It has been two weeks since the NCAA gave college athletes the green light to make money off their name, image and likeness (NIL). If you thought student-athletes in their late teens and early 20s were going to cash in monumentally from the very beginning, well, think again.
Few can flaunt as profound a personal brand as LSU gymnast Olivia Dunne, who The Daily Advertiser reported last week could sign a deal with an international talent agency for somewhere in the neighborhood of $4 to 5 million.
That is only possible because Dunne has four million TikTok followers and over a million on Instagram. BlueandGold.com reported two weeks ago the most followed Notre Dame football player on social media is junior running back Kyren Williams. He has just more than 35,000 combined Instagram and Twitter followers.
From the outside looking in, it appears Williams and his teammates haven’t made nearly as much of a monetary gain in the first two weeks of the NIL era as Dunne is reportedly set to receive. It's early in the process, but so far that's the reality — even for players at a program as nationally renowned and recognizable as Notre Dame.
Williams is on Cameo, a service allowing the public to pay for personalized video messages. Junior safety Kyle Hamilton is Notre Dame’s second-most followed player on social media. He’s on Cameo as well. Each player is charging $49 per video. Together, the duo has only combined to receive 13 reviews and 40 likes according to their respective profiles as of Tuesday afternoon.
Hamilton has garnered 11 reviews and 29 likes. Let’s use that as a range for potential earnings. Those numbers do not mean Hamilton has accepted money for either 13 or 28 videos. It could be less than 13. It could be more than 28. It could be somewhere in between. If that’s the case, then he’s made between $539 and $1,421 in two weeks.
That’s a solid chunk of change for someone who was previously not allowed to gain a cent from his NIL. But if that’s what Hamilton can consistently expect going forward, it will amount to not much more than what a well-paying part-time job would.
Being a student-athlete is a full-time job in and of itself, though. The student part comprises half of that statement while the athlete part makes up the other. In many instances, you can make a case just being a student at Notre Dame is a full-time job. And when the expectation is to reach the College Football Playoff every year, being an athlete in South Bend is essentially a full-time job too.
So if Hamilton can make more than $1,000 in two weeks spending a few minutes here and there making videos for the fans he plays for on Saturdays, then he’s absolutely making satisfactory use of his NIL.
Williams and Hamilton aren't the only Irish players trying to get what they can off their NIL. Mission BBQ has apparently sponsored the entire Notre Dame offensive line. That might not equate to much more than some free meals every once in a while, but just one free meal is more than was allowed under the NCAA’s previous rules.
Justin and Jayson Ademilola announced Monday they have signed with an agency called VaynerSports. What does that mean for the senior defensive linemen? Money, of course. And perhaps more than one might think.
According to Matt Freeman of Irish Sports Daily, VaynerSports helped the Ademilola brothers reach a five-figure deal with Six Star Pro Nutrition. That's much, much more than $49 for Cameo videos.
Senior linebacker Bo Bauer is one of many college athletes who have recently signed on with YOKE, a service allowing the public to play video games with famous athletes. BODYARMOR, a sports drink brand, is one of YOKE’s main partners.
Bauer put out a tweet last week announcing he has teamed up with YOKE and BODYARMOR. Sophomore wide receiver Xavier Watts, senior wide receiver Braden Lenzy and junior defensive lineman Nana Osafo-Mensah sent out identical tweets on the same day.
It's unclear what’s in it for the Notre Dame players involved in the BODYARMOR Game Night, but again — any reward they reap is more than they could’ve two and a half weeks ago. It’s more than any college athlete was ever able to gain from their NIL for as long as the NCAA has existed.
Something as small as sophomore defensive lineman Rylie Mills making $20 for his Cameo videos and and as large as five-figure agreements with sports nutrition brands are wins for college athletes.
Dunne might be the only college athlete out there who can cash in to the degree she is reportedly about to. But that is OK. Crumbs are valuable when there was previously not a single cookie in sight for them to fall off of.
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