Caitlin Clark, the Indiana Fever star and arguably the most influential figure in women’s basketball today, is at the center of growing criticism aimed at Nike. In April 2024, The sportswear giant signed Clark to a landmark eight-year, $28 million endorsement deal shortly after she was selected as the No. 1 overall pick in the […]
Caitlin Clark, the Indiana Fever star and arguably the most influential figure in women’s basketball today, is at the center of growing criticism aimed at Nike. In April 2024, The sportswear giant signed Clark to a landmark eight-year, $28 million endorsement deal shortly after she was selected as the No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft. But more than a year later, many, including former insiders, believe Nike has fallen far short of fully leveraging her unprecedented star power.
Despite her fame, Clark has yet to receive a signature shoe. Over a year into the partnership, she has only received Player Exclusive (PE) sneakers from Nike’s Kobe series. She has not been given a signature sneaker line or branded merchandise, marketing tools that are typically awarded to less accomplished male athletes.
While she has appeared on national billboards and in a Super Bowl commercial, fans and insiders alike are questioning why Nike is holding back.
In June 2024, when asked when her first signature shoe might arrive, Clark told reporters:
“I don’t make those decisions so you’ll have to wait and see.”
At the time, she had not yet earned WNBA Rookie of the Year honors, which she would go on to receive in October 2024.
The loudest critique came this week from Jordan Rogers, a former Brand Marketing Director for Nike Basketball, who spent over a decade at the company. In a TikTok video, Rogers accused Nike of mishandling Clark’s immense marketability.
He questioned the disparity between Nike’s treatment of male and female athletes and how Clark, arguably the most culturally significant player since Jordan, hasn’t received the same investment.
“You have the single biggest needle mover in all of American sports since Michael Jordan, and you have somehow convinced yourself that you need to slow-play this?” Rogers said. He continued, “This seems like you have convinced yourself that this needs to be an either/or conversation. And we never have an either/or conversation in the men’s sports , you have like 10 signature athletes [in the NBA], half of them don’t deserve a signature shoe.”
Rogers further speculated that political backlash surrounding Clark may be making Nike hesitant to go all-in. “I am so confused as to why you wouldn’t be doing bigger campaigns with [Clark]… One of the best explanations I can come up with is that you are wringing your hands and afraid to enter into this politically divisive conversation that has been co-opted by the media and pundits,” he said.
He ended his message to Nike with a plea: “You have the unicorn, the chosen one, the one who everyone wants to hear from, and you are just sitting around… Please, for the love of God, figure something out.”
Clark’s influence is undeniable. During her college career at Iowa, she played in two of the most-watched women’s college basketball games in history. Her 2024 Elite Eight game against LSU drew 16 million viewers. Her presence at the WNBA Draft that year attracted a record 2.4 million viewers. In the WNBA, she has already claimed Rookie of the Year honors and is among the frontrunners for MVP this season.
Yet, despite being one of the league’s biggest stars, Clark lacks something her rookie classmate Angel Reese has secured: a signature shoe. Reese, who plays for the Chicago Sky, is set to release her own signature sneaker with Reebok on June 4.
Fans have expressed confusion and disappointment, asking why Nike hasn’t moved quicker to give Clark her own line , especially given her unmatched visibility and performance.
Rogers praised other brands , including Gatorade, State Farm, and Wilson , for doing a better job of embracing Clark’s commercial appeal.
“Gatorade, State Farm and Wilson have all done a much better job in maximizing the value of the WNBA’s ‘unicorn’ superstar,” he added.
Fans have become increasingly vocal online, questioning Nike’s apparent hesitation to give Clark her own brand line. Rogers’ criticism only added to a growing sense of frustration.
“I am so confused as to how you would be so invested in the WNBA for several years and you’ve been doing great work trying to elevate and uplift that league and many of the athletes,” he said.
As Nike faces mounting public pressure, the question remains: will they shift gears and give Clark the platform her popularity clearly demands? For now, all eyes, and expectations, remain on the brand to step up.
