How much money does a college basketball player make

America's Best College Basketball Player Might Earn $2 Million Without Going Pro

The best college basketball player in America will stay in school for his senior season and get paid for doing so—thanks to some recent changes to National Collegiate Atheltic Association (NCAA) rules that have opened up markets and opportunities for student-athletes.

For Congolese immigrant and University of Kentucky basketball star Oscar Tshiebwe, those changes mean the potential to earn millions of dollars next year without going pro.

Tshiebwe announced Thursday that he would forgo the upcoming National Basketball Association (NBA) draft to finish his college career at Kentucky. It's the first time since 2008 that the winner of the John R. Wooden Award, which is given out annually to the best college basketball player in the country, has declined to immediately depart for the NBA.

But outstanding student-athletes of the recent past have not had the same financial opportunity that Tshiebwe does, thanks to the NCAA's recent decision to let players cash in on endorsement deals using their name, image, and likeness (usually abbreviated as "NIL"). Though college players are not directly paid for their talents, they are allowed to profit off NIL deals in the same way they've always benefitted from scholarships. For a player like Tshiebwe, these new opportunities can be quite lucrative, as Stadium basketball writer Jeff Goodman notes:

Oscar Tshiebwe will likely earn in the neighborhood of $2 million this season through NIL, source told @Stadium. https://t.co/MHlbaJa7RO

— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) April 20, 2022

Prior to NIL deals being legalized, college players with the talent to play professional basketball were foolish not to make the jump to the next level. Coming back for another season at school meant uncompensated work and the risk of an injury that might reduce or eliminate their hopes of playing in the NBA.

The erosion of the NCAA's cartelized control over student-athletic revenue has created a more dynamic set of choices for players like Tshiebwe.  Though he was undeniably the best player in college basketball this year—in 34 games, he recorded 28 double-doubles (basketball lingo for games in which a player scores at least 10 points and at least 10 rebounds), including 16 in a row at one point—most experts projected Tshiebwe to be a second-round draft pick, largely due to the different skill sets required to excel in the college and professional versions of the sport.

Staying in school for another year, and getting compensated for it, means Tshiebwe will get to further develop those skills in the hopes of a larger payday in next year's draft. It also means another shot at a national championship, after Kentucky was stunningly eliminated from this year's "March Madness" by Saint Peter's College, the Cinderella story of the tournament.

"That's not how I wanted it to end," Tshiebwe told ESPN. "It's the best motivation."

He's not the only student-athlete getting what they deserve from the NCAA's new rules—which have created some weird and wonderful results. Doug Edert, who became the star of Saint Peter's upset run in March, landed an endorsement deal with Buffalo Wild Wings. A University of Arkansas wide receiver earned a deal for his dog, Blue. An offensive lineman for Ohio State is getting paid to hawk, yes, scented candles. And Louisiana State gymnast Olivia Dunne has reportedly leveraged her massive social media following into NIL deals worth over $1 million.

Even the NCAA—which for years fought the idea of letting players profit off NIL deals as it sold players' likenesses to video game companies and sold jerseys with players' numbers on them—is a winner here. By staying in school, Tshiebwe gives college basketball "a rare win for the sport in the talent tug-of-war with the NBA," writes Sports Illustrated's Pat Forde. "So this is a win-win for college hoops as a whole and Tshiebwe in particular. He has established marketability in a place that loves its college basketball heroes. Put his face on billboards on New Circle Road in Lexington. Let him sign autographs at Keeneland Race Course. If he likes the steaks at Malone's, have him endorse those. Pay the man for being the star Wildcat he is."

Mainly, this is a story about how opening up markets benefits everyone. Well, everyone except perhaps the college teams that end up facing the brunt of Tshiebwe's revenge tour next season.

NCAA players will get to profit off their names this year : NPR

For the first time in the history of the March Madness tournament, NCAA athletes will be able to profit off their names, images and likenesses. Above, Reggie Chaney of the Houston Cougars and Flo Thamba of the Baylor Bears compete for the opening tipoff during the 2021 tournament. Jamie Squire/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption

Jamie Squire/Getty Images

For the first time in the history of the March Madness tournament, NCAA athletes will be able to profit off their names, images and likenesses. Above, Reggie Chaney of the Houston Cougars and Flo Thamba of the Baylor Bears compete for the opening tipoff during the 2021 tournament.

Jamie Squire/Getty Images

Television rights for the men's March Madness college basketball tournament earned the NCAA a whopping $850 million last year. The players who competed? They made nothing.

