NIL Discussion

#1      
On the one hand this feels like it has to be true.

On the other hand, if by the end of this season, Kofi is a better, older version of the same player from last season, will that move the NBA draft needle? If he still projects as a 2nd round to undrafted player, and he does well with NIL this season, would it make more sense to put off the G-League for a year and earn off of his NIL, particularly if we have a successful tourney and he wins NPOY or other accolades?
At this point I'm thinking that his NIL money is far below what he'd get in salary overseas, if that's his worst case. Perhaps he's getting stuff I'm not hearing about, but here in Champaign we're not seeing his NIL being used by businesses.
 
#2      
At this point I'm thinking that his NIL money is far below what he'd get in salary overseas, if that's his worst case. Perhaps he's getting stuff I'm not hearing about, but here in Champaign we're not seeing his NIL being used by businesses.
I think people overestimate overseas money for players just starting out there as much as they do for NIL. I've googled around on this and in Europe ot looks like even the best leagues pay an average salary of around $100-250k a year. Max salary I've seen is $4 million, and you're talking a team playing in the top tier (Euroleague) and a veteran who could probably make an NBA roster but would rather make more and star on a Euro team than make NBA veteran minimum to sit on the bench. Kofi would start out around, if not below, that league average.
 
#3      
I think people overestimate overseas money for players just starting out there as much as they do for NIL. I've googled around on this and in Europe ot looks like even the best leagues pay an average salary of around $100-250k a year. Max salary I've seen is $4 million, and you're talking a team playing in the top tier (Euroleague) and a veteran who could probably make an NBA roster but would rather make more and star on a Euro team than make NBA veteran minimum to sit on the bench. Kofi would start out around, if not below, that league average.
I'm aware of those numbers. Even the low side of the average is likely above the NIL dollars coming in. I think Kofi probably draws a bit more. He'd be a marketing draw overseas if it comes to that.

None of us know what players are pulling in. We just can see that they aren't getting flashy deals. Hopefully there's a lot of quiet money behind the scenes.
 
#4      
I'm aware of those numbers. Even the low side of the average is likely above the NIL dollars coming in. I think Kofi probably draws a bit more. He'd be a marketing draw overseas if it comes to that.

None of us know what players are pulling in. We just can see that they aren't getting flashy deals. Hopefully there's a lot of quiet money behind the scenes.
It's all conjecture but I don't think Kofi would be much of a marketing draw abroad. The reason basketball salaries are so low there is that soccer is king, and even in Europe and Asia fans care way more about the NBA than their own domestic leagues. And nobody over there cares about NCAA basketball.

And if he pulls in less than $100k over the course of this entire season then either 1. Our program is doing very poorly in NIL or 2. College basketball stars have very little marketing value. I don't really think either of those things is true.
 
#5      
It's all conjecture but I don't think Kofi would be much of a marketing draw abroad. The reason basketball salaries are so low there is that soccer is king, and even in Europe and Asia fans care way more about the NBA than their own domestic leagues. And nobody over there cares about NCAA basketball.

And if he pulls in less than $100k over the course of this entire season then either 1. Our program is doing very poorly in NIL or 2. College basketball stars have very little marketing value. I don't really think either of those things is true.
I'm not sure how our program is doing. I'm pretty confident that there is limited marketing value for all athletes and certainly college athletes.
 
#6      
I'm not sure how our program is doing. I'm pretty confident that there is limited marketing value for all athletes and certainly college athletes.

Marketability anymore is synonymous with social media followers, which are also a key platform for ads via sponsored posts. According to this article, someone with 5k instagram followers can earn $100k off that platform alone by making 308 sponsored posts a year. Kofi has 77k followers and if he generates NPOY buzz like we expect that should only increase.
 
#7      
Marketability anymore is synonymous with social media followers, which are also a key platform for ads via sponsored posts. According to this article, someone with 5k instagram followers can earn $100k off that platform alone by making 308 sponsored posts a year. Kofi has 77k followers and if he generates NPOY buzz like we expect that should only increase.
Somewhat of an aside, but an obnoxious side effect of social media following as it relates to basketball is how it pays to have a particular kind of game, ie, one that is showy. Now that money is even more immediately tied to a following, it incentivizes (for those unable to make in-game windmill dunks) the kind of play that may not always be the best basketball play. Swatting a shot as far out of bounds as possible, as opposed to keeping it in play. Making the flashy pass (very relevant for us) rather than the simple one with a higher probability of success. Basketball has already been trending this way for a long time with social and traditional media, but it'll interesting to see if the potential to monetize this type of playing style has any pronounced impact.
 
