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How College Athletes Became America's Hottest Marketing Play
March 27, 2025 | Edition #07
Hey, there!
Call it (March) Madness if you will, but CVS just signed over 470 student athletes to promote its Epic Beauty Sale. Can’t remember the last time a brand signed NILs this big in scale (probably because it has never happened before). But don’t miss the bigger picture: NIL is the biggest needle mover in college sports. And it’s evolving faster than Cooper Flagg can score a three-pointer.
Local businesses have joined the bandwagon, taking NIL beyond the top-tier schools and A-listers. Blake Corum, yes, the LA Rams running back, is facilitating that via his own marketplace platform. We sat with the Michigan legend for an inspiring chat in our latest episode of the ES Think Tank podcast. There was much to learn from the youngster.
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Today’s TLDR:
🔄 The NIL Shift that Very Few Saw Coming
💡 Blake Corum’s Genius NIL Playbook
📖 The stories shaping the industry (and the lessons we learned this week)
Let’s dive in. 🚀
4.42M | The number of views EssentiallySports’ NIL coverage has attracted since Jan 2025, up 59% compared to last year. |
The NIL era has shifted focus. It’s no longer just about five-star recruits or national brands. Now, it’s about athletes who are marketable, authentic, and digitally savvy—no matter their ranking.
✨ Olivia Dunne isn’t an NCAA champion, but the LSU gymnast has amassed $4.1M in NIL.
📈 Haley and Hanna Cavinder were trailblazers in NIL landing major deals with Boost Mobile, Dick's Sporting Goods, Under Armour, Ghost nutrition, and the WWE.
🤩 Quinn Ewers amassed a total of $6M in NIL as a Longhorn and a further $1.4M from his partnership with GT Sports Marketing.
These three all had one thing in common — personal branding. Look at their social media presence.
These numbers tell a clear story.
Brands are focusing more on a star’s online fandom than solely looking at the stat sheet. It’s something we also learned from Chris Epple in a previous episode. Companies are eying players who have a story to tell, athletes who are natural content creators whose words carry weight among their fans.
And it’s not just Fortune 500 companies like Nike and AT&T or top-tier programs like Bulldogs, Buckeyes, and Longhorns who are benefiting from this new shift. Even regional brands are now capitalizing on the popularity of the local stars.
Local Stars, Big Impact
In recent times, hyper-local sponsorship has truly taken flight. With more and more regional brands coming into the picture, they are signing NILs with student athletes to boost their sales. For instance,
Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers signed NIL with athletes from Auburn University, Duke Blue Devils, Iowa State Cyclones, Kansas Jayhawks, and Tennessee Volunteers.
Amigos, a Nebraska restaurant chain, roped in Jeff Sims during his stint with the Nebraska Cornhuskers.
MEAS Active, a women’s activewear brand, partnered with female athletes from North Carolina on NIL deals.
Similarly, local Columbus car dealership Ricart Automotive inked a NIL deal with Jeremiah Smith. Smith’s total NIL valuation of close to $4M makes him one of the highest-paid college athletes in 2025. On the other hand, Dick Dyer & Associates signed LaNorris Sellers on an NIL deal. Although they didn't disclose the financial details, Sellers' NIL earnings reached $3.5M.
College athletes are powerful influencers who can drive national, regional, and local campaigns with authenticity. Their impact goes beyond social media—they engage deeply with fans, alumni, and local businesses as true representatives of their communities.
Brands should move beyond one-off NIL deals and create integrated campaigns that leverage these athletes’ cultural and commercial influence. Whether through content collaborations, in-person activations, or product partnerships, brands can make a real impact while supporting the next generation of sports and business leaders.
It’s a mutually beneficial relationship between players and the businesses.
🤝 Partnering with under-the-radar players allows brands to reach a wider audience without breaking the bank.
📢 It boosts personal branding for student athletes, whereas, for brands, it raises awareness among teenagers.
👥 Local businesses can form a community by partnering with a student athlete from the same region, as Carli Miller of Temple Athletics noted in a LinkedIn post.
But what does this spell for college athletes?
Adapt or Get Left Behind
Just on-court performance won’t get the big bucks. NIL rewards the hustle that athletes put into building a personal brand. Indeed, our internal data validates that:
🔝 Cavinder sisters-related content always outperforms Jack Sawyer by a significant margin.
🔝 Dunne-related content got more traffic than Ewers, Sawyer, and Smith combined.
So, athletes should also, instead of chasing only the bigwigs, grab the opportunities that come via local businesses. These might lack the glitz of Fortune 500 partnerships, but they offer real value—and often faster returns—for young athletes. One youngster who understood the value and leveraged it quickly is Blake Corum.
