When the NCAA began allowing college athletes to make money from the use of their name, image and likeness, purists moaned that it would be the death knell of amateur sports.
The purists still may be right, though some don’t like to acknowledge that with the rapidly rising broadcast rights payments to universities and conferences, the death knell of true amateurism was already approaching.
However, something interesting has happened with NIL activity in college sports: A surprising amount of it involves female athletes.
“Women’s basketball continues to be the surprise winner in the first year of college athletes being allowed to cash in on their name, image and likeness,” The Washington Post reported. “The sport ranks second to football in total compensation, according to a study by NIL company Opendorse, as marketers have found immense value in these women with massive reach through their social media endeavors.”
Few people expected this. Most speculated that all the NIL money would go to big-time male football and basketball players. That made sense: Men’s sports get the lion’s share of attention, their games often have much larger crowds and their professional sports opportunities after college are much more lucrative than women’s.
The Opendorse website includes a bunch of NIL statistics, and football is the unquestioned leader in college NIL payments. Its athletes have racked up 50% of all such payments through February. Men’s basketball is in third place, with 15% of payments.
Perched in second place is women’s basketball, whose players have received an impressive 18% of the NIL money.
This is even more surprising when you look at the number of NIL activities Opendorse tracks. Football, baseball and men’s basketball rank 1-2-3, with 47% of all activities. Women’s basketball ranks ninth, with just 4% of activities, yet its players are being paid a much higher share of the money.
The Post said social media is the biggest tool that connects marketers and college athletes. A strategy officer for the Florida Panthers, a National Hockey League team, said female college athletes tend to have online followings that are hard for marketers to reach, such as young people, 18- to 25-year-old men and women, and even soccer moms.
Female athletes also appear to be better at social media engagement. “Marketers don’t want a boring post that merely pitches a product,” the Post said. “Athletes who are active on their pages and interact with their followers have people coming back more regularly. More eyeballs and more visits provide more opportunities for a follower to become a consumer.”
It also may be that women realize their sports opportunities after college are limited, so they’d better strike while the iron is hot. Which is exactly why the NIL program should be nurtured and allowed to grow. If universities receive millions for sports rights, it’s only fair that players have a chance to make some money for their work, too. Now they do, and good for them.
— Jack Ryan, McComb Enterprise-Journal