#8      

Marketability anymore is synonymous with social media followers, which are also a key platform for ads via sponsored posts. According to this article, someone with 5k instagram followers can earn $100k off that platform alone by making 308 sponsored posts a year. Kofi has 77k followers and if he generates NPOY buzz like we expect that should only increase.
So how many sponsored posts has he done? Opendorse facilitates this .

I also don't buy their numbers on that link but who knows.

My general point is that people are throwing out numbers with no real clue.
 
#9      

lstewart53x3

Scottsdale, Arizona

Marketability anymore is synonymous with social media followers, which are also a key platform for ads via sponsored posts. According to this article, someone with 5k instagram followers can earn $100k off that platform alone by making 308 sponsored posts a year. Kofi has 77k followers and if he generates NPOY buzz like we expect that should only increase.
I’m pretty familiar with the influencer business model. A pretty good rule of thumb: you can reliably make around $1 per year per follower. So 100,000 followers is roughly a $100,000 per year business.
 
#10      
I’m pretty familiar with the influencer business model. A pretty good rule of thumb: you can reliably make around $1 per year per follower. So 100,000 followers is roughly a $100,000 per year business.
So you say $1. Article says $20. Huge disparity.

The business is still emerging. And we just got thousands of new "influencers" injected into it.
 
#11      
I am curious to see how NIL effects students athletes desire to be professional athletes in reality. It may be more rewarding to stay in school. It will be interesting to see projecting incomes vs reality compared to revenue outside of collegiate athletics.
 
#12      

lstewart53x3

Scottsdale, Arizona
So you say $1. Article says $20. Huge disparity.

The business is still emerging. And we just got thousands of new "influencers" injected into it.
I work with quite a few influencers and I do not know a single one who earns $100,000/year from an audience of just 5,000 people.

In that article, they also mention that an instagram influencer with 1,000,000 followers can earn up to $250,000 per post.

I’ve never seen anything like that. More reasonable would be $5,000 to $10,000 per post (depending on quite a few factors like niche, engagement rate, etc) to an influencer with 1,000,000 followers.

Their numbers just seem quite a bit inflated.
 
#13      

Marketability anymore is synonymous with social media followers, which are also a key platform for ads via sponsored posts. According to this article, someone with 5k instagram followers can earn $100k off that platform alone by making 308 sponsored posts a year. Kofi has 77k followers and if he generates NPOY buzz like we expect that should only increase.
I'm quite skeptical of these numbers. First, this is claiming 6.5 cents/view. Most ads pay a fraction of a cent per view. There are major exceptions such as ads for cars or insurance when someone is already known to be actively looking for them. I can't think of any case that applies to following an NCAA athlete. Second, 308 posts a year is almost one sponsored post a day. Unless there is a whole lot of additional content that is a great recipe for losing followers.

A weekly sponsored post to 5k followers at 1 cent/view (very high) is $2600/yr. Using a more realistic price of .25 cents/view, it earns less than 1k/year.

I see that someone else put forth an estimate of $1/follower per year. That would be roughly a sponsored ad per day. A strong influencer, with a higher conversion rate, could get by with substantially fewer posts.
 
#14      
I’m pretty familiar with the influencer business model. A pretty good rule of thumb: you can reliably make around $1 per year per follower. So 100,000 followers is roughly a $100,000 per year business.
I trust you know what you're talking about. Kofi has 77k followers before he plays a single game in a season he's projected to be a candidate for NPOY. With those numbers, which will go up over the course of the season, even at just $1 a follower, the potential for high earnings on social media posts is there. That's not his only revenue stream. He's selling merchandise. He also has a deal with T/CCI Manufacturing (major donors to the athletic dept.).

Edit: I don't think NIL will make him a millionaire, but neither will playing abroad, or in the G League, in the short term.
 
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#15      
I work with quite a few influencers and I do not know a single one who earns $100,000/year from an audience of just 5,000 people.

In that article, they also mention that an instagram influencer with 1,000,000 followers can earn up to $250,000 per post.

