Travis Hunter's NIL valuation soars after historic flip on National Signing Day

As National Signing Day began on Wednesday, Dec 15, Travis Hunter’s Instagram following hovered at 193k followers. His NIL valuation was $393k, with a $3.3K Instagram post value, $567 TikTok post value, and $126 Twitter post value. 

On3 NIL Valuation is a proprietary algorithm that sets the market on the actual monetary value of the athlete based on numerous factors – it is not an equation of actual deals or how much the player is actually earning. In many cases, these athletes could actually be undervalued or overvalued in real deals.

The valuation attempts to set the actual market value of an athlete, removing booster-led collectives, which struggle to accurately base deals around actual athlete valuations.

Partial list of data in the On3 NIL Valuation: Actual values of Twitter, Instagram, and Tik Tok, position boost, university and ath dept value, social engagement, Consensus rank or College Player rating, team success, Heisman finalist, media sentiment, game stats and awards … pic.twitter.com/zYxEZa2Mgl

— Shannon Terry (@ShannonTerry) December 14, 2021

As National Signing Day began, many assumed Travis Hunter would be signing his national letter of intent with Florida State and playing against Power Five schools next year.

Then, of course, Travis Hunter shocked the college sports world and flipped from Florida State to Jackson State. The number one player in the 2022 class did the unthinkable: forgo a media-filled, highly-competitive freshman year at a Power Five to go play for his childhood hero, Neon Deion. 

Deion Sanders flipped the number one prospect in the 2022 class from his alma mater to a little-known HBCU. And social and NIL valuation saw a massive increase due to the surprising decision.

Travis Hunter’s shocking decision boosted NIL value

Decision made: Travis Hunter commits to Jackson State. And the decision paid off (for now). His social media following began to soar. 

Just stating a fact, but @TravisHunterJr On3 NIL Valuation and Post Value is about to be crazy high. He has added 2k followers in just 10 mins and was brilliant enough to already have a strong social presence. https://t.co/Fypeqb72vd pic.twitter.com/ZUpbbe4RrO

— Shannon Terry (@ShannonTerry) December 15, 2021

Now, just over 24 hours later, Travis Hunter is resting at 256k followers on Instagram. His NIL valuation has skyrocketed to $552k. 

Hunter won the 2021 signing day. He was the news of the day, he gained 63,000 Instagram followers, and he made his younger self proud.

The security of Travis Hunter’s 293k followers prior to yesterday’s decision granted him the opportunity to ditch the tough competition, TV coverage, and big-budget at a Power Five school without losing cash himself. The valuation he sits at now is most likely higher than it would have been had the other storyline played out.

Now, continuing to build his social platforms, perform on (and off) the field, and promote himself as a brand will determine whether this is simply a short-term visibility boost or a massive NIL win for Travis Hunter.

On3’s NIL Valuation tool will be officially released to the public on January 5th, 2022, but is currently available to On3 staff behind the scenes in prerelease.