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No single thing has ever changed the world of college sports quite like the introduction of name, image and likeness legislation.
In January of 2021, the United States Supreme Court upheld a district court ruling that the NCAA could not limit education-related compensation for athletes.
The ruling has led to a number of massive changes for college athletics, but two stand out the most.
First, recruiting of high school athletes has now turned into a bidding war for the teams who can raise the most money. Second, superstar college athletes such as Olivia Dunne have used social media to make millions of dollars.
The NCAA recently tried to curb the first aspect, as reported by Ross Dellenger of Sports Illustrated.
Dellenger repored that the NCAA sent letters to schools which “strongly clarify [the NCAA’s] NIL policy by warning schools that (1) they must follow NCAA rules even if they conflict with state laws and (2) entities such as school foundations are prohibited from NIL and offering donor incentives for NIL giving.”
Both schools and state legislators laughed off the letters.
But exactly how much money is in the NIL market these days?
Well, according to a projection from NIL company Opendorse, it’s more than you could have even imagined.
The third year of the name, image, and likeness era could yield a market of up to $1.17 billion. That’s up from about $1 billion in the second year and it doesn’t appear to be slowing down.
The report projects that NIL collectives, the groups of boosters and donors who pool resources to help athletes at a particular school, will dominant the market space.
Opendorse states that there are more than 200 collectives nationwide — 122 for Power 5 schools, 54 for Group of 5 and Big East schools, and 43 schools for the rest of Division I.
But where is that money going?
The report claims Power 5 football players receive an average of $7,262 for each collective activity they complete. Men’s basketball players receive $4,929. While women’s basketball players receive $2,070.
That’s a lot of dough!