A look into NIL’s impact ahead of Year 3

UConn women’s basketball star Paige Bueckers hasn’t played a live game of college basketball since April 2022.

In fact, she’s only played 46 out of a possible 103 games over the last three seasons.

Knee injuries have kept Bueckers off the court, yet her presence within the endorsement and marketability space continues to set the standard in this new world of collegiate athletics.

Bueckers signed a deal with Nike on Sept. 6, already holding endorsement deals with Gatorade, StockX and Crocs. And while she can certainly profit off those deals, she most recently used her partnership Chegg to support a food pantry for UConn’s Storrs students.

Teammate Azzi Fudd, who’s also been sidelined with injuries to start her collegiate career, also remains among the top earners in the name, image and likeness world. Fudd has deals with Chipotle, Bose, American Eagle, BioSteel and Stephen Curry’s Brand SC30. The star junior hosted a basketball camp for kids Sunday in Connecticut.

Not only are Bueckers and Fudd raising the bar in what is possible within NIL, but they’re doing so by giving back to their communities.

“I didn’t know I could have this impact,” Bueckers said Monday. “NIL was new for me and for everybody when it came in super-fast. So, to see all the things that I can do to help give back is crazy. I just didn’t really know I could do all this stuff, especially as a freshman in college when NIL became possible. To be able to partner with these organizations and brands and for us to collaborate ideas it’s pretty cool to see.”

The 2023-24 collegiate athletic season marks the third year of NIL. Its impact is reaching more

student-athletes than ever before as its ushered in a new era of athletics from high school through college.

Where is NIL heading? With Bueckers at the forefront, it appears the age of amateur athletes profiting is still growing.

Changing world

NIL rules went into effect on July 1, 2021, and forever changed the world of college athletics. For the first time, student-athletes could profit off their likeness, meaning paid endorsements, sponsorships and appearances became allowed. NIL also made it legal for donors and fans to come together and form collectives to provide athletes forms of compensation through partnering with various community groups.

Football and men’s basketball are the top two sports with the most NIL earners, according to Opendorse’s August 2023 data (which encompasses the past two years-plus of NIL activity). Women’s basketball is in third place ahead of baseball, women’s volleyball and softball, which round out the top six sports. All athletes are eligible, except for international athletes as their student visas prevented them from earning a financial profit while in the United States.

While an athlete can use their athletic talent to gain NIL attention, studentathletes have also been able to create NIL deals based on their non-sports interests. LSU women’s basketball’s Flau’jae Johnson has been able to market her rapping career just as well as her performance on the court.

Experts like Sam Weber, Opendorse’s head of brand marketing and communications, have been most impressed with how athletes have used their name, image and likeness. Instead of using it to solely benefit themselves, many are making it a priority to help others.

Bueckers and Fudd are prime examples of athletes using their platform and resources to give back to local communities through initiatives and camps. Both have also treated their fellow UConn teammates with gifts from their NIL partnerships such as Bose headphones and sneakers.

“The willingness of athletes to kind of give back has been eye-opening,” Weber said. “... I think the stigma is that you know, these 18, 19, 20-year-old kids are going to get a big check in the mail. They’re going to buy shoes and lease cars and live large. And there’s a tiny, tiny percentage of that that’s happening. … But a lot of these athletes are figuring out better ways to invest, to give back to their communities, all of that. I think it’s gonna create a really forward-thinking, better-educated athlete stepping out of college.”

Education around NIL has also grown over the last two-plus years. UConn hired Jason Butikofer last summer to become its NIL expert in helping student-athletes learn how to manage their NIL activity.

Kristi Dosh, a college sports business reporter who teaches NIL courses at the University of Florida, said she’s seen law schools create workshops for student-athletes so they can learn about contracts, negotiating and working with agents. She’s also seen an increase in educating high school athletes and their families about NIL.

Dosh wants to see even more education, though, since there still are college athletes getting scammed by fake NIL agents, brands and “predatory” contract terms.

“I’d love to see studentathletes just like stopping and taking a breath and having somebody look at (a contract), because I do see a lot of them signing away rights, they don’t realize they’re signing away and then living to regret it later,” Dosh said.

Financial education for student-athletes has also grown as these young adults are learning what it’s like to have an income for the first time.

“You can make all the money you want in the world, but if you don’t know what to do with it, it’s not going to do any good,” said Courtney Altemus, founder of Advance NIL. “… Every level, every athlete needs the same resources because you don’t know which one is going to benefit. So, you can’t just choose to educate the quote and quote elites or the highest performers in their sport.”

Collectives vs. brand deals

There are two main forms of NIL activity.

There’s the collective side, which consists of groups of alumni, donors and/or fans creating opportunities to compensate athletes. The Bleeding Blue for Good collective is led by former UConn Husky Kalana Greene as its vice president and works with local charities to create NIL opportunities for current UConn athletes.

And the brand-deal side, which is when a brand invests in an individual athlete and their celebrity likeness. Bueckers’ deal with Nike and Fudd’s deal with Chipotle are examples of brand-based NIL deals.

“On the brand side, all you need is one individual, right?” Weber said. “It’s one person that will move the needle for your brand or business, whether that’s to bring people through the door to order a product online or just to think about that brand in a different way. …

“Those athletes that have found ways to connect with their audience that isn’t necessarily directly tied to their performance on the court.”

According to Weber, collectives currently make up “about 80%” of the spending in NIL while commercial, brand deals make up the other 20%.