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With inflation and rising food costs still impacting everyday Americans, the price of attending college football games isn’t always front of mind for even the most diehard sports fans. Still, as Oddspedia’s recent survey unveils, costs are going up everywhere, including across the college football landscape. Part of those rising prices can be attributed to […]
With inflation and rising food costs still impacting everyday Americans, the price of attending college football games isn’t always front of mind for even the most diehard sports fans. Still, as Oddspedia’s recent survey unveils, costs are going up everywhere, including across the college football landscape.
Part of those rising prices can be attributed to college programs fully embracing revenue-sharing with its college athletes, especially when it comes to college football, with the House v. NCAA settlement. Now that Power Four schools can provide as much as $20.5 million to student-athletes, the price of doing business is trickling down to fans far and wide.
In an effort to measure those costs for college football fans, Oddspedia surveyed all the top programs to determine the most expensive and cheapest game day experiences, which they identified as the cost of two tickets, two beers, two sodas, two hot dogs and parking. And while overall ticket prices saw a slight 2.7% decrease from 2024, the cost of everything else went up, including a 18.7% increase in parking fees.
And as evident by Oddspedia’s Top 10 most expensive college game day experiences, the SEC continues to reign supreme, even if it hasn’t won a College Football Playoff national championship since 2022.
Home: Folsom Field (Boulder, Colo.) | 2024 rank: No. 4
The Deion Sanders effect is real … and costly. With the sport’s most expensive ticket price at $228 for two people, Colorado is college football’s richest game day experience entering Year 3 under Coach Prime. This increase comes despite its two biggest stars — reigning Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter and star quarterback Shedeur Sanders — gone to the NFL. Now it’s officially Coach Prime’s show in Boulder.
Home: Bryant-Denny Stadium (Tuscaloosa, Ala.) | 2024 rank: No. 9
Nick Saban has been gone for more than 18 months, but a trip to Tuscaloosa on Fall Saturdays will still cost the average Alabama fan a pretty penny. It’s now Year 2 of the Kalen DeBoer era, and while he’ll be breaking in a new QB1, 18-year-old sophomore WR Ryan Williams is a SportsCenter Top 10 play waiting to happen. The only issue is watching him make those plays in person will run you $220 for two tickets.
Home: Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium (Austin, Texas) | 2024 rank: No. 6
Everything is bigger in Texas, including the price of attending games at DKR. The Longhorns are finally unleashing 2023 No. 1 overall recruit Arch Manning on the masses as its QB1 in 2025, and the nephew of former NFL QBs Peyton and Eli Manning is already drawing major Heisman hype. And, while parking in Austin remains its own endeavor at $50, two tickets to DKR will cost the average Longhorns fan $212.
Home: Notre Dame Stadium (Notre Dame, Ind.) | 2024 rank: tied at No. 7
The Fighting Irish won 13 straight games last season before ultimately succumbing to reigning champion Ohio State in the College Football Playoff national title game. Entering Year 4 under Marcus Freeman, the former assistant-turned-head coach clearly has something working at Notre Dame. While the Irish will be breaking in a new QB1 this season, star RB Jeremiyah Love is a big play waiting to happen.
Home: Sanford Stadium (Athens, Ga.) | 2024 rank: tied at No. 15
Attending games Between the Hedges just got a lot more expensive. Georgia rounds out the Top 5 with the second-highest year-over-year increase among the Top 10, due in large part to the country’s third-most expensive game ticket at $218 for two people. To help make the cost of attending games in Sanford Stadium go down easier, UGA lowered the cost of two hot dogs to $6 for CFB’s second-cheapest ‘dogs.
Home: Rose Bowl (Pasadena, Calif.) | 2024 rank: No. 1
Playing inside the home of The Granddaddy of Them All comes with a hefty price tag for Bruins fans, still tipping north of three bills for the total in-person experience. But after featuring the sports’ most expensive ticket last year, as well as significant increases from others in the Top 10 combined with a small 4.9-percent price drop in 2025, UCLA’s game day experience became slightly more affordable.
