- College athletes can profit from their name, image, and likeness (NIL) for the first time this school year.
- The
NCAA Tournament provides a huge spotlight and could pave the way for six-figure deals, one expert said.
The Saint Peter's men's basketball team could be a good litmus test that shows just how much a Cinderella run in the NCAA Tournament could be worth.
After the 15th-seeded Peacocks advanced to the Sweet 16, they have officially become breakout stars of March Madness.
And now, with college athletes able to profit off of their name, image, and likeness (NIL), the spotlight of the NCAA Tournament could provide a big income boost to these breakout stars.
"I think March Madness is going to be unreal and unbelievable for student-athletes, as it pertains to name, image and likeness," Peter Schoenthal, the CEO of Athliance, a software company that helps athletes disclose NIL deals to their schools, told Insider.
One Saint Peter's player has already cashed in: Guard Doug Edert, who has averaged 16.5 points per game in the NCAA Tournament, posted a promotion for Buffalo Wild Wings on his Instagram. He started the Tournament with just 1,500 followers on the platform; now he has more than 23,000.
It's unclear how much Edert's Wild Wings deal is worth, but Frank Vuono, a veteran
"The numbers are getting crazy," Vuono told Insider.
More established stars of
Drew Timme, the star forward of Gonzaga's men's basketball team, recently agreed to a deal with Dollar Shave Club based around his trademark mustache.
In an email to Insider, Timme said he and Dollar Shave Club had been discussing a deal "for months," calling it a natural fit to show off his famous 'stache. He has also been appearing in commercials for Northern Quest Resort & Casino in Airway Heights, Wash., just 10 miles west of Gonzaga's campus in Spokane.
Twin sisters Haley and Hanna Cavinder, two guards preparing to transfer from Fresno State, are poised to make $1 million in NIL deals, according to USA Today, thanks to their viral TikTok videos.
Paige Bueckers, UConn's star guard, has also signed NIL deals; she became the first collegiate athlete to be sponsored by Gatorade.
Yet fans have often fallen in love with the underdogs during March Madness.
"I think there will be names coming out of the tournament that you don't know who they are today, but by the time we get into late March, early April, we're gonna know a lot about them," said Irwin Kishner, Herrick's executive chairman and the co-chair of Herrick's Sports Law Group.
"And I think those folks that are able to do that are gonna do rather well on the NIL front."
Schoenthal believes a Cinderella run could prove fruitful for the athletes. Referring back to 2018, when UMBC became the first 16-seed to knock off a 1-seed by beating Virginia, Schoenthal said those UMBC players could have cashed in, had NIL existed.
"I think if those athletes knew what they were doing, knew how to get creative ... I believe that those athletes could have made a couple thousand dollars, no problem," Schoenthal said.
But Kishner wasn't as bullish on just how much a Cinderella run could be worth, saying there will be some "immediate" deals, but excitement will temper if that teams falls out of the tournament quickly. Indeed, UMBC lost their next game after beating Virginia.
Joe Sherburne, a starting forward on that UMBC team, told Insider he wasn't sure how much he would have benefited from NIL after his team's upset over Virginia.
"Other than that short couple weeks, I don't think anybody would've used me to advertise," Sherburne said. "I mean, I had a thousand Instagram followers, and I wasn't anything special. I just had one win. And I think after maybe a couple weeks, it would've gone away."
Sherburne said he had only personally heard of smaller deals among college athletes, like players receiving free shorts, for example. For all of the flash of the big, national deals for star players, many NIL deals are smaller and based more in local markets.
This disparity is partially why Vuono has called the NIL landscape "the wild west."
"I'm intrigued about how this is gonna all go down," Vuono said. "I'm rooting for these athletes to make some bucks, and I'm happy for them. But I also know that this could be a bubble that gets burst at some point if people overspend and ultimately don't get their value."
Schoenthal said "the sky is the limit" on the potential for NIL deals during the tournament.
"When you have those monumental moments that happen, there's no telling what people are willing to do to get you to promote their brand," he said.