I’ve never seen anything like that. More reasonable would be $5,000 to $10,000 per post (depending on quite a few factors like niche, engagement rate, etc) to an influencer with 1,000,000 followers.

Their numbers just seem quite a bit inflated.
I have been very curious since NIL whether athletes would start pushing out traditional influencers. There are only so many ad dollars out there and instinct tells me people would more actively follow athletes than some of the current influencers. Granted the athlete has to have some semblance of a personality.
 
#16      
I trust you know what you're talking about. Kofi has 77k followers before he plays a single game in a season he's projected to be a candidate for NPOY. With those numbers, which will go up over the course of the season, even at just $1 a follower, the potential for high earnings on social media posts is there. That's not his only revenue stream. He's selling merchandise. He also has a deal with T/CCI Manufacturing (major donors to the athletic dept.).

Edit: I don't think NIL will make him a millionaire, but neither will playing abroad, or in the G League, in the short term.
Adding to the kofi NIL discussion, he also pays nothing for housing, food, and probably transportation at the moment if he doesn’t want to. Go pro and those become your responsibilities.

He COULD (not saying does or will) live an all cash flow life from NIL should he desire.
 
#17      
I have been very curious since NIL whether athletes would start pushing out traditional influencers. There are only so many ad dollars out there and instinct tells me people would more actively follow athletes than some of the current influencers. Granted the athlete has to have some semblance of a personality.
I’m old, so not really sure who “traditional influencers” are. I’m also not really sure who are actually influenced by influencers. That said I’m not sure that in general a larger number of people would actively follow athletes than some of the current influencers. Take Kofi for example. Sure there is a subgroup of the population that he might reach effectively, but I’d guess that probably 70% or more of the people I know have no idea who Kofi is. I live in Columbus, Ohio, so there are probably some Buckeye football players who have better recognition than that but far fewer than you think I’d guess. So sure a college athlete might be an “effective influencer” in a specific geographic area for some particular products or services but that leaves a whole lot of the marketplace wide open for other influencers.
 
#18      
I have been very curious since NIL whether athletes would start pushing out traditional influencers. There are only so many ad dollars out there and instinct tells me people would more actively follow athletes than some of the current influencers. Granted the athlete has to have some semblance of a personality.
I think it's less of a personality thing and more about understanding what makes good content and being able to deliver that content on a consistent basis. Doing so takes a lot of time and effort to plan varied content, edit videos, engaging with the audience across all platform, etc. There are tons of famous athletes getting into the content space - some successfully and some not. At the end of the day, if the content isn't engaging even true fans of the athlete won't spend time on the athlete's socials. And pro athletes definitely have a lot less free time than your average influencer
 
#19      

The Galloping Ghost

Washington, DC
For some context to this discussion, here's a list of the top-earning potential for NCAA athletes. I think it's important to note how well-represented female athletes are and that a large number of top athletes are gymnasts.

Additionally, here's a more in-depth analysis from last spring that draws this conclusion:
“Sports that you may not traditionally or typically associate with having the same sort of commercial reach or pedigree as football or basketball actually could turn out to be very, very successful in whatever the new landscape ultimately looks like,” said Darryl Seibel, a founding partner of Stadion Sports, which provides advice and an education-based approach to NIL for its clients and partners. “The fan following is significant, it’s informed, it’s engaged and that represents real opportunities, so again, sports that you might not automatically or immediately associate with strong NIL opportunities could in fact do very, very well.”
 
#20      
I work with quite a few influencers and I do not know a single one who earns $100,000/year from an audience of just 5,000 people.

In that article, they also mention that an instagram influencer with 1,000,000 followers can earn up to $250,000 per post.

I’ve never seen anything like that. More reasonable would be $5,000 to $10,000 per post (depending on quite a few factors like niche, engagement rate, etc) to an influencer with 1,000,000 followers.

Their numbers just seem quite a bit inflated.
For those interested, this is the best article regarding "Influencer Marketing." that I can find.

https://influencermarketinghub.com/influencer-rates/

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  • Nano-influencers: 1,000–10,000 followers
  • Micro-influencers: 10,000–50,000 followers
  • Mid-tier influencers: 50,000–500,000 followers <------- Kofi
  • Macro-influencers: 500,000–1,000,000 followers
  • Mega-influencers: 1,000,000+ followers
We’ll take a look at the average payment on each of these platforms for influencers of each of the levels we outlined earlier.

