How financial advisors can compete and win in the NIL game

The college athletes that financial advisors root for and watch on TV aren’t just great players. The players represent a fresh pipeline of potential clients that advisors can coach in the game of personal finance. Thanks to an NCAA policy adopted in 2021 that enables Division I (DI) student-athletes to profit from their name, image, and likeness—better known as NIL—male and female athletes who play basketball, football, soccer, and rugby, to name a few, can now earn substantial sums of money by monetizing their personal brands with NIL deals.

What is NIL (Name, Image, and Likeness)?

NIL income, which student-athletes can earn via brand and sponsor-focused social media posts, endorsements, personal appearances, and autographs, is akin to a paycheck or a windfall for top student-athletes. For example, before turning pro in the WNBA, women’s basketball star Caitlin Clark made more than $3 million in NIL deals while attending the University of Iowa, according to MarketWatch.¹ Earning NIL income represents a path to financial freedom for many college athletes.

For financial advisors, there’s an important upshot to this development: Most of these student-athletes aren’t financially savvy. They require guidance and support to help make the most of their NIL earnings. Advisors have the financial expertise to coach these student-athletes in the game of saving, budgeting, investing, long-term planning, wealth building, and managing risk. The time is now for advisors to start building a winning game plan to turn these student-athletes into future clients and help them achieve their financial goals.

There’s a huge opportunity for advisors to help student-athletes manage their NIL earnings and secure their financial futures. Only 2% of college athletes will go on to play pro sports, according to the NCAA,² and only three of five DI student-athletes receive an athletic scholarship, and most of those are partial scholarships, according to The Hope Center at Temple University.³ So, making the most of the money student-athletes earn via NIL while attending college is a goal worth pursuing.

Sizing up the NIL market

Many student-athletes are projected to earn more in a single year than the 2023 U.S. worker’s median average pay of $48,060.    

• Some student-athletes could book NIL deals that can add up to seven figures per year. Currently there are 20 college sports stars who are projected to earn over $1 million annually, according to NIL analytics and data provider On3’s NIL deal tracker.⁴
• Most DI college football and basketball players are earning some money, with average deals in the five-figure range—and many going into six figures and beyond, according to The Athletic.⁵
• The top-25 earners in men’s basketball and football, for example, earn roughly $350,000 and $295,000 per year, respectively, according to Opendorse, an NIL deal marketplace.⁶

The NIL market is experiencing rapid growth. NIL payments to student-athletes are projected to grow to $2.55 billion by June 2026, up 178% from the $917 million spend in the first year of NIL ending in June 2022, according to Opendorse. 

Women’s sports are a competitive NIL force, too. Women’s basketball ranks third in total NIL compensation behind men’s hoops, Opendorse data show. And female athletes made up more than half (52%) of a list of 100 college athletes with the most NIL deals during the 2023–24 season, up 38% from the prior season, according to SponsorUnited’s 2023–24 report on NIL marketing partnerships.⁷

So, actively prospecting female college athletes as clients of tomorrow and providing them sound money-related advice makes financial sense for advisors. That’s especially true given that women are on track to control $30 trillion of the nation’s personal wealth by 2030, according to McKinsey & Company. See our Engaging Women Investors  program for more tools and resources to connect with female prospects.

The upshot: Advisors who are successful prospecting high-profile student-athletes with well-known personal brands and sizable NIL earnings can boost their chances of landing the next LeBron James as a client and position their company as a go-to financial advisory firm for other top student-athletes and potential future pro athletes.  

The opportunity: Turning NIL-enriched student athletes into clients

NIL has created a new class of potential clients, which could very well be high-net-worth clients of tomorrow. And since there are more than 102,500 men and 90,000 women playing sports at the NCAA DI level,⁸ it behooves advisors to map out a plan to connect with top student-athletes and help them navigate challenging financial decisions.

There are a few strategies advisors can consider when prospecting student-athletes who now have the potential to earn money via NIL:

• Keep tabs on NIL media and data providers. Advisors can prospect for athletes benefiting from NIL deals by scanning digital NIL sponsorship platform marketplaces, such as Opendorse, Icon Source, and Matchpoint, or track talent via NIL data analytics sites like On3. Blogs such as 2aDays, newsletters like NIL Wire, and publications such as Sports Business Journal and NIL Newsstand can also provide useful intelligence.
• Scan social media. Since many NIL deals involve local businesses, advisors can scan social media for local student-athletes who are using NIL to promote products and businesses in their area. Identifying top student-athletes with a large social media following is another way to prospect for clients.
• Offer educational NIL workshops to student-athletes. Highlight the importance of creating a financial plan and education on financial topics such as investing, portfolio diversification, and managing risk. Check out our Financial Literacy library  of educational content for topics and resources available.
• Approach alumni and college athletic directors and coaches. Touch base with key college stakeholders to discuss ways you can assist and support college athletes in prudently managing their NIL earnings. And don’t be shy about reaching out to your alma mater.
• Home in on local sports talent. Advisors can take the grassroots approach by identifying and contacting top high school sports stars that are being recruited by DI colleges and pitch their financial advisory services to the athlete with potential to profit from NIL deals in college. That means talking to Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) coaches or attending games of top recruits and introducing yourself to the player, parents, and head coach.
• Touch base with student-athletes’ NIL reps or agents. Many student-athletes, although not all as just a small percentage will make it to the pro ranks, also have agents or so-called marketing agents who help them land NIL deals. Approaching a college athlete’s agent could also be a fruitful use of an advisor’s time.

The bottom line: The more creative advisors are when prospecting future and present athletes profiting from NIL, the better their chances of signing them on as new clients. NIL has been frequently described as the Wild West, so advisors who put the time in during the early years of the NIL build-out can position themselves as advisors to current and future athletic stars at the college level—and potentially even the pro level.

With the increasing number of student-athletes profiting from lucrative NIL deals, advisors have an opportunity to prospect for a new pool of clients. Given the lack of sophistication most student-athletes have in managing money, advisors are in a prime position to provide financial guidance, expertise, and support to student-athletes with complex financial needs but little experience managing windfalls. Advisors who produce a winning game plan to convert top student-athletes into all-star clients can help boost assets under management, fill a niche advisory need, and connect with future clients at an early age.