This year, it's a new ballgame. It's not that the NCAA will be paying athletes when round one of the men's tournament kicks off Thursday — the association already funnels roughly two-thirds of profits back to colleges and universities. Instead, for the first time in the history of March Madness, players can sign endorsement deals that allow them to capitalize off their popularity.

It's a change set in motion by a Supreme Court decision last summer that effectively upended years of resistance by the NCAA, which had blocked student-athletes from getting paid for the use of their names, images and likenesses. Less than a year later, a burgeoning multimillion-dollar industry has developed, transforming players from across the NCAA universe into a corps of influencers who earn money to endorse everything from the local restaurant in their college town to major national brands like Gatorade and Nike.

The new landscape has been predictably lucrative for stars in the two most popular college sports — football and men's basketball. But in many cases, women have out-earned the men as brands look to make inroads with a target audience that is both younger and female.

Brands are expected to spend close to $600 million on name, image and likeness (NIL) deals by the time the first anniversary of the NCAA's policy change arrives in July, according to a recent white paper by the site Front Office Sports and Opendorse, a consulting firm that tracks the potential brand value of athletes across the NIL universe. Eventually, that spending is expected to swell into the billions, ushering in a new era of financial opportunity for the nearly half-million student-athletes competing in NCAA sports — the majority of whom are not on athletic scholarship.

"It has completely changed college sport," says Thilo Kunkel, director of the Sport Industry Research Center at Temple University. "It has provided opportunities for student-athletes to really make some money along the way, and it's also sparked a lot of awareness around student-athletes [about] what it means to build your personal brand and what it means to monetize that personal brand."

Followers count as much as sports fans

In just the early months of the NIL era, University of Michigan guard Adrien Nuñez has been able to leverage his popularity into sponsorship deals with big brands such as Amazon, Coach and Spotify. Nuñez typically doesn't see much playing time for the Wolverines, but advertisers have noticed his more than 3 million followers on TikTok.

Most of his videos he films with his girlfriend, Carson Roney, herself a former student-athlete at Shawnee State University in Ohio who has more than 3.5 million followers of her own. In one recent video for Amazon Prime, the couple shows off how to use the company's Try Before You Buy service to come up with a new outfit for date night.

Nuñez says the extra work hasn't done much to interfere with practices or games — he says he probably spends about seven to 10 hours per week making videos. Without getting into specifics, Nuñez says the difference in his ability to earn money as a student-athlete has been "huge."

"I feel like a lot of people's concern going into this was how is it going to affect the locker room? And it really hasn't had any effect," Nuñez says. "I feel like everything else is the same, it's just now we're able to make a little money on the side when we're not on the court."

Players can make serious money

For athletes like Nuñez, the earning potential can be significant. Some players can make enough to offset a major chunk of their tuition, while the NCAA's biggest stars can bring in extra money to pay college expenses not covered by scholarships — and then some.

"There are athletes that have made more than a million dollars through name, image and likeness in just the first eight months," says Opendorse CEO Blake Lawrence. "And then you have athletes that are track and field athletes that are making tens of thousands of dollars. You've got volleyball players making hundreds of thousands of dollars."

To be sure, not every player will strike it rich. The average amount earned by student-athletes in Division 1 schools was $561 through the end of February, according to Opendorse data. And there are limits on what students can endorse. Most states, for example, restrict them from promoting things like alcohol or sports wagering. Students can also run up against policies restricting them from deals with companies that might directly compete with one of their school's own sponsors.

But in large part, the new rules represent a dramatic reshaping of past NCAA policy that prohibited student-athletes from being compensated for their performance. With the cost of tuition continuing to climb nationwide, athletes who once could have lost scholarships or forfeited their college playing careers by profiting off their names, images and likenesses now have a new way to help finance their education.

Men dominate ratings, but brands want female athletes

With more than a million followers across Instagram and TikTok, UConn Huskies star Paige Bueckers tops ESPN's list of college basketball's most marketable players. Elsa/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption

Elsa/Getty Images

With more than a million followers across Instagram and TikTok, UConn Huskies star Paige Bueckers tops ESPN's list of college basketball's most marketable players.

Elsa/Getty Images

The bulk of the spending to date — roughly 50% — has gone toward football players, but early signs suggest women's basketball has emerged as a favorite among brands.

As of the end of February, women's basketball accounted for close to 20% of all endorsement dollars, the second most of all college sports, according to Opendorse. And when it comes to social media, women's basketball posts on TikTok are earning $2,805 on average per post — more than football and men's basketball.

