March Madness is every sports fan’s dream, and for those on the court, it’s where the previously unknown can become overnight sensations.
But now, in the world of name, image and likeness, those Cinderella hopefuls can add some extra cash in their pocket with just one unforgettable performance.
For mid-major players, great performances in the NCAA Tournament can now lead to many opportunities off the court. Jack Gohlke saw that immediately, thanks to his jaw-dropping three-pointers for Oakland University as a 14-seed last year, when he was approached with name, image, likeness (NIL) opportunities following the win.
As an accounting major, Gohlke landed a fitting NIL deal with TurboTax that changed his life because of that one game. Social media also quickly found out about his accounting background, leading to some hilarious memes that his teammates kept teasing him with.
This March, it’s not the Cooper Flaggs of the world who will benefit from a solid performance; it’s the Gohlkes, says one NIL expert.
“I think when you look at NIL dollars, obviously with the unicorns, the [Cooper] Flaggs out there, that’s a known entity, right? So they’re gonna have theirs. Those deals have been in place for months, someone’s not gonna catch fire there. Those guys have been on spokesperson or creator type of deals with brands for months and months now,” Opendorse CEO Steve Denton said in a recent interview with Fox Business. “I think where it presents the upside opportunity in the tournament is for someone to go on and run and get on a radar screen and see that media time and catch the eye of a brand or an advertiser. So I think that’s the biggest opportunity for net new dollars, someone who gets on a run.”
“When you’re building that media plan up, you got to build it based on the athletes you have a pretty good certainty that are going to be there, but then you leave some dollars left over for those new fresh diamonds in the rough that are going to make the run, and it’s going to be amazing for them. So the biggest opportunity for net new dollars is for the kid that you haven’t heard of yet. It’s for that athlete.”
Opendorse is a leading athlete marketplace and NIL technology company, providing technology and services to the athlete endorsement industry that helps athletes connect with advertisers and collectives to help monetize their brand value.
Denton also made note of the tremendous growth of women’s college athletes; the average women’s college basketball team has three-times as many followers as the average men’s team does, all while female athletes “outearn the men,” Denton said.
“They’re getting 59 cents out of every advertising dollar that’s spent, and for good reason,” Denton said. “Women’s student athletes right now are probably the most effective media body you can make in sport in terms of cost, reach, relevancy, and ROI, it is, I mean, it’s a really effective media buy, because they just know what they’re doing, man. And candidly, I think it’s the great equalizer of college sports. Many of them play non-revenue-producing sports, so the schools aren’t going to pay them a ton under the new settlement rules to come there, but using their fandom and their social, it gives them an opportunity to compete at a different level.”
Denton added that the “consistency” of long-term women’s players, as opposed to many one-and-dones in the men’s game, has led to high fandom. And he also does not see women’s earnings slowing down any time soon.
“My gut tells me we’re not going backwards,” he said. “And look, it’s half the population. It’s about time the rest of us caught up.”
Fox Business’ Scott Thompson contributed to this report.
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