Brand deals are raising female athletes’ profiles but inequalities remain

The highest salary a player can earn in the WNBA is $294,244, but many female college athletes are making far more before they even go pro.  

In 2021, the NCAA introduced a policy allowing athletes to benefit from their name, image and likeness (NIL). This policy allows athletes to profit from their personal brand through opportunities such as sponsorships, media coverage and endorsements. While these deals are providing financial opportunities and increasing attention in women’s sports, they have also raised concerns about NCAA inequalities. 

Before the introduction of NIL deals in 2021, the NCAA prohibited colleges and businesses from offering incentives, sponsorships, or endorsement deals to student-athletes according to Dan Murphy from ESPN. This restricted all college athletes, especially stars who were unable to earn money with their personal brand. Athletes who sought more attention through partnering with companies and schools were unable to do so, leaving those with little visibility struggling to grow their personal brand to different audiences.  

In particular, female athletes have historically received fewer opportunities than their male counterparts regarding marketing and funding in mainstream media, leading to less growth and attention in their sports. For instance, WNBA star Sue Bird said in an interview that “female athletes only get around 4 or 5% of [media] coverage.” But with the introduction of the NIL policy, female athletes may have the tools needed to increase visibility and access resources that were historically given only to their male counterparts.  

Now that the NCAA has opened the door to sponsorship deals, star college athletes like Olivia Dunne and Caitlin Clark are using their talents and social media followings to attract NIL deals with major companies and using them to attract a broader audience to the sport and themselves.  

Since 2021, LSU gymnast Olivia Dunne has been the highest-earning female college athlete, growing her personal brand and expanding her social media presence through sponsorships with major companies like Forever 21 and Body Armor. She has over 8 million followers on TikTok and 5.3 million followers on Instagram. 

While Olivia Dunne has shown how NIL deals can elevate the visibility of women’s sports, Indiana Fever Guard Caitlin Clark who currently plays in the WNBA has demonstrated how NIL deals can improve both the visibility and marketability of both college and professional sports. Through NIL deals with companies including Nike and Gatorade, Caitlin Clark has also challenged the old-standing perception that women’s sports lack visibility and marketability. 

Caitlin Clark’s impact had been evident after a record-breaking season in 2023, which helped her secure more than 11 NIL deals. Most notably, the national championship game between Iowa and LSU amassed 18.7 million viewers on average, with a peak of 24 million viewers, making it “the most watched basketball game — college or pro, men’s or women’s — since 2019” according to SB Nation. Clark helped drive record-breaking spectator attendance, and in her senior year she would go onto signing NIL deals with brands such as Panini America, a trading card company, and re-signed an 8-year contract with Nike. In that same year, her NIL was valued at $3.1 million from 11 known sponsorship deals.  

Aside from women’s college basketball and gymnastics, many sports such as soccer, golf and volleyball have also increased in viewership and popularity. Female athletes in various sports have a strong presence online, helping expand their reach and build brand recognition to a broader audience.  

The NWSL, a national soccer league for women set “new all-time ratings for match viewership with [an] average audience of 967.9K on CBS” in the 2024 NWSL championship game, an 18% increase from the previous year.  

In some cases, female athletes are earning more than their professional counterparts.  

Several college basketball athletes earn more from NIL deals than a WNBA team’s salary cap. For instance, UConn basketball star Paige Bueckers will enter the 2025 WNBA draft as the No. 1 overall pick, earning a rookie salary of $78,831, according to Sportrac. However, through On3’s NIL valuations, she is estimated to earn $1.4 million from NIL deals before she is drafted.  

To put this in perspective, the highest team salary in the WNBA is $1.4 million, paid by the Indiana Fever who has Caitlin Clark as their star player. In comparison, Clark was valued at $3.1 million in her 2024 college career, and Olivia Dunne is valued at $4.1 million in 2025. Even with a WNBA supermax salary of $249,244, which is a special contract for veteran players worth up to 35% of the team salary, the 10^th highest earning NIL athlete, Anna Frey makes approximately $430,000 more as a college athlete.   

Even smaller deals can prove helpful for student athletes. Michigan State University’s Taiyer Parks says she and her college basketball teammates each earned $500 a month during the 2021-2022 season by making occasional social media posts and public appearances for a local company. “It [had] helped out a lot with a couple bills here and there,” Taiyer said. “So, I’m pretty grateful to have the extra cash in my pocket.”  

Highly paid athletes like Caitlin Clark, Paige Bueckers and Olivia Dunne are exceptions, not the rule. Female athletes without star-popularity continue to face challenges and disparities in equal pay, monetization, and marketing. As journalist Daniel Sailofsky puts it, they are often compelled to “perform gig labour” to grow their personal brands in media and attract attention to their sport. 

According to The Washington Post, from 2021-2024, male athletes at Texas A&M earned 98% of total NIL revenue made in that school, amounting to $25.2 million while female athletes received just 2% or $534,000. The discrepancy in schools without star female athletes follows the same trend.  

While Title IX regulations prohibit colleges from discrimination based on sex, those rules do not apply to disparities in deals made by private companies.  

Critics argue that female athletes are also compelled to not only profit and grow their brand but also attract a broader audience to their sport. Historically, men’s college sports have received consistent investments and support, creating an infrastructure that women’s sports do not have. As Victoria Bossong, a VIS Advocate and Harvard runner explained on Voice in Sport, “Women athletes often find themselves in a position where they must take the initiative to contact and persuade the same companies for sponsorships.” With NIL deals, female athletes are not only compelled to grow their personal brand, but also their sports. In other words, female athletes perform this “gig labour” while male athletes do not face the same pressure to do so. 

Despite the challenges, NIL deals have become a powerful tool for female athletes to utilize in college, and as Forbes journalist Lindsey Darvin puts it: “Women athletes are not just participating in this new era of collegiate sports – they’re leading it.” 

Cover Image: Nike