Take the case of University of Connecticut star Paige Bueckers. In August, ESPN placed Bueckers at the top of its list of college basketball's most marketable players. With more than 1.3 million fans across Instagram and TikTok combined, Bueckers' earning potential is estimated at $1 million per year. In November, she became the first NCAA student-athlete to sign an endorsement deal with Gatorade. She has also signed a deal with the StockX footwear and sports apparel platform.

"Female audiences are what the brands want, mostly, and there's a lot more opportunities in beauty, fashion, lifestyle content on the whole," says Barbara Jones, the founder and CEO of Outshine Talent, a talent management agency that counts Michigan's Adrien Nuñez among its roster of clients.

There's now a new front in the race for top talent

For colleges and universities, the fast-changing landscape has meant a new front in the competition to recruit top talent. Across the country, schools are launching programs billed as pathways to help student-athletes maximize the value of their personal brand. The University of Arkansas, for example, has a program designed "to enable Razorback student-athletes to fully capitalize on name, image and likeness." The University of Nebraska has a program it says will "position all Husker student-athletes for success in NIL."

"It's the recruiting battle of the next decade," Lawrence says.

Sports

March Madness is here and the NCAA brackets are out

Others have looked for ways to facilitate opportunities for their students. In recent months, for example, a number of big-name institutions have joined forces with a company called Brandr that organizes group licensing opportunities that athletes can voluntarily sign onto. Ryan Moss, vice president for licensing at Brandr, says the company has already signed agreements with more than 35 colleges and universities — including sports powerhouses such as Alabama, Ohio State and North Carolina.

"There is a desire from consumers for this product," says Moss. "The college fan is as strong as a fan than I could put up against any professional fan."

Some want to see more oversight

The boom in name, image and likeness deals has not been free from controversy. In at least a handful of cases, schools have started to draw scrutiny from the NCAA for potential violations of recruiting and so-called pay-for-play rules. Last month, the organization announced it was launching a review of how name, image and likeness policies were affecting student-athletes, including decisions around "school choice." The NCAA said it would be looking into the role school boosters were playing in the NIL space, adding that "the involvement of schools in arranging for deals also was a concern. "

The review has brought new attention to what some experts see as the unsettled state of the rules of the road around NIL — one characterized by a patchwork of competing state laws and university standards. To date, at least 35 states have passed laws, introduced legislation or issued executive orders around name, image and likeness for student-athletes, prompting calls from the NCAA, among others, for some sort of federal guidelines.

One concern is the potential for bad actors to take advantage of students who may not fully understand what they're signing away in exchange for the use of their name, image and likeness.

"I've worried about that my whole career in working with influencer talent," says Jones. "It's happened since the days of musicians selling their publishing [rights] for a Cadillac, you know?"

For now, though, the calls for stronger oversight have done little to slow the spread of name, image and likeness deals for college athletes, and even some in high school. In October, basketball wunderkind Mikey Williams became one of the youngest players ever to sign a sneaker deal with a major footwear company — Puma. He was just 17 at the time of the signing, and he had more than 5 million followers combined on Instagram, TikTok and Twitter. Williams won't be eligible for the NBA draft until 2024, but by then he might already be a millionaire.

How much players in different leagues receive. Europrobasket study

The Europrobasket academy has released a comprehensive study on how much money foreigners earn in the top European championships. "Interception" carefully translated everything.

Important:

1) the amounts are in dollars, not in euros, as usual;

2) believe it or not, it's up to you, but the authors of the work say that in the process of preparation they talked with many agents, coaches and team members.

Average salary in Europe:

Spain. The strongest teams play in the ACB League, many Spanish clubs play in European competitions. Accordingly, there are the best salaries, and the budgets of Real Madrid and Barcelona exceed $40 million. On average, players in Spain make from 250 to 500 thousand per season, but there are exceptions: for example, Nikola Mirotic with his $ 4 million a year or Sergio Yull, Walter Tavares, Corey Higgins - they all earn about $ 2 million.

Turkey. Two teams from the Turkish championship play in the Euroleague, several more clubs in the Eurocup and the Champions League. The country has some of the highest salaries and almost half of the clubs have budgets in excess of $10 million. Leaders can get big money, for example: Shane Larkin - $ 3.7 million, Nando de Colo - 2.4 million, Jan Vesely - 2.2 million. At the same time, on average, foreigners earn 250-500 thousand in the league.

Russia. Some of the highest paid players in Europe play here. For example, Alexei Shved ($4 million last season, this amount may differ), Mike James and Nikola Milutinov (2.5 million each). But the average salary in the United League is about 200-450 thousand dollars per year.

