Report: Women athletes outpaced men in NIL brand deals in 2023

Women’s college sports continue to rise to new heights.

Fresh off shattering March Madness viewership records – including 18.7 million people tuning into ABC for the Iowa–South Carolina national title game – women college athletes are making significant headway when it comes to NIL deals with brands, according to a report from SponsorUnited.

SponsorUnited’s 2023-2024 NIL Marketing Partnerships Report revealed that NIL deal distribution among the top 100 most endorsed athletes is balanced between women with 52% of the deals and men with 48% of the partnerships.

According to the report, this marks a significant shift from the previous year’s distribution of 62% men and 38% women. Men’s NIL deals are predominantly seen in football – 72% of men’s NIL deals – but women’s deals are more evenly spread across basketball (35%), gymnastics (18%) and volleyball (15%), indicating a broader diversity in sponsorship opportunities for women athletes.

SponsorUnited’s data showed volleyball and softball largely drove the growth in the amount of NIL deals for women athletes. Plus, the number of players from those two sports who made the top 100 most endorsed athletes list doubled from six in 2022-2023 to 12 in 2023-2024.

The report also revealed that women’s basketball athletes – sparked by stars like Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, Cameron Brink, Flau’jae Johnson, Paige Bueckers and Juju Watkins – made up 35% of the women’s NIL deals executed this past year. That was followed by 18% in gymnastics and 15% in volleyball. Women’s basketball outranked men’s basketball in terms of average deals per athlete, with women’s basketball deals up 60% from 2022 to 2023.

Caitlin Clark not only NIL success story

While Clark only executed nine brand NIL deals, she made a massive impact with those deals through her increased social media following. During the past year, the report found that Clark saw a 515% increase in followers on Instagram. She also had a 400% increase in followers on X. Plus, Clark saw a 1,380% increase on TikTok.

The report highlights SMU volleyball player Alex Glover – who finished her career with the Mustangs in the fall playing in 92 sets – with the most NIL deal activations during the past year. Glover executed 41 deals, including with top brands like Meta, Skims, Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes, Cottonelle and El Yucateco Hot Sauce.

Not far behind her was Reese and UCLA quarterback Chase Griffin. Both activated 26 deals, according to the report and On3 data. The report also highlighted Illinois softball player Yazzy Avila, who promoted 21 deals, including with top brands like Steve Madden, PSD Underwear, crocs and Urban Outfitters.

Rutgers senior volleyball player Isabella Choice with 17 deals and Princeton senior soccer player Lexi Hiltunen with 16 deals were a couple of other female NIL standouts highlighted in the report. Hiltunen has the highest On3 NIL Valuation in women’s soccer – largely based on her social media following of more than 1.4 million.

Overall, the report found that Glover, Reese, Avila, Brink (21) and Johnson (18) ranked in the top five for deals executed by female athletes. Griffin led the men, followed by Virginia State football player Rayquan Smith (25), Colorado football standout Travis Hunter (18) and former Oregon quarterback Bo Nix (17).

How was the NIL report calculated?

SponsorUnited said its report encompasses more than 1,750 brands, 3,000 sponsorship deals, and 3,150 posts by NIL athletes from February 23, 2023, to February 23, 2024. NIL observers indicated to On3 that the data in the report likely doesn’t include a lot of collective-focused and Roster Value-driven deals. Many of those partnerships go under the radar or simply aren’t promoted by athletes or collectives, especially in football and men’s basketball.

Nonetheless, the data does reinforce that brands are finding significant returns on investment through NIL deals with women athletes. In fact, women athletes now average a higher number of brand deals than men – 3.5 versus 2.5. Additionally, 24% of women have five or more NIL deals compared to just 12% of men.

With a crop of talented women’s basketball stars returning and new names like Meezy O’Neal (Shaq’s daughter), Chloe Spreen, Kiyomi McMiller and Jaloni Cambridge arriving on the scene, expect the upward trajectory for women’s NIL deals to continue.