Illustration by Annelise Capossela/For The Washington Post; iStock
The student-athletes whose lives were transformed when the NCAA began allowing them to profit off their name, image and likeness (or NIL) are now a year or two out of school. Once again, they’re navigating a new frontier of the creator economy: Will the online brand they built in college provide a career after graduation?
I spoke with several elite creator athletes who have found successful — albeit very different — paths to making the most of their creator skillset. No longer able to rely on content about their college itself, or the season schedule and highlight reels, post-college NIL creators need to reinvent themselves to keep relevant to both their audience and brands.
“The term NIL gets tied to ending when your eligibility ends, but the skill set and habits remain forever,” said Chase Griffin, a former UCLA quarterback who was twice named NIL athlete of the year. Griffin said he still considers himself a creator post-grad, and that his online accomplishments as a student set him up for his current job at UC Investments, the investment arm of the UC system. The skills learned as an NIL creator have also equipped him for continued brand deals and content production, including a current project scoring a film.
“Not only does NIL prepare you to be a really good content creator, being a really good content creator in the NIL space can also get you hired for professional jobs in general,” he said in an interview.
The same is true for Haley and Hanna Cavinder, who have pursued content full-time since their leading NIL careers as college basketball players at Fresno State and the University of Miami.
“It’s kind of hard to plan with us and some other athletes being [at] the frontier of [NIL]. We’re kind of the guinea pigs,” said Haley Cavinder. “I think that us, the Livvy Dunnes of the world, we kind of show girls that if you don’t go pro and you build and use your brand [at] every opportunity when you’re in college, you can easily navigate into this space of social media seamlessly.”
Hanna Cavinder explained how the siblings have purposefully diversified their content — from creating videos about Haley’s wedding and life as a WAG, or partner of a professional athlete, to the launch of their own tequila brand. “There’s different ways to be able to continue to grow your brand and go into different categories, regardless if you’re an athlete post-college, and I hope that we’re prime examples to girls out there,” she said.
Being post-grad NIL creators helped the twins book one of their latest partnerships, a BetMGM speakeasy basketball experience. Casey Hurbis, BetMGM’s chief marketing officer, said that they partnered with the twins because of their niche as recent graduates who are “still known for athletics, but live much more so in the culture and entertainment space now.”
Still, there’s a clear NIL deal pecking order. The most lucrative NIL deals are reserved for a select group of creator athletes. And the ability to transfer high dealmaking power post-graduation to the real world is more challenging for most NIL creators, who are not operating at the same level as Griffin or the Cavinders.
Brands are increasingly looking for breadth and working with a larger group of NIL creators as opposed to one big name, said Bill Jula, the CEO and co-founder of sports marketing agency Postgame, which he said has worked with more than 100 brands and more than 60,000 student athletes.
“When brands are coming to us, they’re coming primarily with a mindset of current college, relevant-now athletes,” Jula said of recent-graduate creators. Instead of looking to book creators such as the Cavinder twins, he said, brands are seeking the next big thing, and are even looking to high school students before college-graduated athletes. “It’s a very small number of college athletes who don’t go pro who have enough star power to turn it into a real business,” he added.
The creators who spoke to Verified are more bullish. Griffin predicted major changes to NIL that will further empower athletes post-graduation: equity-style deals over endorsements, new partnerships in the AI space, recruiting based on the production infrastructure and the creator economy continuing to outpace pro sports salaries, particularly for female athletes.
This story is part of Verified, a newsletter that is published by WP Creator, a new business outside The Washington Post’s newsroom and Opinion section that is focused on the creator economy and content partnerships with independent creators. Learn more about WP Creator.
