Abstract

For over a century, college athletes in the United States have been expected to maintain amateur status, receiving educational benefits, but no other financial reward for their performance. Given the billions of dollars generated by college sports, this limitation has been seen as unfair, leading some college athletes to explore ways to obtain a portion of profits as compensation. Over the past decade, this restriction on student-athlete financial gain has been loosened through a number of court cases. In 2021, the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA), the governing body of college athletics that sets rules and protocols for college sports, changed their policies to allow student athletes to profit from their name, image, and likeness (NIL) through endorsements, sale of merchandise, appearances, and other profitable activities. Given the newness of NIL policy, little is known about its impact on college athletes or college athletics. As a first step in exploring this topic, this study examined the characteristics of student athletes with very high NIL valuation to see who is benefiting the most from this change in policy. Using a listing of the athletes with the top 100 NIL valuation as of September 2023, it was shown that the valuation of top NIL athletes ranged from US$497,000 to US$6.1 million, with a median value of US$734,000. These top 100 athletes were predominantly football (76%) and basketball (22%) players, predominantly Black (68%) and overwhelmingly male (94%). Using negative binomial regression, it was found that the athlete’s number of Instagram followers was significantly associated with NIL valuation, thus athletes with activity and skills in social media were shown to benefit greatly from the new NIL policies. Implications of these findings and next steps needed in NIL research are discussed.