The rich get richer. This remains true in college sports as NIL has now been in effect for over 6 months.
Top programs can offer bigger NIL deals. The best players can get paid before entering the pros.
Woman collegiate athletes can get a piece of the pie – no matter what sport or division level they play at.
High school athletes should start preparing themselves now.
The first inning hasn’t even started and life-changing deals are being signed left and right by 18 year old athletes.
7 Ways To Make Money With NIL: Compensation for College Athletes
Keep in mind you’re all ready a full-time athlete and student. Finding a balance and people you can outsource responsibilities to is super important.
1. Social Media
A common theme we’ve seen is that athletes with bigger and more engaged social media followings benefit the most. Tik Tok and Instagram seem to have the most pull.
Develop a plan to grow your accounts IMMEDIATELY.
You’ll be able make money off of sponsored posts, affiliates, and promoting brands. It will also lead to other opportunities.
Super easy and super profitable.
Athletes like the Cavinder twins will make over 7-figures this year posting to socials.
High schooler Jaden Rashada became the first HS football player to sign a deal. It was worth upwards of 4 figures.
Keep in mind, that without a good social media following, these other methods won’t be as effective.
2. Media Content
Podcasts, YouTube channels, radio shows.
By getting in front of the camera (or mic) you’re able to express who you are and build an engaged audience.
5 Auburn players got paid $25,000 this year for coming on an SEC podcast.
Jon Seaton (Elon Football) makes meme videos around football while throwing in some recruiting tips on Tik Tok.
He’s not at a major football program, but he’s killing it in the NIL game.
3. Website
Set up a website under your name or something familiar.
Can post articles, media content, and all of your information there.
Set up Google Adsense ads.
This will be your home base. Everything will be connected here as the central place to see everything about you.
- social media
- products
- who you are
- what you do
- how to get in contact with you
You can set up a website on BlueHost for $7.99/year and get a free domain name.
Use your name (example: andrewpetcash.com).
4. E-commerce Store
This goes along with the website.
Set up your own store on Shopify and/or reach out to companies that can handle everything from design to distribution.
I would sell merchandise – shirts, hats, game-signed gear – along with informational guides student-athletes and parents would purchase.
- How to get Recruited
- How to put on Muscle
- College Recruiting Guidebook
If you don’t want to create your own guides, just use affiliate products.
Go on clickbank to find them.
5. Subscription Service
Set up through your website or use something like Twitter Super Follows.
If it’s a WordPress site use the plugin Woocommerce.
Charge $4.99 a month.
$5 x 1000 subs ~ $5,000/month or $60,000/year
Give these super fans insider content. To do this you have to have good content to begin with.
Let them know what they’ll receive and make it seem very exclusive. Give away free stuff to join.
You don’t have to complicate the basics of compensation for college athletes.
6. Run Camps
In the summers, I would run as many camps as possible.
Parents would much rather pay a student-athlete, than some random trainer.
This is where your social media image and being a role model is important.
In-person events will help grow your entire brand. You’ll turn followers into fans.
Hire camera person to follow you around and show all of the interactions.
100 kids x $99 for camp = +$10,000
Concession stand = +$2000
Sell merch = +$1000
Sell recruiting guides = +$1000
minus expenses $5000 – renting space, camp workers
= $9000 for a 1 or 2 day camp
7. Autographs
I think signatures are overrated, but a lot of people seem to like them for some reason.
Take advantage of this.
How to utilize them:
- exclusive signing events
- give away for free to new $4.99 subscribers
- sell on website
- give away at your camp
Start Now
College athletes can already make money off their name, image, and likeness.
High school athletes need to set themselves up for success in NIL.
Technically, you can make money now if you’re in the states of California, New York, New Jersey, Nebraska, or Illinois.
If you’re one of the better players in your area or even just your high school – youth athletes will look up to you.
I use to charge $10 for kids to come do basketball workouts in my driveway. I would make about $100 under-the-table a week and get extra ball-handling in.
Only 2-3% of college athletes will go pro. Take advantage of your status as a college athlete to make some extra money and set yourself up for life.
Don’t lose focus of the long term visions.
Summary of Compensation for College Athletes
It all starts with building up your social media brand.
From there you’ll have plenty of monetization opportunities.
Brands are going to continue investing in athletes and micro-influencers.
Put in the work, stay consistent and there will be a piece of the pie waiting on the other side.
I know AIR plans on spending over $1 million in NIL deals for the next 18 months.
It will be a mix of college and high school athletes – in every sport across the country.
Our first and most important judgement criteria:
- do you have an engaged social media following?
