College soccer players can't make money from playing itself, but top Division I athletes can monetize through social media. Women's soccer sometimes gets cash incentives to sign. A $100,000 NIL deal changes your life; $2,000 to $5,000 probably isn't worth risking your spot.
Can you make money with NIL deals playing college soccer? The short answer is no. You are not going to make any money playing college soccer directly from playing college soccer. In most cases, with most teams, you are not making the school any money. In fact, the soccer teams are only taking money away other than people pay full tuition to go to that school because they otherwise wouldn't have. For example, I went to Valparaiso University. I was on a full-ride scholarship, and And a full ride didn't mean everything was paid for, means most things were paid for. But I ate a lot of food, so my mom paid extra in food, and I wanted different housing, so we paid for different housing. All of that is to say, the reason I went to Valpo was because of soccer. And the reason we gave them money for housing and food and whatnot was because I was at Valpo, and I would've otherwise never gone if it wasn't for soccer. So that's how these schools make money, is students pay full tuition to a school they otherwise would not have gone to, but go because of soccer. Now, if you're playing for a top-level Division I team, and you want to make money, you need to start your own Instagram, social media, those types of things. And you can make money with the platform you have, but you're not going to get directly paid from the school. On the women's side, there's actually a little bit more of a debate. Women's college soccer does have a little bit more influence on TV rights, etc. And there are some girls rumored— there's no been confirmed evidence— that they are being paid some NIL deals instead of going pro in order to sign for the college team. So if you're a girl soccer player, there actually is that. And we actually did a negotiation not that long ago, both fighting for the recruiting of when she would commit as well as how much money they would give her cash to sign for the college, which almost basically makes her a professional soccer player. This is very exciting, but you want to be really mindful, not that money doesn't matter because it certainly does, But in regards to money mattering, $100,000 is a life-changing number. But $2,000 or $5,000 is not enough to ruin your opportunity to maybe get recruited. So that's when I would argue it's not worth it to fight for a couple thousand more bucks to piss off a coach or even lose the opportunity to get recruited. So then you want to be really mindful and go, What is this really about? Is it about playing time? That's a different story because then you're using the money as a message to say, hey, you know what, how much are you going to play me? Am I going to start my freshman year? The coach says yes. Well, you say, well, if that's a yes, I don't really know if that's true unless you're going to give me a scholarship or you're going to get me into the school academically. Now we're talking about a totally different situation. If you want more help and you're dealing with NIL deals, give me a call. Links in the bio. Talk soon. Bye.
