Name: College Athletes Cash In on New NCAA Rules Allowing Endorsements
Uploaded: 2022-01-20T10:30:00Z
Duration: 7 min 11 s
Description: WSJ took a look at the new world of lucrative brand and endorsement opportunities for college athletes in this video report from January 2022, after the NCAA ruled that student athletes are allowed to make money from their name, image and likeness.

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WSJ took a look at the new world of lucrative brand and endorsement opportunities for college athletes in this video report from January 2022, after the NCAA ruled that student athletes are allowed to make money from their name, image and likeness. Photo: Gatorade/Getty Images

https://m.wsj.net/video/20220120/78c0b1ca-fffb-466e-8a75-1fdebec000f8/2/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

WSJ took a look at the new world of lucrative brand and endorsement opportunities for college athletes in this video report from January 2022, after the NCAA ruled that student athletes are allowed to make money from their name, image and likeness.

College Athletes Cash In on New NCAA Rules Allowing Endorsements

Narrator: For the first time ever, college athletes are able to use their status to strike endorsement deals, sponsorships, and even charge for appearance fees and commercials like this one.

College athletes can be in commercials now?

Dr. Pepper. It's the one DJ deserves.

Narrator: Last July, a new NCAA policy allowed college athletes to start earning money on endorsements after pressure from state lawmakers and a related Supreme court ruling that warned the NCAA that broadly limiting athlete compensation would violate antitrust laws.

There's this batch of 500,000 student athletes every year that can now monetize their name, image and likeness. And so I think overall you do have a market that will grow into a multi-billion dollar market.

Narrator: Opendorse says brands are on track to pay over $579 million to student athletes. In the first 12 months since the Supreme Court ruling,

I've been able to do some really cool things in the past few months since the rule change. I've gotten to work with some amazing brands. Yasso Greek yogurt bars are one of my favorite mindful indulgences.

Narrator: So how exactly are these new rules playing out in this new era for college sports? And what are student athletes doing to cash in? College athletes have long been classified as amateurs by the NCAA, even as they helped generate billions for their colleges and universities. The rule change allowing college athletes to profit off of their name, image and likeness, or NIL, came after years of mounting legal and political pressure.

There was a handful of states led by California that pushed forward legislation at the state level that would allow college athletes to sign endorsement deals. And in order to get ahead of college athletes in one state being able to profit off their name, image, and likeness and not others, the NCAA changed its rules.

Narrator: So far, 28 states have adopted legislation that gives student athletes more control over their NIL.

It basically says that if your state has a law that lets you profit it from your name, image and likeness, go ahead. If your state doesn't, you know, you can still go ahead and do it. But under the limitations that the NCAA is going to set,

Narrator: The new policy impacts more than 480,000 athletes across the NCAA's three divisions. Opendorse, a sports technology company that helps navigate athletes through this new landscape says that some of the highest profile athletes have made over $100,000 in the first six months since the new rules took effect. For instance, Paige Bueckers, a basketball star at the University of Connecticut, became the first college player to sign an endorsement deal with Gatorade.

Paige: I won National Gatorade Player of the Year in high school and that's when our relationship kind of started.

Narrator: The financial details of the deal weren't disclosed, but Gatorade said it is a multi-year partnership. Jim Cavale is the CEO of INFLCR, a mobile app that is helping over 100,000 athletes build their brand on social media and navigate the new NIL landscape.

Part of gaming it is you gotta do social media and your brand like an influencer does. Most athletes think it's just about playing well on the court, but it's both. When you do both, that's when you can explode this thing.

Narrator: INFLNCR says the average deal size for student athletes on its platform is around $1,100.

You see a handful of athletes actually make six and seven figures pretty fast, but then you see thousands of athletes do $20 t-shirt deals with Barstool. And so it's a really wide spectrum.

Narrator: According to Opendorse, national brands account for 57.75% of student athlete NIL compensation while local brands make up the rest.

So you have, you know, maybe a national food chain like Zaxby's or Chick-fil-A, but then it's the local franchises that are partnering with players on a certain team, or lots of car dealerships.

Myles: Hello, I'm Myles Brennan. I'm LSU's quarterback.

Narrator: Not all brand deals result in monetary payouts. Athletes can partner with a sports brand in exchange for free gear or get sponsored by a restaurant for free meals.

And there are, you know, other athletes that have been able to have smaller deals as well where it's maybe, you know, the Arkansas offensive lineman. They get a gift card to a restaurant and they post about it and they rave about the meal online.

Narrator: A major asset many student athletes bring to the table is their social media following, particularly on Instagram. Factors like posting frequently and having a high engagement rate can drive up an athlete's value.

All those things determine a valuation that could be anywhere from 50 cents per follower to more than a dollar per follower.

Narrator: Trinity Thomas, a gymnast at the University of Florida, has over 54,000 followers on Instagram. By posting more than once or twice per month, she could potentially see a $40,000 windfall.

I think the most exciting part is like, kind of not feeling like gated in. Like, you can kind of just do what you love and try new things and kind of put yourself out there.

Narrator: Another way college athletes profit from their skills is by giving lessons. While they weren't banned from doing this before, they couldn't mention their status as a collegiate athlete in promoting their services.

And so with the new NIL opportunities, I hope to be able to, like, kind of organize a clinic and also do some camps, maybe even one of my own, so.

Narrator: Many student athletes have sizable social media followings but aren't headed for professional careers. This is the case for Leah Clapper, another gymnast at the University of Florida, who was trying to maximize her time as a student athlete before graduating in 2023.

A big huge venture that I started was a gymnastics board game company, and that would not have been possible before NIL. So I teamed up with one of my former coaches and we created a gymnastics board game and we got to use my status as a Florida Gator to help market it and use my connections and my social media platform as well, which was a huge help.

Narrator: The rapidly landscape of NIL rules carries significant implications for the future of collegiate athletic recruitment.

There's broad fear that this is going to lead to a pay for play model where the richest schools get the best athletes and that there's going to be lots of bad recruiting inducements. And this is something that the NCAA has been battling in college sports for pretty much as long as it's existed.

Narrator: Loose guidelines set by the NCAA have left a lot up to interpretation as colleges navigate various compliance challenges.

The one broad thing that all these rules say is that the schools can't actively pay a player, but there's nothing saying that, oh, a coach can't have a conversation with boosters when he's at a lunch with donors and say, "Yeah, it'd be really great if we got some great NIL deals lined up for my athletes." And it's unclear if that's against the rules right now.

Narrator: It's uncertain when or if the federal government will step in to regulate NIL rules, but for now, student athletes are taking advantage of a new profitable era in college sports.

Athletes can get a head start on financial independence. I honestly think that it's changed the course of my career.