The running back for the Los Angeles Rams had a diverse NIL portfolio ranging from The M Den to the Detroit Garage. And now Corum has floated a marketplace for athletes across the country – regardless of the schools and regions – where brands, big and small, partner with athletes. We sat with Corum for a chat on the Think Tank episode to learn more about the current landscape in NIL.
But before we get into that, tell us…
Do You Think NIL Deals Are Starting to Overshadow the Traditional College Sports Experience? |
NIL money isn’t just for the elites anymore. Athletes who embrace local deals, social media, and direct engagement are actually building long-term investments in their own brands. Blake had plenty of small brands in his portfolio, something that he still cherishes.
It reflects the versatility and marketability of a collegiate athlete. It also shows Corum’s broader vision and the strategic approach to NIL opportunities. “I think we’ve only discovered a little bit of what NIL is,” the 24-year-old athlete told our host, Trey Holder. Indeed, EssentiallySports data from the last twelve months reveals that the interest in college sports is growing by leaps and bounds.
But coming back to Corum, he is a living embodiment of what student athletes can achieve via NIL.
🌟 The Michigan standout fostered a network that helped him amass around $1M before the NFL draft.
🏠 He also invested a chunk of that money into real estate with his father.
🤝 Now, Corum is the co-founder of Peak NIL, where he also serves as the Chief Strategy Officer.
Via Peak NIL, Corum wants to bring more faces to the surface. Athletes from less popular programs hail from small towns like he himself did. The Michigan alum believes college kids are more driven and hungry for NIL opportunities.
As for brands, they can actually tick two boxes at one go.
Firstly, the obvious one: they can target Gen-Z by attaching their name to a college athlete.
Moreover, by associating themselves with a University standout, they are also placing their name amid the rich alumni network of the college.
Corum explained, “The outreach is huge… Texas alum, Michigan alum, they are following all these players… so it will get more people’s attention.”
But there is a downside – bad business.
Sometimes, brands pay the athletes in advance, but athletes fail to honor the commitment. Corum admits as much, and being in this arena since his early days, the LA Rams RB knows the true cost of bad business. That’s also why Peak NIL holds off the payment till the contract is fulfilled, eliminating any chances of duplicity.
Now that the right framework is in place, Corum has set his eyes on the next frontier: high school athletes. Quite surprisingly, no marketplace has ever entered that playground. Peak NIL will change that. “We’re going to be the first market platform to go into the high school space… We are coming after all the high schools as well…”
Make no mistake, it’s already a vibrant space.
👊 Big brands like Adidas, Nike, and others have entered the arena.
📲 A Wall Street Journal report reveals that top players can earn between $500-$2000 for a social media post.
🎯 Seven-figure contracts for breakout stars are not uncommon.
So far, as it was during the start of the NIL era in college, the money is concentrated on big schools. But with marketplace platforms like Peak NIL moving into that space, the brand will cast its net wider. As it happened in college, regional companies and small businesses will also move in. Corum and his brand will be a frontrunner in facilitating that shift.
Warren Buffet finally found his winner – after (almost) ten long years. A Berkshire Hathaway employee cracked the company’s March Madness perfect bracket contest, nabbing $1M as the sweet reward. You can say they defied all odds and truly mean it. The odds of a perfect 67-game bracket are 1 in 147.6 quintillion. But guess what? That never stops the 25% of U.S. adults who fill out men’s brackets every year. A whopping 70% cite not the reward but the competition as their main motivation. Brands like ESPN, USA Today, and Yahoo leverage the event for engagement. It's of little surprise that March Madness generates over $900M for the NCAA annually.
Tilman Fertitta will remain the Houston Rockets owner while serving as the U.S. Ambassador to Italy and San Marino. But he has to resign as CEO of Landry's Inc. and Fertitta Entertainment LLC while retaining passive investments in these entities. He will also. As an ambassador, Fertitta's annual salary is expected to range between $124,406 and $187,000, according to the U.S. Department of State's Foreign Service salary schedule. This marks a significant reduction from his previous earnings, which included a $1.8 million salary as CEO of Fertitta Entertainment LLC and $5 million in annual dividends. He also owned the majority stake in Wynn Resorts and planned to expand on his real estate holdings in Houston. All that will be put on hold till he comes back.
ESPN plans to acquire NFL Media for $2B, a landmark deal that can alter sports broadcasting. This acquisition includes NFL Network, RedZone, and NFL+, giving ESPN unparalleled control over NFL content. This pivot toward streaming is undeniable: 41.6% of TV consumption in 2024 was via streaming. Moreover, digital sports viewership surpassed cable for the first time last year. ESPN's move also aligns with the booming $114.2B sports betting industry, leveraging RedZone's grip on legal wagering on football. However, this shift will likely spell trouble for traditional cable providers and increase the viewership cost for fans. Notably, the NFL will also own a 10% equity stake in ESPN, raising concerns over media independence. Surely, this deal won’t be just about football—it’s about the future of how we consume sports.
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