The First Six Months Of NIL

As the recently introduced NIL (name, image, and likeness) policy allowing student-athletes to earn money from promotional activities continues to grow arms and legs within the sports endorsement space, our partners at Opendorse have taken stock of where we are after six hugely successful months of deals.

They found that men’s football was the top-ranked sport for NIL earnings since July 2021 when the policy was introduced to the market. Athletes competing in men’s college football made up around 47% of total NIL earnings, followed by women’s basketball in second place with around 27.3% of total NIL earnings and men’s basketball not far behind, contributing to around 15.6% of the NIL compensation made in the opening 6 months.

In fact, they found that an athlete signed to a multi-activity endorsement deal earned an average of $4,923, with content creation being listed as the most profitable vehicle for promotion, with some athletes earning over $3,000 for a single social media post.

A few of the most lucrative NIL deals we’ve seen so far include:

• Uconn basketball star Paige Bueckers signed a record-breaking NIL deal with leading sports beverage giant Gatorade
  
  
• UCLA soccer player Reilyn Turner inked a multi-faceted contract with Nike to become one of their leading faces of college sports promotion in the states.
  
  
• Legendary NFL star Tom Brady utilized the vast power of NIL to promote his new clothing brand, securing deals with 10 top college student-athletes including Shedeur Sanders, Cade McNamara, and Julian Reese. 
  
  
• University of Arkansas football star Trey Knox and his dog Blue announced they’ve recently joined forces with PetSmart to promote the pet store business.

It’s likely that we’re only going to see a further uptick in NIL activity over the next 6 months, with more and more brands desperate to break into the NIL space and enlist the services of thousands of talented young student-athletes to take their company branding and promotional activity to the next level.

If you’re a student-athlete studying at an institution in the USA and still aren’t sure how you can get in on the NIL action, why not schedule a call with one of our specialist athlete branding consultants and see how you can turn your personal brand into a profitable, recognizable and highly coveted endorsement asset today.

This post was tagged in: ncaa, college sports, nil, endorsements, athlete branding, marketing, brand