Italy. Few people expected this country to be so high in the ranking, but elite basketball players also play in the Italian championship. For example, Milan defender Sergio Rodriguez, who receives about $ 2 million, is the highest paid player this season. On average, the salaries of foreigners in Serie A range from 180 to 350 thousand dollars.

Germany. The German economy is the fourth largest in the world, so it's not surprising to see the Bundesliga in this ranking. Four championship teams at once have more than $10 million for the season, and the budget of one of them, Bayern, is as much as $25 million. 1 million

Greece. The economic crisis has played a role in the amounts that foreigners earn in this country. But the Greek league is played by top basketball players, and three teams have budgets over $10 million (including Olympiakos, which plays in the second division). The average salary here is from 150 to 250 thousand, although Nick Calathes received 2. 25 million in Pao last season, and Kostas Sloukas is now in Olya - 1.8 million.

Israel. Teams from here do not shine in Europe, and the money here is much lower. The exception is Maccabi, whose budget is $26.5 million, and point guard Scotty Wilbekin earns $1.7 million. But this is not the norm, but the norm - from 80 to 250 thousand dollars.

France. Only two teams from here have a budget of more than $10 million, but this is one of the most reliable countries in terms of payments - contracts are guaranteed by the French government. Interestingly, only 30% of clubs' budgets go towards paying players, while in the rest of Europe these expenses account for more than half of club budgets. On average, foreigners here earn from 80 to 200 thousand dollars a season. Two years ago, the highest paid ASVEL player was AJ Slaughter with a salary of 300 thousand.

Average salaries in Asia:

China. The CBA is considered one of the richest leagues in the world, and most importantly, it is watched by more than 500 million people. This means that you can just come, play and build a business.

Stephon Marbury did just that: he earned $12 million in six years with the Beijing Ducks and became such a star that a statue of him was erected in front of the former team's arena. He went into coaching before starting his own company and selling basketball shoes to kids who can't afford branded shoes. Bliss? Bliss. Legend and forever secured.

The average salary of a foreigner in the Chinese championship is from 1 to 3 million dollars. That is, 4-6 times higher than in the most wasteful country in Europe - Spain. Tracy McGrady, Gilbert Arenas, Steve Francis, Ron Artest received so much in China. But there are exceptions, for example, Lance Stevenson, who is paid 4 million by the Liaoning Flying Leopards. .

The difficulty is that teams are allowed to have only two foreign players. But there are 19 clubs in the CBA, so they're really spending a lot.

South Korea. The rules of the local championship provide for a limit on foreign players - there can be no more than two of them in each team. If there are two foreigners in the club, then the ceiling of their total salary is set at the level of 700 thousand dollars, and if there is one, then by 500 thousand. On average, a legionnaire in KBL receives 250-400 thousand dollars, which puts the Korean championship on the same level with Spain, Turkey and Russia in this indicator.

But this is official information. A whole scattering of Europrobasket sources indicates that, together with bonuses, salaries here can reach up to 800 thousand dollars, which means that only China pays more.

However, remember that if you want to play in Korea, then get ready for 3-4 practices a day.

Japan. In 2016, two leagues were united here, and now the championship is flourishing. First of all, this concerns salaries: the local players in the season before last received an average of 147 thousand dollars, the players of the Japanese national team - about 417 thousand. Today, the highest paid Japanese - Yuki Togashi - earns $ 1 million.

Legionnaires in Japan receive an average of 120 to 300 thousand dollars. Life in this country is expensive, but teams tend to take care of all the expenses of their basketball players.

Press news

Without the first violin. Russia loses to Italy for the second time in EuroBasket 2022 qualifiers They didn’t let us leave – and everything fell apart. Russia lost to Italy in the qualification for the European Championship The Russian team did not put the squeeze on Italy. It's okay - a ticket to the Euro is almost in your pocket Caught up, but not caught up. The Russians lost to Italy Kirilenko: there was no leader in the national team who could take over the game in the match with the Italians Bazarevich: the Russian national basketball team must win the remaining matches of the European Championship selection Thomas Robinson joins Bahcesehir The Russian national team lost to the Italian team in the EuroBasket qualifier Kirilenko: Vorontsevich can play in any Euroleague club Vorontsevich: in matches for the Russian national team showed how I can play . ..

Latest club news

Happy birthday, Dmitry Vladimirovich! Happy birthday, Igor Vitalievich! Alexei Matyunin passed away A young basketball player from Donetsk became a player of BC Khimki GAME DAY. Khimki - Barnaul 19:00 Happy birthday, Oleg Vladimirovich! Khimki is ready to start the season in the Superleague Happy birthday, Sergey Nikolaevich! Friendly match. Khimki - University-Ugra - 102-78