Home: Williams-Brice Stadium (Columbia, S.C.) | 2024 rank: tied at No. 7
The Gamecocks finally appeared to breakout in Year 4 under Shane Beamer, closing out the regular season on a six-game win streak to make a serious Playoff push. But with uber-talened, dual-threat QB LaNorris Sellers back for his second season as QB1, South Carolina enters 2025 as a serious SEC contender with Playoff aspirations. It’ll just cost fans $186 for two tickets to watch him in-person.
Home: Kyle Field (College Station, Texas) | 2024 rank: No. 5
The cost to attend games inside the swaying Kyle Field stands doesn’t come cheap, but the experience is unlike any in college football, especially when combined with the infamous Yell Leaders and the famed 12th Man. Also helping matters is the nominal 4.1-percent year-over-year cost increase, which was the lowest increase among the Top 10. Still, tickets for two will cost $218, in addition to $40 for parking.
Home: Kenan Memorial Stadium (Chapel Hill, N.C.) | 2024 rank: tied at No. 56
The Bill Belichick era is here in Chapel Hill, and it’s going to be a costly one. After a season away from coaching following five decades in the NFL, Belichick lands in college for the first time in his illustrious career. And while much of the offseason talk around North Carolina had nothing to do with football, Belichick’s $10 million/year salary comes with a steep 36-percent increase in the game day experience.
Home: David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium (Lawrence, Kan.) | 2024 rank: No. 23
Much like UNC, Kansas is still widely considered a basketball school. But that doesn’t mean Jayhawks fans get a discount for attending football games at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium. Two tickets to games will run fans $200, a steep price for a team that’s only won more than six games once in the last 16 seasons when it went 9-4 in 2023, Lance Leipold‘s third season at the helm.
100. Western Kentucky Hilltoppers — $84 (-69%) | 2024 rank: 75
99. Arkansas State Red Wolves — $86 (+18.6%) | 2024 rank: 95
98. Ohio Bobcats — $100 (+2%) | 2024 rank: 97
97. North Texas Mean Green — $106 (+13.2%) | 2024 rank: 98
96. Northern Illinois Huskies — $107 (+21.5%) | 2024 rank: 100
95. Marshall Thundering Herd — $110 (-45.5%) | 2024 rank: tied at 63
94. Wake Forest Demon Deacons — $114 (-49.1%) | 2024 rank: 58
93. Miami (Ohio) RedHawks — $119 (-10.1%) | 2024 rank: tied at 82
92. Jacksonville State Gamecocks — $120 (+18.3%) | 2024 rank: 96
91. Toledo Rockets — $121 (-3.3%) | 2024 rank: 86
91. Tulane Green Wave — $121 (-1.2%) | 2024 rank: 88
Unrivaled is expanding its reach to include women’s college basketball players. Among them are stars like Azzi Fudd, Lauren Betts, and Hannah Hidalgo. Other 13 women’s college hoops players have signed NIL deals with the league. The 3×3 league was founded by WNBA stars Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart as a way to allow professional […]
Unrivaled is expanding its reach to include women’s college basketball players. Among them are stars like Azzi Fudd, Lauren Betts, and Hannah Hidalgo. Other 13 women’s college hoops players have signed NIL deals with the league.
The 3×3 league was founded by WNBA stars Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart as a way to allow professional players to keep in competitive shape during the offseason, without having to leave the United States.
In a recent interview in “A Touch More with Sue Bird & Megan Rapinoe”, Collier spoke about the new NIL deals and why she and Stewart decided to bring in college players into the fold:
“Really bridging the gap. So, that was like one of the things internally that we wanted to make kind of one of our pillars for why we created Unrivaled. There’s such a gap between like the college player and the professional player, which you don’t see that in the NBA a lot. You see them promoting them on their pages. They have like training camps and all these things like bridges between next steps. High school, college, professional. And we wanted to make that too.” (41:14)
According to Collier, the goal at Unrivaled is to make the college basketball players household names before they arrive in the WNBA. It seems that they’re trying to pick up where the WNBA has failed to lead.
