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 some of the prolific athletes in girls’s school basketball historical past. Clark, the 2024 nationwide participant of the yr, has scored extra factors than some other 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 approach: 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 all 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 benefit from new guidelines governing school athletes’ NIL rights. In July 2021, the NCAA adopted new insurance policies allowing athletes to become profitable from sponsorship offers and model partnerships, overturning decades-long guidelines strictly prohibiting athletes from signing all these offers.
The NCAA’s reversal was mandated by the Supreme Courtroom, which dominated unanimously within the 2021 case NCAA v. Alston that the group was unfair in stopping newbie school athletes from producing earnings primarily based on their persona.
Faculty athletes didn’t waste any time snapping up NIL offers, however few have been extra profitable than Clark. In accordance 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 take care of midwestern grocery store 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 yr later, and with Gatorade final December, to call three. Clark has appeared in nationwide TV adverts and on billboards, and has shortly turn into some of the recognizable faces in school sports activities.
Clark introduced she could be getting into the WNBA draft final month. She’s extensively anticipated to be chosen first general, by the Indiana Fever. When it comes to wage, her WNBA paycheck will barely make a dent in her internet wealth: First-year WNBA gamers earn round $76,000 a yr. Clark will doubtless earn a higher windfall from advertising and marketing agreements with the WNBA: “Caitlin Clark stands to make a half million {dollars} or extra in WNBA earnings this coming season, along with what she is going to obtain via endorsements and different partnerships, which has been reported to already exceed $3 million,” a WNBA spokesperson advised ESPN.
Clark’s ceiling might be even larger than that. Candace Parker is at the moment the highest-earning WNBA participant, in response to Forbes: The Las Vegas Aces ahead introduced in $5.5 million final yr on sponsorship offers with manufacturers together with Adidas and CarMax, in addition to a $200,000 wage.
The WNBA wasn’t the one provide on the desk. Clark has but to definitively reply to a reported $5 million provide to hitch 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 just accept the provide.
Clark and Iowa return to NCAA motion this Friday, once they’ll face off in opposition to the College of Connecticut within the nationwide semifinal at 9:30 EST.
