Getty Image / Stew Milne
College sports changed forever in the summer of 2021 when the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that college athletes had the right under US antitrust law to accept payments relating to their name, image and likeness, known as NIL.
What was originally imagined as a player being able to accept a Nike sponsorship, or sign autographs at the bookstore downtown for some cash, has more or less become pay-for-play at top universities via boosters. That, is legal, and probably fine, as before everyone else was getting rich off college athletics except the athletes.
And, some of the most marketable athletes are worth millions of dollars. Thankfully, the folks over at On3 come out with periodic NIL valuation numbers for some of the top athletes. And, on Wednesday, they updated their list.
Updated On3 NIL 100📈💰https://t.co/cBDfg0AgAf pic.twitter.com/kHRFfLEkKF
— On3 (@On3sports) March 29, 2023
These are some eye-popping numbers. Connor Toole at BroBible already talked about the eye-popping numbers that Bronny James and Arch Manning are set to receive. But, there’s so much to unpack here.
LSU gymnast Livvy Dunne is making bank. The former Team USA member is a social media star with over 7 million TikTok followers and was recently featured in a commercial during the season finale of the Bachelor.
In something that would’ve been laughed at a year ago, Colorado football and coach Deion Sanders have two guys in the top ten in Travis Hunter and Shedeur Sanders. That’s a lot of progress for a program that was downright terrible last year.
And, there are a lot of college quarterbacks on this list. Arguably the three Heisman favorites for next year, Drake Maye, Caleb Williams, and Bo Nix all made the list and will make a ton of money playing college football this year.
Congrats to all of these athletes for cashing in on big-time checks. They deserve it.