LSU's Harold Perkins sees major On3 NIL Valuation growth following Alabama performance

LSU picked up the foundation of its 2022 recruiting class when Harold Perkins committed in February. Maybe he joined too late to help recruit a few prospects, but there was no denying the talent the Lone Star product brought to Baton Rouge.

The top linebacker in his class , Perkins showed Saturday night why his recruitment was so contested. He’s a future college football star, and he played a signature role in LSU’s upset of Alabama in Death Valley.

While BJ Ojulari caused problems off the edge, Perkins sat back as a quarterback spy all night, chasing down Bryce Young. Late in the second quarter, the linebacker came to a stop, pivoted and was able to sack the Alabama quarterback for a six-yard loss on third down. It’s the reason why the Tide finished with only six points in the first half.

He finished the game with with seven tackles, a pass breakup, three quarterback hurries and a sack.

“Harold is still learning,” Brian Kelly said about Perkins’ performance. “There’s things that he doesn’t see that we have to adjust when he comes over to the sideline, but there are some things that he does that you can’t coach, either.”

And, obviously, there were major NIL implications following the performance. Perkins entered the game with roughly 20,000 Instagram followers. That number now sits at north of 24,500. In total, he now has more than 36K total followers.

His On3 NIL Valuation spiked, too. Perkins saw his evaluation jump to $626,000, a 50% hike. He now sits at No. 57 in the NIL 100, which is the first of its kind and defacto NIL ranking of the top 100 high school and college athletes ranked by their On3 NIL Valuation. He also ranks No. 34 among college football players.

Saturday’s performance also made him a household name among Tigers fans and put him in a national spotlight. That’s something businesses will be clamoring to have access to.

Harold Perkins’ growing NIL brand

While Saturday was a coming out party for the LSU linebacker, Perkins is not new to the Name, Image and Likeness space.

He signed with Gordon McKernan Injury Attorneys back in August. The linebacker is not alone in signing with the attorney, though. McKernan has emerged as one of the biggest spenders in the LSU market, signing stars Kayshon Boutte, Jaquelin Roy and Malik Nabers. While the numbers behind those contracts are not public, McKernan told Sports Illustrated the price tag for elite players is often at least $100,000 in NIL salary.

The deals could only just start ramping up for Perkins. In the new world of NIL, social media followers equal dollar signs. Social media activations took up 52.6% of all NIL deals done on Opendorse through September.

Athletes are viewed as social media influencers, and Perkins is building a following to back it up. He’s only a freshman, too.

About the On3 NIL Valuation

The On3 NIL Valuation is the industry’s leading index that sets the standard market NIL value for high school and college athletes. A proprietary algorithm, the On3 NIL Valuation calculates an athlete’s NIL value using dynamic data points targeting three primary categories: performance, influence and exposure.

While the algorithm includes deal data, it does not act as a tracker of the value of NIL deals athletes have completed to date, nor does it set an athlete’s NIL valuation for their entire career.

The On3 NIL Valuation calculates the optimized NIL opportunity for athletes relative to the overall NIL market and projects out to as long as 12 months into the future.