NIL Earning Potential of Clemson Football Student-Athletes

Each day marks a step closer to the new era of name, image, and likeness rights in collegiate athletics. 

These changes will have a fundamental impact on college sports. It has become imperative that ADs and coaches can pitch and prove that their program offers its student-athletes an edge in NIL rights. Those who do… will win. 

They will win recruiting battles that will lead to wins on the field. All because they are prepared to help their student-athletes dominate the new era of NIL rights.

Clemson Football: NIL Earning Power

To understand the quickly-approaching reality for student-athletes and university leaders, we’re sharing insights into several programs in prime position to capitalize on the incoming changes. Last week, we analyzed Justin Fields and the Ohio State Football offense. Now we’re looking to another perennial power in college football — Clemson Football. 

Success on the field and in helping players reach the next level has led to success on social media for the Tigers. In the 2020 NFL Draft, Clemson produced two of the top 20 players with the highest social media earning potential. 

Frequent College Football Playoff appearances and one of the industry’s strongest creative media teams have helped to produce some of the strongest personal brands in college sports.

Annual NIL Earning Potential and Market Rate

Opendorse has facilitated and published paid social media posts from professional athletes on behalf of brands since 2012. Today, we are trusted by the most prominent leagues, players associations, and governing bodies in sports — including the NHL, PGA TOUR, NFLPA, WNBA, USWNTPA, and MLBPA — to help athletes maximize and monetize the value of their name, image, and likeness rights on social media. 

These opportunities have involved thousands of athletes representing dozens of sports and leagues, with deals coming from brands ranging from global sponsors to local businesses.

We have used this decade of social media transaction data to establish a formula that offers a true market rate — an accurate assessment of what any given athlete can command for a single branded post.  

Value Per Post Calculation

Estimated Value per Post is calculated using the cost per thousand followers (CPR), cost per engagement (CPE), and cost per thousand impressions (CPM) from thousands of paid posts published via Opendorse since 2012. 

The calculation factors in the athlete’s sport, status, current follower count, average engagement rate per post, impressions per post, and additional proprietary data points to provide an estimate of the dollar amount the athlete could command from sponsors in exchange for publishing one branded content post on their own social media channels.

Potential Annual Earnings Calculation

Annual earnings are calculated by multiplying the athlete’s total per-post value with the estimated number of promotions per year the athlete could be expected to participate in. 

The number of promotions per year are calculated based on actual transaction data from the pro market as well, which has been translated to the collegiate market.

• The athlete’s social presence impacts their value per post.
• Their school and sport impact their promotions per year.
• Their individual accomplishments and experience impact their promotions per year.