When the NIL era arrived at midnight on July 1, top men’s basketball and football players immediately cashed in. 

Quarterbacks D’Eriq King and McKenzie Milton signed on as co-founders of NIL platform Dreamfield. Arkansas wide receiver Trey Knox announced a deal with PetSmart. Alabama quarterback Bryce Young started promoting Cash App. 

But just as experts predicted, it wasn’t just the top men’s sports athletes who profited. Women’s sports athletes capitalized too — and it’s already clear that they could be some of the biggest winners of the NIL era.

From Instagram to Billboards

Perhaps the most prominent women’s sports NIL deals were those that were, literally, on billboards in Times Square. Fresno state women’s basketball players Haley and Hanna Cavinder inked endorsements with telecommunications brand Boost Mobile — and then posed in front of the billboard that announced the deal. 

On social media, Oregon forward Sedona Prince is already on Cameo, according to the company. And of the hundreds of athletes who signed on to the Gopuff social media endorsement deal, women’s sports athletes like Miami track and field athlete Mia Raffaele and Ohio State tennis player Kathleen Jones participated. 

And there’s merch too. Nebraska volleyball player Lexi Sun has announced a clothing line playing off her last name. 

In fact, brands are so hungry to connect with women’s sports athletes that one even got an endorsement deal within 20 minutes of signing up for the NIL marketplace MarketPryce, according to co-founder and CEO Jason Bergman.

Brand Appeal

Why are women’s sports athletes ideal candidates for brands to partner with? First, these sports are popular and growing. 

From women’s basketball to gymnastics, TV ratings have gone through the roof. The most recent number: The Women’s College World Series averaged about 400,000 more viewers than the men’s championship, according to Shot:Clock. Because of this, brands are interested in working with these athletes no matter their level of fame.

Many women’s players also have staggering numbers of followers and high engagement rates — and brands want to tap into those followings.

NCAA women’s sports have grown “exponentially” since the 1980s, according to a study put together by The Fan Project. “Gen Z is now commanding the social spaces, and current NCAA women athletes often drive more and deeper engagement with their fans,” the study said.

From NFTs to apparel shops, certain trends emerged in the types of NIL ventures athletes pursued on July 1. And it’s clear that brand partnerships are only one of many routes athletes can take.

What’s also clear: All types of brands are interested in partnering with athletes. And there’s neither a ceiling nor a floor with how much they’re willing to pay.

Big Checks, Small Checks

Throughout NIL’s inaugural week, athletes who signed NIL deals made anywhere from a few bucks to $2 million on a single endorsement. 

Opendorse, which facilitated more than 1,000 deals on July 1, told Forbes that most of those endorsements were worth between $50 and $500. Their largest deal of the day was $4,000.

While many companies are aiming at partnerships with specific athletes, other companies have dedicated large sums to mass marketing campaigns.

American Top Team, an MMA gym, committed a total of $540,000 to partnerships with University of Miami football players, as CaneSport reported. Each player could sign for $500 a month to promote the brand, earning a total of $6,000 a year.

And Unilever, which owns Degree Deodorant, promised a total of $5 million toward marketing with college athletes.

(Full disclosure: Opendorse is a sponsor of FOS College.)

National and Regional

No matter where you live, you’ve probably heard of some of the brands that have jumped at NIL deals: Gopuff, PetSmart, or Cash App. These represent a select few of the nationally recognized companies participating in NIL deals.

But there are a host of brands that more closely resemble the often-repeated NIL example of the “local car dealership.” 

Regionally based companies, like an Iowa fireworks stand called Boomin Iowa Fireworks and a Missouri pizza parlor called Mellow Mushroom, were eager to gain more notoriety by partnering with local athletes.

It seems like all types of brands have found value in reaching the audiences of NCAA athletes.

The first week of the NCAA NIL era has revealed plenty of examples about the money-making opportunities awaiting athletes.

But it’s only the tip of the iceberg, experts say.

Hurry Up and Wait

While thousands of athletes have already begun making money, Bergman thinks they’re not at a disadvantage. In fact, they may have a leg up by waiting for the right opportunity to come along.

Bergman likened it to the NBA trade deadline. “Just because you’re not doing a deal today doesn’t mean you lose,” he said.

And while some NIL companies lined up deals for day one, others didn’t think that was necessary. “July 1 is not the be-all and end-all,” Sportsfinda founder and CEO Ahmad Elhawli told FOS. 

Next Steps

It’s not just the timing of deals. Now that NIL rules are in place, athletes can monetize a podcast or promote their music career without having to apply for a special NCAA waiver. 

And perhaps most importantly, they can explore starting businesses or other entrepreneurial ventures that could launch careers outside of sports. They could be things like sports camps and clinics, or even innovative sports startups. (One Division III tennis player is already offering tennis lessons, using his relative lack of fame as a cheeky selling point.)

But these ventures don’t necessarily need to have anything to do with sports at all.

“The student-athletes who take the most initiative are going to be the most successful,” INFLCR founder and CEO Jim Cavale told FOS.