How college athletes are getting paid from brand sponsorships as NIL marketing takes off
On July 1, after a decades-long fight, student-athletes across the country gained the right to make money from their names, images, and likenesses (NIL) thanks to a flurry of new state laws and an NCAA policy change.
What happened next was a mad rush of student-athletes, small businesses, national brands, and startups looking to cash in.
Some athletes in widely followed sports scored deals worth five or six figures. But many of the 460,000-plus student-athletes across the US ended up working with local businesses, like restaurants, or participating in one-off marketing campaigns with bigger brands, receiving free products, gift cards, or smaller cash payments, rather than big pay days, for their NIL promotions.
In addition to brand deals, student-athletes have run branded training clinics and have been paid for appearances and autograph signings.
Unlike professional influencers, college athletes tend to have small audiences on social media. In the influencer world, these athletes would be classified as "micro" (generally under 100,000 followers) or "nano" (generally under 10,000) influencers — an area of increasing focus for marketers.
