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Relevant NIL Data

This section will give you an idea of how significantly NIL has impacted Tennessee athletes using data points from NIL data sites like On3 NIL.

NIL 100 RANK
NIL VALUATION
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  1. SR Shedeur Sanders QB

    $4.7M

    2.5Mfollowers

  2. FR Bronny James PG

    $4.5M

    13.4Mfollowers

  3. SR Livvy Dunne (Gymnastics)

    $3.7M

    13.2Mfollowers

  4. SO Arch Manning QB

    $2.8M

    299Kfollowers

  5.  JR Travis Hunter CB

    $2.4M

    2.3Mfollowers

  6. RS-JR Quinn Ewers QB

    $1.9M

    265Kfollowers

  7. RS-JR Jalen Milroe QB

    $1.6M

    223Kfollowers

  8. RS-SR Carson Beck QB

    $1.5M

    118Kfollowers

  9. SO Evan Stewart WR

    $1.4M

    2.4Mfollowers

  10. SR Jaxson Dart QB

    $1.4M

    143Kfollowers

Above you'll see the top 10 NIL valuation rankings in the country. This includes athlete names, monetary value, and total social media following.

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Pictured above: LSU gymnast Livvy Dunne. Dunne, who has a current net value of $6 million, became famous on Instagram and TikTok for gymnastics. When NIL went live in 2021, Dunne's popularity skyrocketed, and now she's the No. 1 ranked college female athlete in the country in NIL.

NIL has grown exponentially since its legalization in 2021. 

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Most institutions and some states require that student-athletes disclose their NIL information for oversight purposes, and schools use platforms like Opendorse and INFLCR to do so. 

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Another site central to NIL data collection is On3 NIL. On3 NIL functions as a one-stop-shop data hub for all NIL-related information and news. 

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On3 NIL  collects, compiles, and organizes athlete NIL information and goes a step further to create NIL valuations for ranking each athlete. On3 NIL uses athlete performance, influence, exposure, and deal data to create each athlete's unique NIL valuation.

 

Shedeur Sanders, a quarterback at Colorado University and the son of head coach Deion Sanders, takes the top ranking at an NIL valuation of $4.7 million. 

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Eight out of ten spots on this list are held by football players. No. 2 Bronny James (LeBron James' son) plays basketball, while No. 3 Livvy Dunne, the only female athlete in the top 10, is a gymnast.

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The contents of top ten suggest that football leads the nation in NIL activity and deals, which is half true, per the data below.

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Football leads the NCAA with 29.3% of all NIL activities. 

 

Both data sets here point to the fact that football is the highest-earning NIL sport in college athletics by far, and this is mostly because football has such high visibility in society.

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While football leads total NIL activities, gymnastics actually possesses the highest average deal.

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The data to the left compares the average amount of money that each NIL deal brings in. The average NIL deal across NCAA sports hovers between $1,524 and $1,815, according to Opendorse and INFLCR, respectively.

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The average deal a football player obtains is $3,390, while the average deal a women's gymnast obtains is $7,054. This average deal for gymnastics is so much higher due to high-earning outliers on the list like Livvy Dunne.

At the University of Tennessee, QB Nico Iamaleava leads all NIL activity and has the highest NIL valuation at $1.2 million.

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Five-star ranked Iamaleava reportedly signed an $8 million NIL deal with local Knoxville NIL collective, Spyre Sports, before arriving on campus.

Most of the athletes ranked in Tennessee's top 100 for NIL valuations are football players. The top ten notably includes stars like James Pearce, Bru McCoy, and Squirrel White. 

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While football takes up most of the list, Tennessee stars on other sports teams have also made the list. Tennessee men's basketball stand-out Zakai Ziegler is ranked 46th. 

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Women's basketball players Rickea Jackson and Tamari Key are ranked 55th and 83rd, respectively. 

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Softball player Karlyn Pickens and baseball player Christian Moore also made the list, respectively ranked at 79th and 97th.

For decades, college athletes were making no income. In the very first year of NIL, the 2021-2022 season, NCAA athletes made a collective $917 million in NIL payments.

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The numbers, names, and rankings that On3 NIL compiles tries to organize and quantify the significant NIL impact that various athletes have. Essentially, these numbers rank how visible these athletes are, how involved they are in NIL contracts, and collectively, how valuable they are in terms of NIL branding.

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The next section highlights opinions, stories, and quotes about NIL from real Tennessee athletes to display just how significantly NIL impacts Tennessee.

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