The median NCAA swimmer/diver with NIL disclosures earned $51 in the 2024-2025 season from their deals. This represents a whopping 71.6% decrease from the median $180 earned in the 2023-2024 season. See SwimSwam’s full report on the previous season here*.
Below shows a side-by-side comparison of the 2023-24 season (left) versus the 24-25 season (right). Average total athlete earnings, a metric more skewed to represent top-level earners, also took a significant tumble.
| 2023-2024 | 2024-2025 | |
| Average Disclosure Value | $310 | $293 |
| Median Disclosure Value | $50 | $36 |
| Average Total Athlete Earnings | $1107 | $519 |
| Median Total Athlete Earnings | $180 | $51 |
Interestingly, though, figures for individual disclosures didn’t fall as drastically as overall athlete figures. This suggests that NIL deal values stayed relatively stable, but there were less deals.
One can point to several reasons why these parameters may be down so drastically. One is that the 2023-2024 season encompassed an Olympic Games, and less capital flows through Olympic sports outside of Olympic years. NIL revenue trends in other marquee Olympic sports partially support his explanation. Median athlete earnings for NCAA track & field athletes for the 2024-2025 year were down 49.7%. The median women’s gymnastics figure, however, actually rose 37%.
Looking at the biggest revenue generating sports, median football player earnings more than doubled from season to season, while the disclosed median for men’s basketball athletes fell slightly.
Across all NCAA sports, the median athlete with NIL disclosures earned $649 in the 2024-2025 school year, up from $460 in the previous year.
Click here to view the NCAA’s full NIL data dashboard.
*Note that the 2023-24 parameters on the NCAA website have changed slightly since the publication of last year’s article, potentially due to more disclosures coming in. SwimSwam used August 1st – July 31st for data collection in an attempt to capture a full season. Also note that athletes with no NIL disclosures, whose earnings would therefore be $0, are not included in the data set. For swimming & diving, most NIL deals are listed as gender neutral, likely because of combined gender teams. Therefore, it’s not possible to look at potential gender discrepancies.
Someone posted on Reddit that Ledecky could go train 2 months with dean boxall in the Australian summer in the beggining of the year like Leon Did in 2025. Is any of this true? If so, wouldn’t it help palister more than Ledecky?
That is 5 cents per hour for time spent in training and competition – About right from the standpoint of general spectator appeal and excitement of sport.
USA swimming complains that we are not competitive and this pretty much sums up your answer
Median, huh? Someone out there has a $51 check and interesting story to go with it.
There is only one solution to this…… Gambling Money! Take all the money these billion dollar gambling companies are willing to throw at them!
*sarcasm*
here’s a question, how many FB, BB, BaseBall & Tennis players would still play their sport if they made what swimmers make? Would they still LOVE it, DO it? There’s a campaign screaming out in that question and in the answer. Interview actual pro athletes and listen to their responses or their lack of response.. “hmm, hmm” (pause, pause)
It’s so funny to me seeing these comments on here. “Football team get millions it not fair😢😢.”
pretty much all of them. They already did it for decades.
Competitive swimming is fun and spectator boring. I have several ideas which will help the sport but the mainstream will not bend the knee…SO continue to wallow among the bottom tier of real sports.
speedo & arena can’t flip the bill for all of swimming. What does Tennis, FB, soccer & BB players do? But instead of soda, shoe. .(and suit-cap-cap-goggles), add in HEALTHY NUTRITIONAL options (products/treatments). .the real ones, not the usual suspects owned by processed food crap corps-orations. Getting the “SWAMmers” to watch more meets (HELLO, text alerts) and who NEEDS healthier NATURAL options, is the way to go. Most if not all professional sports push crap processed food & drinks. Yes, it makes them $$$, but its an effin LIE. Triathletes don’t and masters programs don’t either. Swimmers COULD speak to the kids AND the 70s-80s swimmers & fans. And THEY make a bloody fortune OFF the elite swimmers at EVERY… Read more »
Your Capitalization arouses and fears Me.
Randy