Here's one way more college athletes can make money from NIL that has nothing to do with social media

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I've been writing about NIL for as long as I've been writing this newsletter, and I continue to believe that there are two different NIL markets. We have a 'bagman' NIL marketplace, where collectives pay athletes large amounts of money, masquerading as marketing deals, to play for a particular team. And we have the more market-driven NIL world, where brands partner with athletes to try and achieve some sort of business outcome.

Both of those marketplaces are real, and I still believe that the market-based universe is accessible to the majority of college athletes, even those who participate at the D-II, D-III or even NAIA level. But the bulk of the NIL conversation is usually centered around social media endorsements. Those are the majority of deals you'll find on most exchanges, like Opendorse or MOGL.

But here's the cold, hard truth. Most college athletes are going to struggle to make more than $500 bucks via social media endorsements. If you have a limited amount of time to prospect for deals, a social media following of under 5,000, and an imperfect math between your audience and brand opportunity, it's going to be tough sledding.

In a world trending towards a recession, there is not an overabundance of brands leaping at the opportunity to throw money at Summit League Soccer athletes with 1,800 followers on Instagram. They exist, sure. But there's not a ton of them. And the ones that exist probably don't have brand accounts on marketplaces.

But there are other opportunities for athletes that have nothing to do with social media, opportunities that may be just as useful for a D-I basketball player as they would be for a D-II baseball player or a D-III soccer player.

I'm talking about camps, clinics, and lessons

And I just talked to one company who is trying to make it easier for more athletes to take advantage of those opportunities;

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