“Revenue sports” is a term you will hear everywhere within the sports world. If you don’t know what that means, it is referring to sports that bring in the most amount of money, such as football and basketball. These two sports are what mostly get broadcasted on television, sell the most tickets and have the most merchandise. Even though women’s college basketball is technically considered a revenue sport, it still brings in considerably less money than men’s basketball. When I say considerably less, I mean 500 times less.
Take a moment to consider the different sports teams that we have here at NC State. All of the 19 other varsity sports teams at NC State, even women’s basketball, are not considered “money making sports.” These athletes who are all working hard, putting blood, sweat and tears into their craft, aren’t getting paid equally or equitably.
Do you think the number one athlete from the women’s golf team is paid as much as the number one athlete from the men’s basketball team? Or how about the benchwarmer who hardly gets any time on the court? Or what about that athlete from Europe, how much do they get? Well actually they get nothing…
Athletes who are not US Citizens are not eligible to receive N.I.L. (name, image and likeness) deals. Remember Mohamed Diarra? One of the top basketball players from the 2023-2024 season, wracking up assists in the double digits nearly every game and regularly getting double-doubles. Despite all of the amazing statistics, because Diarra is French, he did not make any money from playing collegiate basketball.
Among the top 100 N.I.L. players at NC State, 96 are football players. The other four consist of three men’s basketball players and one women’s basketball player. When you look at the specific basketball players on the list you may be shocked.
Of course DJ Burns is towards the top of the list at number four. Then there is DJ Horne towards the bottom of the list at number 99. But the shocker is the fact that MJ Rice came in at number 74. MJ Rice only played in a handful of games during the 2023-2024 season due to a personal matter that left him in redshirt the rest of season. Saniya Rivers is the only woman to make the list, coming in at number 96.
What shocks me even more is that there are only three men’s basketball players on the list, and one of them barely played! The NC State men’s basketball team won the ACC Championship and made it to the Final Four in the NCAA Tournament! Where is Michael O’Connell? Casey Morsell? Ben Middlebrooks? Those guys were some of the best players on the 2023-2024 team! Not to mention the fact that we have Olympians in our athletic department, and none of those names are on the list either!
Yet somehow out of the 100 top N.I.L. athletes at NC State, 96 are football players. I would bet that if you asked any NC State fan to name as many football players as they could, they wouldn’t get anywhere close to 96 names. But still, all 96 of those players are making tens of thousands of dollars, if not more.
If you then look at the top 100 N.I.L. players overall there are only two athletes on the list who aren’t basketball or football players as of writing this article: Livvy Dunne (gymnastics) and Sam Hurley (track and field). What these two athletes have in common is their mass number of followers. Across all platforms Dunne has 13.2 million followers and Hurley has 4.9 million.
It’s easy to see there is a lot more involved in getting N.I.L. deals than just the athletes playing abilities. Social media following adds a debatably unfair advantage to certain athletes in this era. Livvy Dunne and Sam Hurley reached online fame for one reason or another, but what about their teammates?
A good example, that is close to home, would be Jared McCain. McCain is an amazing athlete who was able to move on to the NBA as a sophomore in college. His athletic prowess is definitely one of the reasons that he reached such success during his college career, but there is also another reason for his fame.
The Duke basketball rookie went viral on TikTok for his dancing as well as some videos he made fighting the haters that say he, and all men, should not wear nail polish. Those videos earned him a N.I.L. deal with Sally Hansen.
Overall it is estimated that McCain made around one million dollars in N.I.L. deals. That was after only one year of playing college basketball.
Let’s compare McCain to another huge Duke basketball star: Kyle Filipowski. As one of the best players in the ACC, and a future NBA player, Filipowski made an estimated $795,000 in N.I.L. deals.
Athletes with large followings on TikTok are likely already receiving compensation through the Creator Rewards Program and are now receiving even more compensation through the N.I.L. deals they receive due to their massive following.
Obviously brands are going to want to sponsor players that can endorse their product on as big of a scale as possible. Because most N.I.L. deals involve social media posts of some kind, brands likely want to make deals with athletes that have a larger following.
So what does this mean? Any athlete that has a big social media presence is going to be getting N.I.L. deals. In short, yes. It seems like the only way an athlete can make big bucks from N.I.L. deals, unless they are a basketball or football player, is to have a large social media following.
Pay disparity in college athletics is not just about gender, nationality, social media presence or even about which sport you play. It is a combination of those three things and more. The intricacies of N.I.L. deals and the corporate dynamics that occur behind the scenes reveal matters we still have yet to fully understand.
