When the NCAA officially adopted its name, image and likeness (NIL) policy in 2021, it changed the landscape of college sports.
Although the change has unequivocally resulted in bigger shifts in revenue-generating sports like football and basketball, it still opened the doors for student-athletes in a sport like swimming to earn a bit of extra cash while continuing their studies.
Through the Opendorse website, a company that markets itself as the “best NIL marketplace for athletes to build and monetize their name, image and likeness value,” we can see how much athletes charge for their services.
Opendorse doesn’t list specific prices for brand or business opportunities—each business has to craft their offer individually—but the site does tell us what’s charged for personal services.
Leon Marchand, the best male swimmer in the NCAA last season, charges a hefty fee relative to his peers, as someone like Marchand is highly sought after as an international star along with placing a high value on his time given training and school commitments.
Marchand has finished his collegiate career and will turn professional moving forward, but his price on Opendorse starts at nearly $700. That includes more than $2,000 for an autograph and nearly $1,000 for a video shoutout.
Marchand’s Prices On Opendorse
- Shoutout – $1,000+
- Social Media Post – $1,956+
- Appearance – $672+
- Autography – $2,020+
- Pitch Anything – $1,287+
Marchand is not the most expensive swimming & dive athlete on Opendorse, however, as the one with the highest price listed is Youngstown State swimmer Phillip Miller, who has a starting fee of $1,000 and charges more than $5,000 for a social media post.
There’s no doubt that social media presence plays a role, as Miller has more than 676,000 followers on TikTok, but generally, those with decorated swimming resumes have higher fees than their teammates. On Texas, for example, Olympic medalist Erica Sullivan has a $104 starting price, and NCAA champion Emma Sticklen has a $30 starting price, while the majority of their teammates are listed at $15.
Along with Miller, Marchand and Sullivan, the other swimming & diving athletes charging more than $100 to start out are Miami (FL) diver Mia Vallee (a Canadian Olympian, Commonwealth and NCAA champion and with 196K Instagram followers), IUPUI diver Isabella Smith (230.6K TikTok followers), Youngstown State diver Dakota Thill (12.2K Instagram, 4.6K TikTok) and former Louisville and Notre Dame sprinter Abdelrahman Elaraby (ACC champion and 25.1K Instagram followers).
Not every college student-athlete is featured on Opendorse, however, including the majority of the University of Virginia roster. Alex and Gretchen Walsh, for example, aren’t listed and have private representation for NIL deals. The duo has launched numerous swimsuit collections with the brand Sporti, including one coming out just this week.
elaraby has 270k followers