Last year’s baseball College World Series averaged 1.56 million viewers, down from 1.65 million a year earlier. Baseball’s three-game final averaged 2.82 million viewers, also down 1% from the 2.86 million who watched the same round in 2023.
Opendorse noted that with broadcast reach at near parity, the increased content creation and audience engagement of softball players compared to their baseball counterparts matter more than ever.
The constantly evolving NIL landscape has now been divided into three tiers; College NIL paid directly through schools and capped at $20.5 million a year thanks to the House vs. NCAA settlement; collective NIL doled out through school booster groups and scrutinized for fair market value under the settlement; and commercial NIL from brands working with athletes directly.
Of the $2.2 billion paid to college athletes in NIL deals last year, $1.6 billion came from collectives, and roughly $400 million came directly from brands.
With college athletes receiving $400 million of a roughly $35 billion brand-driven creator economy, Denton said the 150,000 athletes on his platform stand to receive a greater premium for access to their 320 million social media followers, 68% of whom are between the ages of 18 and 24.
“These are the early days. These college athletes—specifically these female student athletes that have larger followings and higher engagement metrics—haven’t even taken their fair share yet,” Denton said. “It wouldn’t surprise me if that $400 million is a billion dollars in the next three years.”