Bill Carter, an NIL consultant and educator with Student-Athlete Insights, said he’s noticed collectives tend to work mainly with football and men’s basketball because of most collective demographic makeups.

“The profile of these executive directors of these organizations are men, businesspeople, middleaged alumni, successful in business, super active donors, and all of that leads really to one thing, which is that they love football, and they want the football program to succeed,” he said. “And everything else, I don’t want to say it’s an afterthought, but absolutely, football is coming first. And I don’t know a single collective in which football doesn’t come first.”

Experts agree that more male athletes are benefiting from collectives whereas it’s a little more equal, between men and women within commercial deals.

Dosh says she thinks this is because women are often more engaging on social media and think more long-term in terms of creating a good, lasting relationship with a brand.

“I think part of that is psychological in that a lot of these women are not planning to have the opportunity to continue their sport after graduation,” Dosh said. “And so, they are future-focus and thinking about, ‘What can I do with my NIL deals now that sets me up for future success?’ … And I think a lot of the men probably who have a fair number of NIL opportunities are very focused on playing professionally at the next level.”

Paige profiting

Bueckers hasn’t played a live college game in 17 months, but her presence off the court hasn’t diminished.

Bueckers has one million followers on Instagram and 78.8 thousand on X, the site formerly known as Twitter. She’s personable and shows off her passions through her posts and how she carries herself on social media. That’s what attracts brands to the 2021 National Player of the Year.

“Nike isn’t going to come along and basically, just sign some big deal because Paige was a great high school player, and then started off with a great college career,” Altemus said. “She’s much more than that elite athlete on the court. She’s this elite individual. …

“These types of athletes are athletes that the entire universe of young girls playing their sports, they’re watching. And Nike recognizes that. And they recognize that the growth in women’s sports has been recently exponential and it’s gonna grow even more. And there are parents of these young girls who are athletes watching Paige Bueckers who are gonna go out and buy those shoes.”

When brands sign individual athletes to NIL deals, they’re investing in who the athlete is as a person instead of solely their athletic talent.

That’s why Bueckers was still able to pull in NIL deals and sign with top brands despite being injured and not actively playing.

“If you’re a women’s basketball player who has been in the public spotlight since they were in high school, you’ve been building fans who follow you across various channels for three, four or five years,” Weber said. “They’re invested in your journey because you’ve shared that journey with them over the years. And so, when you’re out for a season, or in some cases, even more than a season, then that doesn’t mean they forget about you. They’re still following along.

“They still care about what’s next. … That connection doesn’t die or go away when they’re injured, and that’s why Paige’s audience is every bit as valuable today as before she hurt her knee.”

Impact beyond college

One of the most interesting effects of NIL is how it affects when a studentathlete either leaves college or declares for their respective professional draft.

For some athletes, especially those who are likely a first-round draft pick, a rookie contract in their pro league is worth so much money that that’s enough in itself to leave college to begin their pro careers.

However, for athletes who are projected to go in later rounds of their pro drafts or aren’t pursuing their sport professionally after college, weighing out how much money they could continue making in NIL versus graduating becomes a hard decision.

Add on the fact that for the past three years, many student-athletes were granted additional collegiate eligibility because of the pandemic, and the decision has become even harder.

Gonzaga men’s basketball player Drew Timme said NIL was a factor in his decision to spend another year in college knowing that he wouldn’t be a top NBA draft pick. Front Office Sports reported Timme was making “six figures” through NIL.

Weber said Opendorse reported NFL Draft early entry numbers (for noncollege seniors) are down 36% since NIL went into effect.

And whenever an athlete does decide to graduate, that doesn’t necessarily mean their NIL career is over.

Professional athletes can just as well utilize NIL deals and experts say they’re seeing more pro athletes profit from such partnerships because of the popularity now coming from the college sports world. There’s also been an increase in financial education for student-athletes transitioning into their pro careers because of NIL.

“Some (rookies) have been going through NIL for the last couple of years and have had no education,” Altemus said. “So they’ve done deals, they have no idea if those deals are good or bad. Many of them don’t know what they’re supposed to do with taxes. There are several who haven’t paid taxes by the time they get to their rookie season.”

When NIL was first introduced, the NCAA said a NIL deal between a brand and a student-athlete could not continue past the athlete’s graduation from their university. But if an athlete and brand do enjoy working together and want to continue their partnership past the athlete’s graduation, they can sign a new deal to start after their graduation to better represent the athlete’s new standing (whether as a pro athlete or not).

Bueckers will be eligible for the 2024 WNBA Draft, but she retains college eligibility from missing last season with an injury and from the extra year granted by the NCAA because of the pandemic. While NIL activity could impact decisions to start a professional career, the ability to continue those relationships — such as Bueckers with Nike — may also inform an athlete’s decision.

UConn men’s basketball star Donovan Clingan of Bristol is also benefiting from NIL as a well-known local athlete and a visible member of an NCAA champion. Clingan was among the UConn athletes hosted in Los Angeles by alum and social media influencer Marc D’Amelio, who created the “Husky Collective.”

Clingan has an NBA future, but his ability generate NIL revenue could allow him to make a deliberate decision on his professional future.

But even for those without a professional future, NIL is providing new opportunities.

“I love it because we’re seeing more athletes graduate with their undergraduate degrees and so many are coming out of an athletic and student career with advanced degrees,” Altemus said.