Even when the Iowa Hawkeyes don’t win the ladies’s March Insanity title this weekend, star guard Caitlin Clark has already cemented her legacy as one of the crucial prolific athletes in girls’s school basketball historical past. Clark, the 2024 nationwide participant of the 12 months, has scored extra factors than another Division I basketball participant ever—males’s or girls’s.
Clark can also be making historical past off the court docket in a single key means: She’s a pioneering instance for so-called title, picture and likeness (NIL) offers, having already banked over $3 million. Clark has been one of many first to money in on model sponsorships within the years instantly after a majority of these offers had been legalized by the NCAA.
Clark is setting an instance for different athletes seeking to revenue from their nationwide recognition—and as she prepares to go professional beginning in Could, she’s positioned to make much more.
Clark, who turned 22 in January, burst onto the college-sports scene on the excellent time to make the most of new guidelines governing school athletes’ NIL rights. In July 2021, the NCAA adopted new insurance policies allowing athletes to make cash from sponsorship offers and model partnerships, overturning decades-long guidelines strictly prohibiting athletes from signing a majority of these offers.
The NCAA’s reversal was mandated by the Supreme Court docket, which dominated unanimously within the 2021 case NCAA v. Alston that the group was unfair in stopping novice school athletes from producing revenue based mostly on their persona.
Faculty athletes didn’t waste any time snapping up NIL offers, however few have been extra profitable than Clark. In keeping with NIL database On3, Clark has already made $3.1 million from NIL, the fourth-most of any school athlete. (The one athletes incomes extra are LeBron James’ son Bronny, Deion Sanders’ son Shadueur, and LSU gymnast and social media influencer Livvy Dunne.)
Clark, who grew up in Iowa, signed her first deal with midwestern supermarket chain Hy-Vee in January 2022, which used her picture and title for a branded cereal, “Caitlin’s Crunch Time.” Since then, Clark has inked main offers with nationally acknowledged manufacturers starting from insurance coverage to footwear: with Nike in October 2022, with State Farm a 12 months later, and with Gatorade final December, to call three. Clark has appeared in nationwide TV adverts and on billboards, and has rapidly change into one of the crucial recognizable faces in school sports activities.
Clark announced she would be entering the WNBA draft final month. She’s widely expected to be chosen first general, by the Indiana Fever. By way of wage, her WNBA paycheck will barely make a dent in her web wealth: First-year WNBA gamers earn round $76,000 a year. Clark will possible earn a larger windfall from advertising agreements with the WNBA: “Caitlin Clark stands to make a half million dollars or more in WNBA earnings this coming season, in addition to what she will receive through endorsements and other partnerships, which has been reported to already exceed $3 million,” a WNBA spokesperson told ESPN.
Clark’s ceiling might be even larger than that. Candace Parker is at present the highest-earning WNBA participant, according to Forbes: The Las Vegas Aces ahead introduced in $5.5 million final 12 months on sponsorship offers with manufacturers together with Adidas and CarMax, in addition to a $200,000 wage.
The WNBA wasn’t the one supply on the desk. Clark has but to definitively reply to a reported $5 million offer to join the Big3 basketball league, a 3-on-3 league co-founded by rapper and actor Ice Dice. Though it will be technically doable for Clark to play in each the WNBA and Big3, she’s not anticipated to simply accept the supply.
Clark and Iowa return to NCAA motion this Friday, once they’ll face off towards the College of Connecticut within the nationwide semifinal at 9:30 EST.