Instagram
  • Nano-influencers: $10–$100 per post
  • Micro-influencers: $100–$500 per post
  • Mid-tier influencers: $500–$5,000 per post <------- Kofi
  • Macro-influencers: $5,000–$10,000 per post
  • Mega-influencers: $10,000+ per post
  • Celebrities: Varies, but $1+ million isn’t unheard of
 
#22      
For those interested, this is the best article regarding "Influencer Marketing." that I can find.

https://influencermarketinghub.com/influencer-rates/

View attachment 13161

  • Nano-influencers: 1,000–10,000 followers
  • Micro-influencers: 10,000–50,000 followers
  • Mid-tier influencers: 50,000–500,000 followers <------- Kofi
  • Macro-influencers: 500,000–1,000,000 followers
  • Mega-influencers: 1,000,000+ followers
We’ll take a look at the average payment on each of these platforms for influencers of each of the levels we outlined earlier.

Instagram
  • Nano-influencers: $10–$100 per post
  • Micro-influencers: $100–$500 per post
  • Mid-tier influencers: $500–$5,000 per post <------- Kofi
  • Macro-influencers: $5,000–$10,000 per post
  • Mega-influencers: $10,000+ per post
  • Celebrities: Varies, but $1+ million isn’t unheard of
I'm not sure what you mean by "best" article. It's written by a guy with a business interest in getting people to sign up for his service to be an "influencer".

It's just far less simple than people are making it out to be which is why we're not seeing a lot of "influencer" action from these athletes. People will pay them for posts, etc. when they think it will be worth the money. But it's hard to see how much it's actually worth. Read deeper into that article and you'll see that there's a credibility factor that comes to play. Kofi posting something about Body and Sole might create a bit of a buzz and generate some new sales. Kofi posting something about where he got insurance, perhaps not so much.

Now the other factor here is that you can't keep endorsing everything under the sun and expect to continue to get paid at the same rate. Athletes have always limited their endorsements to some degree to make sure their not overmarketed. So perhaps some of the general silence is people putting together a great plan.

That said, Kofi is essentially halfway through the time between NIL coming into existence and the end of his college season.
 
#23      

illini80

Forgottonia
For those interested, this is the best article regarding "Influencer Marketing." that I can find.

https://influencermarketinghub.com/influencer-rates/

View attachment 13161

  • Nano-influencers: 1,000–10,000 followers
  • Micro-influencers: 10,000–50,000 followers
  • Mid-tier influencers: 50,000–500,000 followers <------- Kofi
  • Macro-influencers: 500,000–1,000,000 followers
  • Mega-influencers: 1,000,000+ followers
We’ll take a look at the average payment on each of these platforms for influencers of each of the levels we outlined earlier.

Instagram
  • Nano-influencers: $10–$100 per post
  • Micro-influencers: $100–$500 per post
  • Mid-tier influencers: $500–$5,000 per post <------- Kofi
  • Macro-influencers: $5,000–$10,000 per post
  • Mega-influencers: $10,000+ per post
  • Celebrities: Varies, but $1+ million isn’t unheard of
Maybe if Kofi sluts it up like Kim, he can pull in the big $$.
 
#24      
I’m old, so not really sure who “traditional influencers” are. I’m also not really sure who are actually influenced by influencers. That said I’m not sure that in general a larger number of people would actively follow athletes than some of the current influencers. Take Kofi for example. Sure there is a subgroup of the population that he might reach effectively, but I’d guess that probably 70% or more of the people I know have no idea who Kofi is. I live in Columbus, Ohio, so there are probably some Buckeye football players who have better recognition than that but far fewer than you think I’d guess. So sure a college athlete might be an “effective influencer” in a specific geographic area for some particular products or services but that leaves a whole lot of the marketplace wide open for other influencers.
Great post. I have little (likely none) regard for influencers. At my age, I rely on experience, judgement, insight, wisdom, and facts to make my decisions. Never have I nor ever will I regard an "infuencer" as truthful or factual...and find it sad that anyone would do so. Certainly, upon finding out for myself that a product provides value and its success even understated, I would pass on this information to my friends and family, none of which would be an influencer.