Caitlin Clark tops the Final Four All-NIL team

The NCAA Tournament used to be where players make a name for themselves. Where upsets happen, Cinderellas thrive, and legends are made. In 2024, that all holds true. But now, it’s also where players can earn big money by securing lucrative name, image, and likeness (NIL) deals.



Since the NCAA granted players NIL rights in 2021, more than 450,000 athletes have profited and the NIL market has grown to exceed $1 billion . This year’s NCAA Tournament, on both the men’s and women’s sides, has featured some of the top NIL earners. With the Final Fours ready to tip off this weekend, here’s a look at the top NIL earners left in the tournaments.



Caitlin Clark, G, Iowa



If you haven’t heard about Caitlin Clark yet, you will.



In Iowa’s Elite Eight win over LSU alone, Clark set NCAA Tournament records in career assists and three-pointers and became the first player in tournament history with three career 40-point games. All this came after a season in which she passed LSU legend “Pistol” Pete Maravich for the most career points in Division I history for both men and women, setting a host of other records along the way.



Clark’s iconic senior season has vaulted her to the top of the NIL valuation list among women’s basketball players, according to On3.com . With a $3.2 million valuation, Clark is second among female athletes only to LSU gymnast Livvy Dunne at $3.7 million and second among basketball players only to LeBron James’s son, Bronny James, at $4.9 million. Already having endorsement deals with Nike, Gatorade, Panini, State Farm, Xfinity, and many more, Clark is projected to be the No. 1 overall pick in the WNBA draft.



Zach Edey, C, Purdue



On the men’s side—with blue-bloods like Kentucky, Duke, and North Carolina eliminated—Purdue center Zach Edey is among the NIL leaders left in the tournament. The Canadian seven-footer is limited in his earning ability because he entered the country on an F-1 visa, which allows international students to study at a university but restricts student-athletes from earning income while on U.S. soil, with a few exceptions.



Lucky for him, in December, his Boilermakers played a neutral-site game against Alabama in Toronto. While on the road, he teamed up with New York-based startup Daps on an NIL deal, making the most of the two-day trip.



Despite his earning barriers, Edey is still ranked sixth among men’s college players in NIL valuation and has earned an estimated $810,000 in NIL money. And should his Boilermakers get past NC State and go on to win a national title, he could be headed for a lucrative offseason north of the border.



Donovan Clingan, C, UConn



Perhaps the demise of the big man in college basketball has been overstated, as all three men’s players featured here are centers—like UConn sophomore Donovan Clingan, who is averaging nearly 16 points per game, 10 rebounds, and 3.5 blocks in the tournament for the defending-champion Huskies.



His NIL valuation was $800,000 before the season began and he has since landed endorsement deals with Dunkin’ and Kim Kardashian’s underwear/loungewear line, SKIMS.



Clingan is projected to be a top-10 pick in the NBA draft. With his tournament performance thus far and his off-court endorsements, both his draft stock and his NIL value could be on the rise.



Paige Bueckers, G, UConn



Missing 19 games as a sophomore and a full season in 2022 due to knee injuries significantly impacted Bueckers’s career NIL earnings. But the redshirt junior didn’t miss a beat this season, emerging as women’s basketball’s third-leading scorer and leading the Huskies to their 23rd Final Four in program history.



She also ranks fifth in women’s basketball in NIL valuation. With partners like Dunkin’, Nike, Bose, and Gatorade, Bueckers has amassed a reported $652,000 in NIL earnings. She’ll have an opportunity to earn much more, as she has announced that she will forego the WNBA draft and return to UConn for her senior season.



DJ Burns, C, NC State



If anyone has made a name for themselves in this year’s tournament, it’s NC State’s DJ Burns.



The 6-foot-9 forward is averaging 18 points, five rebounds, and 3.5 assists per game during the NCAA Tournament, and seems to be having fun doing it, which has allowed him to become one of the most recognizable faces in the sport—and one of its hottest NIL stars.



Burns currently ranks 10th in NIL valuation among men’s basketball players. He has done a smattering of small deals with Intuit TurboTax, Manscaped, Adidas, CVS Pharmacy, and more—all during the NCAA Tournament. Most ads ran through his personal Instagram, where he has amassed more than 215,000 followers.



For both Burns’s NIL run and his team’s Cinderella story to continue, his NC State Wolfpack—the lowest remaining seed (11) in either tournament—must get past Edey and No. 1-seeded Purdue in the Final Four on Saturday.