Female athletes are increasingly participating in name, image, and likeness (NIL) compensation activities, with a 123% surge reported by college sports marketing company Learfield in its 2025-26 fiscal year report. This significant rise indicates a shift in the landscape of NIL deals, which have historically been dominated by high-revenue sports like football and men's basketball.

Solly Fulp, Learfield’s head of NIL, attributed the surge to the strong content creation and storytelling abilities of female student-athletes, their social media proficiency, and genuine enthusiasm for brand partnerships. Since the NCAA approved NIL compensation in July 2021, women's sports are beginning to narrow the gap with men's sports. Women's basketball now ranks third in overall NIL earnings across all sports, and softball has entered the top five, positioning itself behind baseball.

"It's not just an emerging market now — it’s accelerating," Fulp stated. "It's awesome for us to see when it comes to not just the focus being on football, men’s basketball and the revenue sports, but seeing the Olympic sports really step front and center."

Learfield's data shows that female athlete engagement in NIL activities more than doubled in the 2025-26 fiscal year, increasing from 2,136 to 4,772 participants. The most common brand partnerships involved athletes in production shoots, social media content creation, ambassador programs, public appearances, and autograph sessions. Restaurants led the sponsor categories, followed by financial services, health care, and business and professional services.

Over the fiscal year, 22 national brands engaged in deals with college athletes, including prominent companies such as Geico, SeatGeek, State Farm, EA Sports, Uber, AT&T, and Marriott. More than 260 athletes from 69 universities were featured in these national campaigns.

Fulp emphasized that the return on investment is substantial for both athletes and brands when NIL deals align with athletes' specific passions. "The authenticity is coming out in the content and storytelling that they provide in these campaigns ... it humanizes the partnership and provides that deeper connection," he said. "The brands are definitely seeing the benefits with the engagement rates related to those campaigns."