlete Recruitment and Retention Fund to support NIL opportunities. 

Colman noted that while the venture intends to support student-athletes across all sports at SDSU, the funds are currently earmarked for football because they have been at the forefront of the effort. 

“One of the benefits we have is we built very tight connections within the staff,” Colman added. “We can get the football program behind what we’re trying to do because of the relationship that we have.”

In October, Aztec Link provided the first $25,000 check from the partnership to SDSU and head football coach Sean Lewis. 

The collaboration was spearheaded by two industry professionals with strong ties to SDSU and the San Diego community. 

Tanner Briggs, a founding partner and Head of Production at Craft & Cause, attended SDSU from 2007 through 2011. One semester short of finishing his degree, his brother dragged him back up to Napa Valley, where he grew up, to spearhead a new private-label wine business.

“I grew up in the wine industry and swore I’d never touch a grape again when I left for school,” recalled Briggs in an interview with EVT. “And as soon as I got out of school, I was importing wine from Europe and was back in the wine industry. One thing led to the next, and we started distilling vodka from grapes.”

Nikhil Rajappan, President of Sales and Marketing at Craft & Cause, did not attend SDSU but has strong ties to the campus and local community. Growing up in Northern California, a lot of Rajappan’s older high school friends traveled south to become Aztecs. Upon visiting them for spring break as a senior in high school, he was sold on the university.  

“It was the only school I wanted to go to, but unfortunately, it was the only school I didn’t get into originally,” he recalled about SDSU in an interview with EVT. 

After starting college in Santa Barbara, Rajappan eventually moved to San Diego and lived with his high school friends who were members of SDSU’s Sigma Chi Fraternity. He began doing marketing and promotion for local nightclubs in San Diego, and one of his first hires was Briggs. 

Rajappan parlayed this experience into a hospitality and events company in Los Angeles with his brother and later worked at Red Bull. 

Briggs was initially approached by one of his business partners in Central California to bring the project to Fresno State Athletics. Bulldog Bread Collective Vodka was launched in early 2025. 

“Being that I was an SDSU alum, it was my first option as to where I wanted to take the product and the project, really,” said Briggs. “As soon as we got the Fresno project rolling, I went knocking and tracked down Mike (Colman), and it was my number one location.” 

It was a no-brainer for Rajappan to team up once again with Briggs. 

“I only came on for San Diego State,” he said. “That was something that was really important to me. Aztecs donating money and driving money for San Diego State is really the only reason I even came on to this venture. It’s something that’s really close to our hearts. It’s a market that we’re very passionate about. A fan base that we’re very passionate about. A community, most importantly, that we’re all very passionate about.”

Entering the liquor market with a vodka product has its own unique challenges. Vodka, typically made from grains or potatoes, has a negative connotation due to its taste and smell. But given Brigg’s family background with Napa grapes, Aztec Link Vodka is marketed as an ultra-premium product due to being distilled from grapes. 

“I will say anyone who tries our product is extremely surprised,” said Rajappan. “It is a very ultra premium product that should be priced in that top tier pricing, but because we want to donate as much money to the school and move the needle here, we are priced under all of our competitors. When you’re walking through a liquor store, you see us, and you’re like, ‘wow, you’re top shelf but at half the price,’ so it becomes a no-brainer.” 

According to Briggs, vodka made from grapes is usually priced in the $35 to $40 per bottle price range, but Aztec Link Vodka is priced at just under $20. 

Colman used Tito’s, the number one-selling vodka in San Diego County, as an example in the decision-making for Aztecs alumni looking to purchase a spirit. The company that makes the vodka, distilled from corn in Austin, TX, has made sizable donations to its local university. 

“They’ve given millions of dollars to the University of Texas, and the University of Texas will have no problem and has in the past come after our players,” Colman explained. “So here’s this opportunity in a market that people are already spending money on, and we have a premium, California-made, product that we have an opportunity to sell.”

The idea of using alcohol to raise money for underage student-athletes caused initial concern when the partnership began forming, and doubts whether a public school would even allow such a collaboration. 

“We’ve been extremely diligent about not ever disrespecting the school or putting the school in a bad situation because we know that NIL and all of this is a really new territory for everybody and would never want to put San Diego State and Mike (Colman) specifically in a bad situation,” said Rajappan.  

Given an existing Cal State school had already launched such a product, the hurdles and initial pushback were eased. 

The group has also been extremely cautious not to flood the campus with the product, noting they have not marketed it on campus and have not provided the product to establishments that have previously been flagged for selling to underage kids. The student athletes are also not being used to promote the product in any manner, according to Colman.  

“The real focus is the alumni,” said Rajappan. “The older demographic that wants to support the school, but cannot necessarily afford a five, ten, or twenty-thousand-dollar check. But hey, if you’re buying a drink at Mavericks tonight, you might as well buy something with Aztec Link Vodka because that’s for your school.”

The group is hard at work maximizing the consumer awareness of the product. They are looking to team up with more local partners in San Diego who want to support their local university and also set up tastings across the county to further highlight the great taste of the product. 

“At the end of the day, we’re not really a for-profit beverage brand,” Rajappan noted. “We’re really more of a charity for San Diego State. That’s really our mission and our goal to drive as many donations for the school by highlighting these premium products and beverages in the market.” 

Future products, such as whiskey, gin, and tequila, are already in the works and will be forthcoming once the brand and shelf space have been established and expanded. A seltzer offering is next up, however, in the near future.  

In addition to the website noted above, you can find more up-to-date information about Aztec Link Vodka and other coming soon products at Aztec Premium Spirits on Instagram. 

Andre Haghverdian

Avid sports fan and historian of basketball, baseball, football and soccer. UC San Diego and San Diego State alumni living in America’s Finest City. Diverse team following across multiple sports leagues, but Aztecs come first in college athletics.