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I think the tricky bit for WCBB athletes and NIL is that they are actually in a competitive spotlight. Lots of influencers make money just on their own carefully crafted images. If they can collect a few million followers, they make money regardless of their sport. The top few on the list SI has are like this.
Take the Cavinders for example. At Fresno St their games were barely covered. But the fact that they were D1 athletes was part of the image they’d come up with. Then they transferred to Miami and their games were covered and they even showed up in a major tournament run. This should have been huge for their monetizing, but it actually didn’t help them and may even have cost them a bit. The problem was now they were real players whose performance could be examined by fans. They turned out to be pretty good players, but not great players.
Compare this to Paige, who also came to NIL with an existing following. But she also had huge coverage at UConn. When her actual performances on the court were in national TV she was awesome, even heroic. Her NIL contracts increased because of her play being covered nationally.
This is one important distinction to make. Some athletes are merely influencers who also play a sport. Others are heralded as great athletes and NIL deals seek them out.
And not all great athletes have had similar success. Angel, Caitlin, Hailey Van Lith, Flau’jae, these are all great players, but they haven’t all benefited equally from their presence in social media. Paige may have outearned all of them in a year in which she didn’t play at all. Just the memory of her play and the expectation of her return was enough. This is the other side of the equation — it’s not enough to be a great player. You also have to have the sort of charisma that plays well on social media, and they don’t all have it.
Take the Cavinders for example. At Fresno St their games were barely covered. But the fact that they were D1 athletes was part of the image they’d come up with. Then they transferred to Miami and their games were covered and they even showed up in a major tournament run. This should have been huge for their monetizing, but it actually didn’t help them and may even have cost them a bit. The problem was now they were real players whose performance could be examined by fans. They turned out to be pretty good players, but not great players.
Compare this to Paige, who also came to NIL with an existing following. But she also had huge coverage at UConn. When her actual performances on the court were in national TV she was awesome, even heroic. Her NIL contracts increased because of her play being covered nationally.
This is one important distinction to make. Some athletes are merely influencers who also play a sport. Others are heralded as great athletes and NIL deals seek them out.
And not all great athletes have had similar success. Angel, Caitlin, Hailey Van Lith, Flau’jae, these are all great players, but they haven’t all benefited equally from their presence in social media. Paige may have outearned all of them in a year in which she didn’t play at all. Just the memory of her play and the expectation of her return was enough. This is the other side of the equation — it’s not enough to be a great player. You also have to have the sort of charisma that plays well on social media, and they don’t all have it.
