How does NIL impact college tennis?

After SCOTUS ruled 9-0 against the NCAA, the NCAA implemented an interim policy on July 1st, 2021 that allowed college athletes to profit off of their Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL). Like many, I was surprised at how quickly this all transpired and, at the time, I had a fairly myopic view of what this could potentially mean for athletes (e.g. shilling products on Instagram). This article intends to share some interesting figures about the most followed college tennis players on Instagram and also expand further into why I think this will unlock additional revenue opportunities for players who want to put in the work. 

The most followed college tennis players on Instagram

In an effort to understand which players might be most positioned to take advantage of their existing social media following, I looked at the most followed players on Instagram, with a few caveats:

• Must be currently enrolled in school (i.e. recently graduated players are excluded)

• Ranked in the season-ending ITA top 50

Note that these follower counts are from July 1st and are ever-changing!!

Most Followed Men

Ronnie Hohmann of LSU is the most followed man with over twice as many followers as the runner-up. Full list:

ITA Rank	Player	School	IG Followers
36	Ronnie Hohmann	LSU	7,750
18	Trent Bryde	University of Georgia	3,377
22	Rinky Hijikata	North Carolina	3,265
1	Liam Draxl	University of Kentucky	3,224
15	Eliot Spizzirri	University of Texas	2,820
23	Philip Henning	University of Georgia	2,741
5	Duarte Vale	University of Florida	2,735
2	Sam Riffice	University of Florida	2,649
50	Blaise Bicknell	University of Florida	2,512
9	Johannus Monday	University Of Tennessee	2,315

A few notables:

• Blumberg would fall second on this list with 4,681 followers, but he graduated and is therefore excluded. 

• Ben Shelton would be third with 3,372 followers, but he's not in the ITA top 50 and is therefore excluded

• UGA, UF, and Texas are the only schools with 2+ players in the top 50 with an average > 2K

Most Followed Women

Peyton Stearns of Texas is the most followed woman with almost 2x as many followers as the nearest player. Full list:

ITA Rank	Player	School	IG Followers
13	Peyton Stearns	University of Texas	7,263
2	Emma Navarro	University of Virginia	3,771
4	Abigail Forbes	UCLA	3,653
21	Alexa Noel	University of Iowa	2,515
25	Meg Kowalski	University of Georgia	1,919
43	Chloe Beck	Duke University	1,737
49	Cameron Morra	North Carolina	1,698
14	Irina Cantos Siemers	Ohio State University	1,654
46	Solymar Colling	University of San Diego	1,640
12	Georgia Drummy	Duke University	1,530

A few notables:

• Jokic (UGA) would be first on this list with 8,063 followers but she graduated

• Ewing (USC) would be #2 on this list behind Stearns with 4,707 followers (per Google) but her IG is currently deactivated

• Ansari (Auburn, #67): 3,443 and Coppoc (UGA, #92): 2,715 would make this list but they’re not in the ITA top 50

• Klara Mrcela of Cleveland State has over 153k IG followers but isn’t in the ITA top 50

So what does NIL mean for college tennis?

After sharing some of those IG following numbers, I had several people reach out and ask me if I thought NIL would really matter. Could college tennis athletes actually make money from this? And my answer is yes! But they’d have to work for it. Here are the top 3 reasons I’m excited for NIL:

1. It finally brings parity to college athletes and non-college athletes

This is the biggest point I want to underscore. Now, athletes are no longer restricted by the NCAA in the ways they can make money off the court which will greatly reduce the red-tape and anxiety around breaking rules that’s historically plagued players. For example, let’s say you were a non-athlete in an acapella group at school and you had a YouTube channel posting videos of you singing. There were no issues with you monetizing that YouTube channel through ads. But if you’re a tennis player and want to post videos of you hitting forehands and monetize that? That was not allowed. Let’s take an even more extreme, non-tennis example. Jake Kuhlman played tennis at University of North Dakota and has since become TikTok famous, boasting over 1.6M followers and 57.6M likes, for reasons totally unrelated to his tennis ability. If he wanted to retain NCAA eligibility, he wouldn’t be allowed to monetize those channels by taking brand deals or joining something like the TikTok creator fund which pays creators based on their video views. (Note: Jake is no longer on the UND tennis team, I’m just using him as an example for if players create social media presences that are unrelated to tennis that NIL now allows them to monetize). This extends to many other examples such as getting merch or free dinner from the local diner. 

2. Increase in paid hitting/coaching opportunities

Previously, college players could get paid for coaching camps, so long as it was at the “going-rate.” Now, with NIL, players can actually market their services in their local community either through a service like Universal Tennis Paid Hits or a local club. They can make additional money at these summer camps by being paid to promote the camp on social media, doing autograph or photo sessions, charging extra for hitting sessions, etc. 

3. Brand deals, affiliate links, and more

Every athlete has a hometown, a local club, and a following. There’s a reason that micro-influencers already exist. It doesn’t take 1M followers to make decent money from your social accounts. To take a timely example, if I run the ATP Atlanta event, why not give every UGA and Georgia Tech player a discount code for tickets and give them a percentage kickback for any ticket sales they drive? Or if I’m a local Austin tennis shop, why not give Peyton Stearns some money to post about us? There are a lot of examples that local businesses or smaller brands can take advantage of. 

There’ll be so much more to unpack in the coming months with NIL. Will we see tennis players bringing in the 7-figures like an Alabama QB? No. But NIL creates opportunities for every college tennis player, at every level, to generate extra income should they choose. That’s a win in my book.