Some would argue that the NCAA is doing a fine job on its own. During their time in college, players like Caitlin Clark, Cameron Brink, Angel Reese, and Paige Bueckers were more famous nationwide than the leading WNBA players at the time.
Unrivaled announced its decision to invest money in the college side of the game earlier in July. At the time, Luke Cooper, the company’s president of basketball operations, said the following about the move in a press release.
“Investing in elite women’s basketball talent is central to Unrivaled’s mission,” Luke Cooper said. “This transformational, first-of-its-kind initiative brings together the best of the best and reflects our deep commitment to elevating the women’s game and holistically supporting athletes.”
UCLA is the best-represented school on the list, with three players: Lauren Betts, Sienna Betts, and Kiki Rice. The second place is a tie between UConn and Notre Dame, with two players each.
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More and more college football players are beginning to give back to their hometowns in the Name, Image and Likeness era, and South Carolina’s Nyck Harbor has joined the club. The star wide receiver is coming off a career year as a sophomore in 2024, hauling in 26 passes for 376 yards with three touchdowns […]
More and more college football players are beginning to give back to their hometowns in the Name, Image and Likeness era, and South Carolina’s Nyck Harbor has joined the club.
The star wide receiver is coming off a career year as a sophomore in 2024, hauling in 26 passes for 376 yards with three touchdowns for the Gamecocks, which posted their best season (9-4) since 2017.
Harbor signed with head coach Shane Beamer and South Carolina as one of the most coveted prospects in the class of 2023. A standout at Archbishop Carroll High School (District of Columba), the track and football star was rated as a five-star recruit and the No. 1 athlete in his class.
Holding an On3 NIL valuation of $369,000, Harbor has used his five-star pedigree and a breakout sophomore campaign to build an NIL portfolio that includes deals like Beats by Dre, TruSport, EA Sports and Champs Sports.
Harbor’s latest NIL move is a charitable one, as the rising junior donated $10,000 to Archbishop Carroll High School’s athletic department as a part of the inaugural Nyck Harbor Community Day.
Harbor returns for his junior season as one of the SEC’s top playmakers and a potential first-round pick in the 2026 NFL Draft. His attention has seemingly shifted solely to the gridiron after electing to pass up sprinting this spring in order to maximize his football career.
Harbor and the Gamecocks will open the 2025 season at home against Virginia Tech on Aug. 31 at 3 p.m. ET (ESPN).
Ogden (Utah) Fremont elite athlete Salesi Moa, a top-50 player nationally in the 2026 class, revealed his commitment to the Tennessee Volunteers live on the CBS Sports College Football YouTube channel. Facing a choice between staying home and carving out his own path in the SEC, elite athlete Salesi Moa has opted to chase a […]
Facing a choice between staying home and carving out his own path in the SEC, elite athlete Salesi Moa has opted to chase a childhood dream. The two-way star from Ogden (Utah) Fremont revealed his commitment to Tennessee live on the CBS Sports College Football YouTube channel, choosing the Volunteers over longtime suitor and legacy program Utah.
Here is everything you need to know about the massive addition for Tennessee out West:
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Data provided by Student Athlete Score (July 31st, 2025) – Another week, another wave of athlete-brand collaborations reshaping the college sports economy. From high school football stars locking in major endorsements to powerhouse gymnasts and basketball players aligning with national brands, this week’s NIL recap—powered by data from Student Athlete Score—spotlights a wide-ranging mix of […]
Data provided by Student Athlete Score
(July 31st, 2025) – Another week, another wave of athlete-brand collaborations reshaping the college sports economy. From high school football stars locking in major endorsements to powerhouse gymnasts and basketball players aligning with national brands, this week’s NIL recap—powered by data from Student Athlete Score—spotlights a wide-ranging mix of athletes capitalizing on their name, image, and likeness. Explore the deals that defined the week of July 21st, 2025.
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