NIL: NCAA Female student athletes leading the way

November 16, 2022
Content creation platform Curastory published a report yesterday on the top name, image and likeness (NIL) earners per ad-enabled video, with some of the NCAA’s most notable female athletes leading the way.
Sports BusinessRunning
NIL: NCAA Female student athletes leading the way
SOURCE: SOOBUM IM/GETTY IMAGES

The GIST: Student-athletes are acing the video content test. Content creation platform Curastory published a report yesterday on the top name, image and likeness (NIL) earners per ad-enabled video, with some of the NCAA’s most notable female athletes leading the way.

The details: Oregon rakes in $108K per ad-enabled video, with (injured) basketball player Sedona Prince driving a majority of the school’s earnings. Auburn sits in fourth with $35K per video thanks in large part to Olympic gold medalist Suni Lee, while Florida cracks the top five with $31K driven by gymnast Riley McCusker.

  • Prince ranks first for all athletes, scoring an incredible $90K per video. Lee is third with $23K, while California track & field athlete Camryn Rogers is fourth with $16K and LSU gymnast Elena Arenas is fifth with $15K. They work hard for the money.
  • As far as sports go, basketball earns the most per ad-enabled video, cross country and track & field sit in second and softball rounds out the podium in third.

Zooming out: One thing continues to ring true as student-athletes lean into content creation — female athletes are particularly skilled at building NIL value through social media. As a result, the top women in college sports boast impressive reach for any company looking to increase brand awareness.

  • Female student-athletes also make up 85% of creators, per Curastory, reflective of the industry at large — women comprise 84% of creators and influencers, and dominate social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok. We sense a pattern.